chemistry

New to Reef2Reef, I hope I’m doing this right! I am having salinity issues after being in the hobby for about a year now. My refractometer’s (new and old) are reading wonky. And I have calibrated with 35ppt solution from BRS and AccuraSea, different readings from Both and NOT 35 ppt. I am...

So I just made the mistake of overdosing too much kalk slurry in one go and caused alk and [Ca] to drop a lot. Theres tonnes of other reefers who've posted about making the same mistake, and thanks to them and their advice I've been able to minimize the damage by dosing vinegar. However, one...

Is Kalkwasser a tool available to use to lower phosphate levels? Further, do all 2 part Alk & Calc additives bind with, thus lowering, phosphates? After watching a Tidal Gardens video that mentioned using Kalkwasser as a way to lower phosphates, I came across some information and some older...

What's the best product to dose to raise Alkalinity when your Alk is low, the pH is normal, Calc is normal and the Magnesium is normal? 20G IM Nuvo Fusion Pro 2 Temp: 80ºF Salinity: 1.026 SG Ph: 8.1 Alk: 6.2 dKH Nitrate: 13.8ppm Phosphate: 0.24ppm Calc: 442ppm Magnesium: 1540ppm (all checked...

The tank has always seemed to run low on phosphates. i started the tank last may (2023) and i have never been able to detect phosphates using the titration test kits so i bought a Hanna ULR phosphate tester and it normally shows .03. I had a round of Cyano and after a few weeks of no luck i...

Looking for personal experiences of reefers who started out using tap water in their system and then switched later to RODI. Curious what problems you had before that the RODI fixed, issues you had that were not fixed, or even changes you experienced with your parameters afterwards. For me...

hi friends, wondering if i am doing this correct :) redsea 170 42g brightwell aquatics microbacteria start dr tim’s ammonium no filter or skimmer running i’m on day 4 of my fishless cycle, here’s what i have been doing(i realize i have been adding too much ammonia-oops): 15 capfuls of bacteria...

Hello, Does anyone know what is the Reef fusion part 2 made from? Or how its made? It said its meq/L is 4400 thats wayyy more than the sodium carbonate solubility. I did manage to get close by boiling off the excess water, but it precipitated out of the solution slowly. Did they use the sodium...

Hi reefers, Just got result for my first ICP test, wondering if anyone can help read the result. I have a mix reef with sps and LPS, and I was using instant ocean reef crystal for almost a year, and recently switched to regular IC salt. Roughly 10% WC weekly, doses BRS two parts with Magnesium...

Went on Christmas vacation (8 days had mom feed the fish/dose and watch it we just didn’t tell her about the water level bc we thought ato was not an issue) and when we got home the tank salinity was really high (not sure how high as we don’t have a refractometer just a basic one that goes up to...

Hi reefers, I have a preowned REEFER XL425, I started it from very beginning 2 months ago. A week ago it got through cycling so I bought a pair of Nemos, 5 mixed frags, 3 shrimps a 4 snails. Everyone look great. Except the fact, that the chemistry is weird and now the massive green outbreak...

Good afternoon everyone! I have decided to take things seriously and as my LFS says, "Become a huge nerd". I made the decision to buy a Salifert bundle and have test kits for Phos, NO3, ALK, Mag, Cal, and pH. I have created a gameplan to test my tank's levels every day for two weeks straight...

Hi all, Just got my results back from ICP analysis and everythings was okayish besides a wayyyy to high manganese reading. I am not sure how, but my manganese readings are almost 10000% too high. I would think that it is a measuring error but they measure it in duplo. Can anyone tell me how...

last parameters reading at 9-28-23. Salt water master kit: Nitrate- 0 Nitrite- 0.25 Ammonia- 0 PH- 8.0 Reef master kit: Nitrate- 0 Calcium- 22dkh / 440ppm Phosphate- 2.0 KH- 8dkh / 143.2ppm Am i due for my 3-5days water/reef testing?

Can you have too much calcium without precipitation?

I am currently attempting to culture live phytoplankton for the first time using Algae Barn Ocean Magik live phyto as a a starter culture and Gillards F2 as a fertilizer. In hindsight I should have started with a single strain, but this is my experiment nonetheless. The culture has been going...

Hello! I’ve been in the saltwater hobby for about a year. I thoroughly enjoy this experience and I want to continue advancing in the hobby. Like many of us, my primary goal is to achieve a thriving mixed reef system. Now that my first reef tank is about one year old, I’ve reached a point where...

Hey guys this is my icp results. Anything to concerning? Do you have any experience with any element on my ipc that my cause issues at the value i have them?

Hey all, so this has been like a 6 month struggle for me, I had a crash in December cuz of a lapse in judgement and been slowly battling my way back. So here's where I am, I was battling really low ph, like 7.6 as a high in my tank in december, ended up grabbing a second probe for redundancy...

Hello, I'm trying to troubleshoot some interesting Hanna ULR Phosphate Checker readings that I've been receiving the past few days. Do Phosphate levels in reef tanks have 'Cycles' or level changes throughout the day? The reason I ask is because I'm doing carbon dosing in my reef tank and I've...

At the end of the 2 min mixing step for the Hanna Nitrate HR test as I was cleaning the vial, I dropped the vial and by some clumsy miracle, the vial broke and the entire contents (and broken vial) ended up in my sump. The reagent packet says Malonic acid, and I assume there is also some kind...

I used it recently to help fight back against cyano, and I see it being used quite often to help with algae. How does it work? Why does it kill the bad stuff, but the tank seems to be perfectly fine? Why is the good bacteria spared? How is it affecting the inverts? Does it accumulate and need...

I have 5 Hanna checkers for sale. A phosphate ULR, Nitrate LR, pH, alkalinity, and calcium. All are lightly used and in good shape. All have reagant except for the nitrate tester which is out of liquid reagent after the bottle leaked. Looking to sell them as a package or separately. Dm me for...

Hello @Randy Holmes-Farley. You mentioned in a few threads that the less concentrated a solution is, the less stable it is due to air oxidation. I understand that the rate of air oxidation is different for different elements but I don't know how long will my DIY trace solutions last in...

I'm very new to this so this is very far off for me but to me this is the epitome of coral husbandry so everything leads to it. Its the reason I got into the hobby. From what I know, getting coral to spawn/reproduce instead of fragging is few and far between. Ive only personally read about it...