Water Quality Update

Sasha and I did another test of the water today. Here are the results:

• pH: 8.4 (target: 8.3)
• Nitrate: < 5ppm (target: <10ppm)
• Calcium: 360 ppm (target: >400 ppm).
• Temp: 79 degrees (target 75 degrees)
• Nitrite: <0.25 ppm
• Ammonia: < 0.25 ppm
• Specific Gravity (SG): 1.022 (target: 1.024)

Overall, I think we’re looking much better. We added a lot of calcium this week (two extra doses), which definitely helped raise the calcium level. However, I think it also upped the pH level, but I’ll have to check on my chemistry to confirm that.

Week One Health Log

(I thought I’d start with last weeks results and move on from here…)

Date: 2/28/07

• Ph: 8.1 (target: 8.3)
• Nitrate: < 5ppm
• Calcium: 285 ppm (target: >400 ppm).
• Temp: 80 degrees (target 75 degrees)
• Nitrite: <0.25 ppm
• Ammonia: < 0.25 ppm
• Specific Gravity (SG): 1.022 (target: 1.024)

I’m taking the “targets” from the book, The Natural Reef Aquarium. I’m really liking this book and it has been an inspiration for more than one recent change to our reef-keeping habits. The book also recommends testing for Alkalinity (ALK) and Phosphate (PO4). However, I don’t have a test kit for those yet.

The two things of concern are:

1. Calcium level is really low… We’re adding extra calcium this week and hope to bring up our levels to above 400 ppm within two weeks.
2. I’m going to guess that our phosphate levels may be high as we’re seeing a lot of hair algae growth and I read that high phosphate levels can cause this. AT this point the hair algae growth has definitely stablized, so I’m not too worried, but it is something I’ll look into soon.