High Paramaters

robmiller2 · Jun 12, 2018

I have an 8 gallon AIO that is having some high mag, alk, kh readings. I use the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt (black bucket) and I used the Red Sea test kits for the mag, alk, and kh.
Here are my parameters:
Temp: 78.4F
Salinity: 1.025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phos: 0.5
pH: 8
Calc: 450
Mag: 1520
KH: 11.2
Is there something different I should be doing or are those readings ok?
I do 3 gallon water changes weekly.
Thanks for your help.

robmiller2 · Jun 12, 2018

The reason I decided to check everything today is because my euphyllia is not opening up like normal.

Chris Wells · Jun 12, 2018

robmiller2 said:
The reason I decided to check everything today is because my euphyllia is not opening up like normal.

My euphyllia, in particular, a Hammer, doesn't like 0-Nitrates for very long, especially at the higher range of Alkalinity that you are at.

robmiller2 · Jun 12, 2018

Is there something I should change?

NY_Caveman · Jun 12, 2018

In a system that small parameter stability will be a challenge. It is doable though. If you wanted to add Nitrate feeding more is an easy way to do it. A readable Phosphate level with 0 Nitrate could be a recipe for algae. If you can describe any filtration going on that may help.

Chris Wells · Jun 12, 2018

That is a lot lower volume, at 8 gallons, than I am used to. I have 145 gallons total to deal with and would wait until the guys on here with experience in the small tanks advise. The first thing I would do is test multiple times to eliminate any testing errors before making any changes to such a small volume system.

I feed more when needed, but not sure with your little system.

It looks like others are already here.

Best of luck,

Chris