Jeepguy242
Valuable Member
first let me say a big THANKS to @Randy Holmes-Farley for all of the articles i have read by you and all the stuff i have leaned from you over the years.... you are truly a great aquarist and i look forward to reading more from you in the future!
now to my question
a bit of backround... i neglected my tank because well... life happens.... job, opening my own business, kids.... i declared war on my nitrates last week
started with nitrates around 50ppm and a ton of GHA... did a LARGE water change... 45 gallons a day 2 days in a row in a 160 gallon system...
brought me down from 50 to almost 25ish
started vodka dosing at 2ml daily for 3 days and upped it to 5ml on day 3... 8 days later my nitrates are just under 20ppm (tested about 3 minutes ago)
all corals ( mushrooms, GSP, an acan, and some zoas were all that were left after a tank crash 2 years ago) are doing very well, water looks very clear, and i started running carbon last night and i plan to stop in a couple of days along with taking out my filter socks (i never run socks unless i am doing a large clean up just to get the nasties out of the water)
here is my question, should i be concerned with calcium and magnesium yet or should i just worry about getting my nitrates down to where i want to be (shooting for between 1ppm and 5ppm)
i have not yet checked phosphates, mg, or calcium...
temp is 79
DKH is 9
nitrates coming down from 20 now
ph 8.1
salinity 1.024
now to my question
a bit of backround... i neglected my tank because well... life happens.... job, opening my own business, kids.... i declared war on my nitrates last week
started with nitrates around 50ppm and a ton of GHA... did a LARGE water change... 45 gallons a day 2 days in a row in a 160 gallon system...
brought me down from 50 to almost 25ish
started vodka dosing at 2ml daily for 3 days and upped it to 5ml on day 3... 8 days later my nitrates are just under 20ppm (tested about 3 minutes ago)
all corals ( mushrooms, GSP, an acan, and some zoas were all that were left after a tank crash 2 years ago) are doing very well, water looks very clear, and i started running carbon last night and i plan to stop in a couple of days along with taking out my filter socks (i never run socks unless i am doing a large clean up just to get the nasties out of the water)
here is my question, should i be concerned with calcium and magnesium yet or should i just worry about getting my nitrates down to where i want to be (shooting for between 1ppm and 5ppm)
i have not yet checked phosphates, mg, or calcium...
temp is 79
DKH is 9
nitrates coming down from 20 now
ph 8.1
salinity 1.024
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