Getting upset, don't know what I am missing here. Please help

[ryanmell]

alright here is what I would do, stop dosing, do your water change and test. I had the same problem with not being able to keep calcium and alk in my tank before, It was due to my mag being low so that is what I would correct before anything else. definitely don't change a bunch of things at once, and I'm sure people will disagree with me but the salt brand doesn't matter, I have an all sps tank and I use instant ocean works fine.

 

[IronVulture]

alright here is what I would do, stop dosing, do your water change and test. I had the same problem with not being able to keep calcium and alk in my tank before, It was due to my mag being low so that is what I would correct before anything else. definitely don't change a bunch of things at once, and I'm sure people will disagree with me but the salt brand doesn't matter, I have an all sps tank and I use instant ocean works fine.

+1 stop dosing and do weekly water changes until things work themselves out. Honestly your dosing and chasing numbers is probably the root of your problems. Back in the day only very experienced reefers dosed and many reefers were extremely successful with only weekly water changes no gfo and no dosing only carbon and skimming. Imo your reef is not stocked or established enough to require daily dosing.

 

[ritter6788]

Sorry if I missed it...How's the TDS of your source water? What are you using to take readings?

 

[certain_code]

Sorry if I missed it...How's the TDS of your source water? What are you using to take readings?

Only using RODI with a TDS of 0. Input TDS is also only around 20 so likely not an issue here.

 

[certain_code]

+1 stop dosing and do weekly water changes until things work themselves out. Honestly your dosing and chasing numbers is probably the root of your problems. Back in the day only very experienced reefers dosed and many reefers were extremely successful with only weekly water changes no gfo and no dosing only carbon and skimming. Imo your reef is not stocked or established enough to require daily dosing.

I was never really chasing my number but just never really could hit them with regular dosing daily and but upping params when needed after a water change or something like that.

I always saw dosing as a way to keep things stable but it seems that is not really the car in the hobby from what folks have said here.

 

[certain_code]

alright here is what I would do, stop dosing, do your water change and test. I had the same problem with not being able to keep calcium and alk in my tank before, It was due to my mag being low so that is what I would correct before anything else. definitely don't change a bunch of things at once, and I'm sure people will disagree with me but the salt brand doesn't matter, I have an all sps tank and I use instant ocean works fine.

I have stopped dosing now already. Did a test on my NSW and posted the levels earlier. Well go ahead with a change tomorrow then test again. Once I'm back from a trip next weekend I will great again and see where I am at.

Really I'm just trying to avoid weekly changes in favor of maybe twice a month instead. I do understand it may not be what's best though so may just end up doing weekly changes for the better health of the tank

 

[ryanmell]

once you get the levels in check and see what your consumption is that might be feasible. I do bi weekly water changes and I don't really dose but I run kalk in my top off water, run a oversize skimmer and that is it, no gfo no carbon and my corals look fine, I think some people strip their water too much and start having issue with their corals

 

[Vividgraphx]

I was having all the same issues with rc. I switched to red sea coral pro (black bucket) and my problems were solved. Here and there I find my cal a little low, but that's due to consumption. Have you considered buying your own rodi system? I don't trust the store water, you never know how consistent they are on filter changes.

 

[certain_code]

I was having all the same issues with rc. I switched to red sea coral pro (black bucket) and my problems were solved. Here and there I find my cal a little low, but that's due to consumption. Have you considered buying your own rodi system? I don't trust the store water, you never know how consistent they are on filter changes.

Yeah, I am thinking about trying a different salt since the RC salt params seem a little low.

I do have my own RODI system but nowhere to store water. Anytime I need to do a water change I either have to plan a day or two in advanced and make the water then or spend about 2 hours waiting for the RO/DI and the NSW to aerate a bit. Not the most ideal but that is small apartment in the city living. Haha

 

[certain_code]

I was having all the same issues with rc. I switched to red sea coral pro (black bucket) and my problems were solved. Here and there I find my cal a little low, but that's due to consumption. Have you considered buying your own rodi system? I don't trust the store water, you never know how consistent they are on filter changes.

Yeah, I am thinking about trying a different salt since the RC salt params seem a little low.

I do have my own RODI system but nowhere to store water. Anytime I need to do a water change I either have to plan a day or two in advanced and make the water then or spend about 2 hours waiting for the RO/DI and the NSW to aerate a bit. Not the most ideal but that is small apartment in the city living. Haha

 

[certain_code]

So I did a 10 gallon water change, waited 20 minutes, and took my params again.

Cal 200ppm
Alk 9.3dKh
Mag 1290ppm

All measured with salifert kits.

Should I start to worry about killing coral that is in my tank still and doing well? Should I only wait a few days before getting my levels up by dosing? I feel like the params are soo low this is why I dosed in the first place.

Also worth noting that aquatic log does not list my coral accurately. I have about a dozen of frags and 3 colonies. 1 favia and two torch colonies

 

[renato120]

So I did a 10 gallon water change, waited 20 minutes, and took my params again.

Cal 200ppm
Alk 9.3dKh
Mag 1290ppm

All measured with salifert kits.

Should I start to worry about killing coral that is in my tank still and doing well? Should I only wait a few days before getting my levels up by dosing? I feel like the params are soo low this is why I dosed in the first place.

Also worth noting that aquatic log does not list my coral accurately. I have about a dozen of frags and 3 colonies. 1 favia and two torch colonies

If you were dosing tour parameters shouldnt be this low. Take your water to a lfs, ask them to check everything for you. You might have a bad test kit. Your Alk is ok. CA is too low. Raise it to a least 400. You MAG is a little on the low side as well. Try raising it to 1350.
With calcium at 200 your corals that requires calcium might die.

 

[renato120]

Another thing follow the instructions on your test kit. Some people dont wait or skip steps. That can give you a wrong read as well

 

[James7733]

Just out of curiosity what is your water source? Are you using reverse osmosis deionized water? Store bought? Tap/faucet water? Are you using a TDS meter and making sure your waters total desolved solids reads zero before mixing the salt? When you mix your salt how long are waiting before adding the new water to the tank? Are you running a sump or refugium with macro algae? Like you some years back I was getting to the point of calling it quits until I was told to use RO/DI water and get a sump or refugium and grow macro algae. I refused to be done in and bought these items along with a phosphate/nitrate reactor. Now I am the winner not the tank. Trust me its worth it in the long run!!

 

[trickyrich]

I struggled with parameter staying in check and was dosing this and adding that... Long story short my test kits were all bad still within the use by date but way off so I changed things up a little now I do water changes at least every week at leat 20% its a lot I know but my tank has never looked better I use rodi water and run cheep protein skimmer through on a carbon and gfo I use phosguard instead of gfo I think just because it was cheaper but everything is looking great i hoo this helps

 

[markalan]

I know this is very simple but do you calibrate your refractometer on a regular basis?

 

[James7733]

Yeah, I am thinking about trying a different salt since the RC salt params seem a little low.

I do have my own RODI system but nowhere to store water. Anytime I need to do a water change I either have to plan a day or two in advanced and make the water then or spend about 2 hours waiting for the RO/DI and the NSW to aerate a bit. Not the most ideal but that is small apartment in the city living. Haha

Do you have a TDS meter to test the RO/DI water?

 

[James7733]

Only using RODI with a TDS of 0. Input TDS is also only around 20 so likely not an issue here.

Interesting. Before I bought my under the counter RO/DI unit I went to Petco and asked to purchase some of there water. I was told I might want to hold off as there water was at 7 He told me they haven't gotten around to changing the filters but if I come back mid week it should be resolved. I went home and ordered my own unit that night.

At this point when I run the unit I let the output go down the sink drain for at least 15 minutes. Then I get a clean cup and fill enough to test with the TDS meter stick. If its not reading zero the units output goes back down the drain for a note 15 minutes. Thats crappy city water for ya.

If after a second test the TDS reading is still high I will check and if needed replace the DI beads.

I have dumped buckets in the past because when the bucket is full or near full I re test and if I forgot to clean the bucket before fill up the TDS reading will not pass the test. I only except zero on the meter. By the way I converted my under the counter RO/DI unit to be used on top of the counter. I bought this particular unit because it can produce 150 gallons a day and had way bigger filters then a portable unit.

 

[James7733]

By the way it was the same Petco guy who asked what size sump or refugium I had on my 55. I told him I don't have either one. He convinced me to get one so I went on eBay and got a HOB refugium/sump its 25 L x 16H. x 4.5W. I then added some new sand and then placed mirical mud on top. Then added macro. Which has grown and now completely fills it. This leads me to ask are you runing a sump or refugium? Seems to me if nitrates are out of the equation then once the calcium issue is resolved you should have a thriving system.

 

[ryanmell]

how big is your sump? not sure how to tell you to get your calcium up I would probably do a 50% water change because dosing doesn't seem to be working, plus figuring with just 80 gals you would need to dose 8.6 oz of powder calcium to get you to 420, I think your test kit is ok because your cal test of fresh mixed water seemed about right