Help with dosing Red Sea ABC

[Island Son]

Red Sea ABC Dosing help PLEASE!!! Never had to dose before but now tank has heavy coral and added multiple SPS. Current parameters MG 1280, PH 8.1, CA 440, KH 11.2, Ammonia 0, Nitrate 2 /Nitrite 0 using Red sea test kit. Goals per RS MG 1390, CA 465, KH 12.6. Using reef crystal salt also.

Here lies the problem if I am reading instructions correctly I would need to add 250 ML of part C/MG for 5 days straight. That seems impossible??? That's the whole darn bottle. I even found a dosing calculator that said the same thing. What am I missing? If correct do you guys buy stock in the company or what? Just did 10%water change yesterday and do it weekly, 300 g but with sump/rock we figured 320 total. TIA

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

At 1280 ppm, the magnesium value matches the average ocean value for 35 ppt seawater, but if you want to raise magnesium considerably, it will take a lot of additive.

IMO, their set of targets is quite on the high side for all three and need not be that high.

Unless you have already dosed alkalinity, it does not yet look like you need much dosing, but you might in the future.

Your current values probably reflect what was in the salt you used, but RC usually has more magnesium at 35 ppt. What is your salinity? Raising it might be the easiest path to higher magnesium.

 

[Island Son]

Thank you for the reply. Salinity is1.024

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thank you for the reply. Salinity is1.024

So boosting that to 35 ppt (sg = 1.0264), which, if you want to follow their guidelines, is what Red Sea recommends for a coral tank, will boost the magnesium from 1280 ppm to 1408 ppm. It will also boost calcium and magnesium by the same 10%.

 

[Island Son]

Thank you I'll start to slowly boost salinity mix tonight add tomorrow. Raising salinity seems much easier than dosing !

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thank you I'll start to slowly boost salinity mix tonight add tomorrow. Raising salinity seems much easier than dosing !

Yes, just replace evaporated water with salt water for a while.

 

[dbl]

I'm no Randy Holmes-Farley, so take his advice over mine, but I do use RS suppliments. I maintain 35 ppt salinity level with weekly 10-15% water changes using their coral pro salt. I found I had to turn off the magnesium doser and not dose it all. So I'm just using the A & B portions. I'm only saying this to provide example of what Randy is saying above - your mag will probably come up to where you want it. I realize every system is different, but that has been my experience with the RS program. Take it for what it's worth.