Dosing and water changes

[Voypok]

Hi guys. This question was probably asked already by somebody... My tank is 8 months old now, the last three months I was making weekly 10% water changes. Trying to get rid of red slime... Do not want to use any chemical staff. Corals, anemones, and fish are ok. Not perfect I would say... ( after being well my RBTA had split a couple of times which means it doesn't like something...), but the tank is still young I think... All parameters are in the acceptable range except Kh. Now I am trying to raise and stabilize it by dosing. Before I started dosing Part 2 it was around 7Kh before water changes and jump up to 10+Kh after each WC. Now I am keeping it at 10 with dosing, but I didn't do WC last three weeks and planning to do it in a few days. Last time WC lifted Kh ap to 12+Kh. My question is - how to balance WC and dosing? I mean - should be dosing be different in the period between WC?
Another question - For the last 4-5 months my Magnesium level is higher than 1500ppm, and Ca always on the high side(now around 400, but was more than 500) - is it normal?
BTW tank is Red Sea Reefer 170.

 

[Simon Reefing]

Sorry if I missed it but what salt are you using? Red sea black bucket or fritz or a different one?

 

[Voypok]

Sorry if I missed it but what salt are you using? Red sea black bucket or fritz or a different one?

You didn't miss it - I didn't mention... from the beginning (almost) instant ocean sea salt, last three months Instant Ocean Reef Crystals. ( might be my RBTA doesn't like this salt)

 

[takitaj]

What alk does your salt mix to? Same for Ca? Mg? You're only changing 10% so I don't get how it raises the alk 2 dkh. How and what are you dosing? Do you give a few days for the dosing to settle in before adjusting it? Unless you have a lot of LPS / SPS we don't see in your pics I don't think you need to run your params so high. Maybe you should change salt to something that mixes to a lower alk/Ca/Mg? Maybe start using regular IO?

Just some thoughts.

 

[Voypok]

Reef Crystals when 1.025 mix has 13Kh, Ca - 490 and Ma - 1440 and you probably right - might be I need to switch salt, at least go back to regular IO sea salt. No SPS at all yet. But it doesn't answer only one question - why Ma is so high... As I understood from some research on forums - it isn't a problem, but...

 

[takitaj]

I'm not sure about Mg. I have had the same issue. Mine just started coming down on a 4 mo old tank. (current reboot of) It was around 1600 when I started testing it (about 2 mo's in), now it stays around 1460. It's a little high but not too concerning. The salt mixes around 1300 so I have no idea how it got so high to start with. lol

I'm using IO regular. I dose alk with a doser to keep it about 8 dkh. I dose small amounts of Ca occasionally by hand to keep around 350. I have some macro algae (gracillaria), a Duncan and a handful of fish so not much is getting used.

 

[Voypok]

I'm not sure about Mg. I have had the same issue. Mine just started coming down on a 4 mo old tank. (current reboot of) It was around 1600 when I started testing it (about 2 mo's in), now it stays around 1460. It's a little high but not too concerning. The salt mixes around 1300 so I have no idea how it got so high to start with. lol

I'm using IO regular. I dose alk with a doser to keep it about 8 dkh. I dose small amounts of Ca occasionally by hand to keep around 350. I have some macro algae (gracillaria), a Duncan and a handful of fish so not much is getting used.

I used regular IO before and feel that it worked better for my RBTA. I wasn't measuring often before, but now trying to look closer on Alkalinity and few more parameters... Most corals are slowly growing, Sebae pushed away my Zoas garden with the time and cover the big chank of the rock, but RBTA... split already the second time and doesn't show bubbles anymore...