Yellow Precipitate

[aust10n]

Hey guy.

Since cycling my tank I've been battling low Ca levels (300-360). I changed my salt and performed water changes with no luck. This past week I started dosing with Kent Tech M and B Ionic 2 part. Two days ago I noticed a yellow precipitate in my sump, I wiped it off and it has returned. Any ideas? My levels are not exactly what I would expect after dosing the past 5 days.

Current parameters.
Nitrate 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Phosphate 0
DKH 10.6
pH 9
Ca 380
Mg 1340
Salinity 1.026
Temp 77.4

[disc1]

pH is really at 9? Then you're going to have a really hard time getting both calcium and alkalinity to stay in solution. High pH favors precipitation.

Get the pH down to an acceptable level and maybe you'll be in better shape. WHich 2-part recipe are you using? If it is the carbonate recipe, then I'd switch to the bicarbonate recipe to keep from pushing the pH any higher.

[aust10n]

My pH is in fact 8.4; not sure where I got 9 from.

I'm not home to look at the bottle to see what the recipe is, and BRS doesn't specify.
I'm using ESV B-Ionic Calcium Buffer System. I'll check as soon as I return home.

[bertoni]

Are you sure it's a precipitate? You might be seeing a microbe. If not, I would suspect some sort of impurity from the supplements.

[outssider]

other then your calcium being a bit low, your numbers look good. maybe dose more of the calcium part and less of the buffer part.

[bertoni]

The calcium level is within the recommended range of 350-450 ppm, although a lot of people target the higher end of the spectrum.