Test results were great except...

[BrandonFlorida]

my alk is sky high or hopefully its a bad test kit. I have the red sea pro test and using the 1ml it never reached the end color. How long are these test kits good for?


My PH was 8.2
Calcium was 400 (added calcium for end goal of 420)
Nitrate 0
phos (unknown)
amm 0
nitrite 0
Mag was 1320ish
sal 1.026 or 35ppm

DKH was reading over 14 being it never got to the end color. I use strictly ocean water and I know that the water always test around 7-8dkh.

Will alk raise in a tank? How does it happen?

Thanks

[GimpyFin]

I've used the Red Sea pro and it's a pretty good kit for alk. What is the expiry date on it? Can you run a test just on the water you are using before it goes into your tank to see what it reads?

[Bent]

I question the test.

I don't think it's physically possible for your alkalinity to be that high with your mag, calcium and SG at those levels.

Your pH would be through the roof, a lot higher than 8.3 I would think.

[almiller9]

I would question the test. Test a fresh batch of water and see what it is at. If it is still high you either have a bad batch of salt or a bad test kit. I would lean more towards bad test kit. Usually anytime I have ever had bad salt the ALK was way low, not way high

[BrandonFlorida]

I would question the test. Test a fresh batch of water and see what it is at. If it is still high you either have a bad batch of salt or a bad test kit. I would lean more towards bad test kit. Usually anytime I have ever had bad salt the ALK was way low, not way high

I do not use synthetic salt, strictly ocean water from a reliable source.

[Bent]

I would question the test. Test a fresh batch of water and see what it is at. If it is still high you either have a bad batch of salt or a bad test kit. I would lean more towards bad test kit. Usually anytime I have ever had bad salt the ALK was way low, not way high

He doesn't use salt mix. He uses ocean water.

[nuttyd]

Maybe you had a contaminated test tube. Like almiller said, test your new ocean water and see what its at. Should be in the 7-8 range, if not probably a bad test.

[BrandonFlorida]

I question the test.

I don't think it's physically possible for your alkalinity to be that high with your mag, calcium and SG at those levels.

Your pH would be through the roof, a lot higher than 8.3 I would think.

That was my thinking as well. I figured my ph would be off but I was always told to worry about alk, not ph so I wasn't 100 percent sure.

[BrandonFlorida]

Maybe you had a contaminated test tube. Like almiller said, test your new ocean water and see what its at. Should be in the 7-8 range, if not probably a bad test.

good idea, I will do that when I get home. I did wash out the tube it goes in but noticed that it had a haze to it. I just wonder if I contaminated the KH test fluid somehow..

[almiller9]

He doesn't use salt mix. He uses ocean water.
Ah misread that part.

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[BrandonFlorida]

Ah misread that part.

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No problem, just glad people are willing to try and help a bro out.

[Bent]

That was my thinking as well. I figured my ph would be off but I was always told to worry about alk, not ph so I wasn't 100 percent sure.

Well the reason that people say to worry about alk and not the pH is that the two are related.

Alkalinity is the measure of available buffer in a solution.

So a solution with an alkalinity of 7 will want to maintain a certain pH depending on the available acids. It won't measure the acids, so just because a solution as a specific alkalinity, doesn't mean that the pH won't drop below a certain level. But with our application, unless someone is actively injecting acids on purpose into the tank, the pH won't drop below a certain level. Most of the acids that people introduce into the aquarium that can drive it down is in the form of dissolved co2 from being in a sealed house.

Driving the pH higher is a little different. Adding buffer into the solution wil not only raise the pH, but will raise the alkalinity as well. So a solution with an alkalinity of 12 will have a pretty significant buffering capacity. So you would expect to see a pH much higher than the result you got unless acids are being poured into the system at a pretty quick clip from whatever source.

Truthfully, I've only checked the pH of a reef tank a handful of times, and if it was me doing the testing I would have raised an eyebrow as well to that result and probably would have been one of the rare cases where I did check it just to see about the validity of the alk reason.

But I would think that with an alkalinity that high you would also be seeing some calcium precipitation in the water column.

[BrandonFlorida]

Well the reason that people say to worry about alk and not the pH is that the two are related.

Alkalinity is the measure of available buffer in a solution.

So a solution with an alkalinity of 7 will want to maintain a certain pH depending on the available acids. It won't measure the acids, so just because a solution as a specific alkalinity, doesn't mean that the pH won't drop below a certain level. But with our application, unless someone is actively injecting acids on purpose into the tank, the pH won't drop below a certain level. Most of the acids that people introduce into the aquarium that can drive it down is in the form of dissolved co2 from being in a sealed house.

Driving the pH higher is a little different. Adding buffer into the solution wil not only raise the pH, but will raise the alkalinity as well. So a solution with an alkalinity of 12 will have a pretty significant buffering capacity. So you would expect to see a pH much higher than the result you got unless acids are being poured into the system at a pretty quick clip from whatever source.

Truthfully, I've only checked the pH of a reef tank a handful of times, and if it was me doing the testing I would have raised an eyebrow as well to that result and probably would have been one of the rare cases where I did check it just to see about the validity of the alk reason.

But I would think that with an alkalinity that high you would also be seeing some calcium precipitation in the water column.

I see, and being I use only NSW and dkh is 7-8 I would think something would have to go really crazy to get the over 14 dkh I tested last night. Thanks for the information Bent

[Bent]

I see, and being I use only NSW and dkh is 7-8 I would think something would have to go really crazy to get the over 14 dkh I tested last night. Thanks for the information Bent

Yeah that's my thinking. You'd have to have a large amount of buffer to get that.