# Readings



## terryap (Sep 22, 2009)

Calcium reading is coming in at 480 ppm, is this too high??
alkalinity is reading at 3.8 meq/l
ph is reading at 8
ammonia and nitrite at 0


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

terryap said:


> Calcium reading is coming in at 480 ppm, is this too high??
> alkalinity is reading at 3.8 meq/l
> ph is reading at 8
> ammonia and nitrite at 0


Perfectly normal. You have no need to add calcium at this time, but you can test it every 3 days or so to get an idea how fast it drops. Same with alkalinity and buffering. After a few weeks of regular testing you will have a pattern established for your system that will generally not change much unless you add more livestock.


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## terryap (Sep 22, 2009)

thanks, will test again in about 3 days, nitrate coming in at approx 5 ppm


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## terryap (Sep 22, 2009)

calcium still at 480, good bad?


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## Pasfur (Mar 29, 2008)

Remember, calcium is utilized by coraline algae, corals, and the buffering system. Calcium will slowly deplete in aquariums without live corals, much faster in systems with corals.

It is not uncommon for it to remain unchanged for a week or more in FOWLR systems that do not have large amounts of coraline growth.

You're doing fine.


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## terryap (Sep 22, 2009)

Great  fish are doing great so far as well! cabbage leather has finally opened and looking great! UV sterilizer coming tomorrow


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