First post, so bear with me please. I have a 200 gal tank that we have recently been redoing after Briareum completely took over after a period of a few years. Had to finally pull the rock, peal, scrape, peroxide and propane torch the stuff off. Actually worked pretty good. But then had the expected GHA bloom from all the dies off of sponges etc.. Multiple water changes, GFO, and minimal to no light and got rid of that. Tank was looking pretty good so added about 25 SPS frags. Then had a huge Bryopsis bloom. Did the Fluconazole treatment which seemed to totally wipe that out as well as the last remnants of GHA and some Callerpa that was gaining a foot in the tank. Worked amazingly well. Finally got to try and stabilize my water parameters. Calcium was high at about 500 ppm. Did water changes with IO to slowly bring it down while dosing Baking soda to maintain alk at about 8.5. When levels were around target, I began doing 2-part using the reef calculator to determine the dosage. It nailed it on the first try with Alk only varying .1 daily.
Looking good, then a timer on my doser stuck and pumped 1/3 of a gallon of Part B (alkalinity) in. We use Two Little Fishes C-Balance 2-part. I will always use timers in series from now on as a redundant backup for dosing. Well, had the snowstorm. Calcium dropped 85 ppm to 330. Magnesium dropped 140 ppm to 1080, which kind of surprised me, and Alk went from 8,5 to 9.8 dkh. Using the reef calculator it showed I had added enough Alk to bring it to around 20 dkh. Luckily it precipitated which probably saved the tank (all coral and fish are still looking good) Randy's formula of 2.8 dkh to 18-20 ppm calcium seems dead on the money for precipitation.
Anyway, my question is am doing this properly to bring the water levels back up. I did a 20% water change with IO. Letting Alk fall natrually.( .4 dkh usage/day) then use baking soda. Then over a weeks time adding the A part of the C-balance to bring the calcium and magnesium levels back up. Since the A part has magnesium also I don't think it will cause further precipitation.
Any thoughts, Thanks.
Looking good, then a timer on my doser stuck and pumped 1/3 of a gallon of Part B (alkalinity) in. We use Two Little Fishes C-Balance 2-part. I will always use timers in series from now on as a redundant backup for dosing. Well, had the snowstorm. Calcium dropped 85 ppm to 330. Magnesium dropped 140 ppm to 1080, which kind of surprised me, and Alk went from 8,5 to 9.8 dkh. Using the reef calculator it showed I had added enough Alk to bring it to around 20 dkh. Luckily it precipitated which probably saved the tank (all coral and fish are still looking good) Randy's formula of 2.8 dkh to 18-20 ppm calcium seems dead on the money for precipitation.
Anyway, my question is am doing this properly to bring the water levels back up. I did a 20% water change with IO. Letting Alk fall natrually.( .4 dkh usage/day) then use baking soda. Then over a weeks time adding the A part of the C-balance to bring the calcium and magnesium levels back up. Since the A part has magnesium also I don't think it will cause further precipitation.
Any thoughts, Thanks.
