Need a little direction with dosing

[kevin318]

I have a Max e-170 (about 40 gallons minus rock) and it's been running for 6 months but everything was transferred from a tank that has been running for years. All of my parameters have been fairly stable, I have 9 different softies zoas and mushrooms, 4 LPS, and one SPS coral, plus 3 fish. I noticed that I need to raise my dKH a little each day to maintain 9.0 dKH. I recently noticed that my calcium and magnesium are dropping a little now.

Salinity: 1.026
Calcium: 380
dKH: 9.0
PH: 8.0
Phosphate: 0.10
Magnesium: 1275
Nitrate: 0.0

So I buy BRS 2 part starter kit thinking that I could add a little to my top off each day to keep my dKH level and raise my calcium and magnesium a little at the same time. For my dKH, I currently use baking soda, 1/8 tsp per 1.5 quart and it's working great. I mixed some of the soda ash to raise my dKH and it crushed my PH. Baking soda doesn't budge my PH, just raises my dKH, so I decided that it was a waste of money to raise one and ruins another. I also wanted to use the Calcium Chloride and the Magnesium Mix to raise by calcium and magnesium but I'm not sure if it is going to throw something else off. I used the does calculator and to move my magnesium from 1275 to 1350, it recommends 22 teaspoons, I can't imagine that is correct. I didn't even attempt to try to calcium chloride at this points, I'm confused and could use some direction.

What do you recommend to raise my calcium and magnesium without messing with any of the other parameters?

 

[mike550]

So I buy BRS 2 part starter kit thinking that I could add a little to my top off each day to keep my dKH level and raise my calcium and magnesium a little at the same time. For my dKH, I currently use baking soda, 1/8 tsp per 1.5 quart and it's working great. I mixed some of the soda ash to raise my dKH and it crushed my PH. Baking soda doesn't budge my PH, just raises my dKH, so I decided that it was a waste of money to raise one and ruins another. I also wanted to use the Calcium Chloride and the Magnesium Mix to raise by calcium and magnesium but I'm not sure if it is going to throw something else off. I used the does calculator and to move my magnesium from 1275 to 1350, it recommends 22 teaspoons, I can't imagine that is correct. I didn't even attempt to try to calcium chloride at this points, I'm confused and could use some direction.

What do you recommend to raise my calcium and magnesium without messing with any of the other parameters?

That’s really odd. I’ve used the soda ash without issues. Did you mix it up with some rodi water before adding it to your ATO?

fwiw I just ran 30G on the BRS calculator to move Mg from 1275 to 1350 and it says 36tsp

 

[kevin318]

That’s really odd. I’ve used the soda ash without issues. Did you mix it up with some rodi water before adding it to your ATO?

fwiw I just ran 30G on the BRS calculator to move Mg from 1275 to 1350 and it says 36tsp

I did mix it with our RODI and I got the dKH to 10.0 and then tested the pH and it was pegged. It says in the instructions that it will raise the pH, but I never would’ve thought that much