Parameters? Help Please

[Bauyer9]

Alk 7.6
Salt 34.5
Calcium 550
Nitrate 5
Nitrite 0
Phosphate .09
PH 7.8

I hadn’t done a water change in a few months, and my corals were doing good. But I had some Green hair algae growing so thought a water change might help. That was a few days ago, the corals haven’t looked a nice and big since. I’ve had the tank for over a year and have never noticed any growth in corals. I feel discouraged, i feel I’ve got all the right stuff, and the best stuff. 6 stage BRS RO/DI unit, I use Reef Crystals salt. Why isn’t anything growing and thriving a year later? I don’t dose anything, I have the BRS kalkwasser kit but haven’t touched it. I guess I need some guidance.... I’m willing to put in the work. I was doing weekly 5% water changes, when I stoped, the corals really started to open up. Help me[emoji20][emoji20][emoji20]

 

[Oldreefer44]

Photoperiod?
Mg level?
CA seems a little high.
Dosing anything?

 

[tupes]

Salt seems a bit high. I'd bring it down to 1.024-1.025, calcium same bring it down to about 450.. not doing water changes can be nice and everything look great but your inhabitants are depleting the water column or elements. You should test your magnesium also. Continue doing water changes as you were before and give time for your corals to react to better parameters. What kind of light(s) you have and what is on / off period

I hope this helps some.

 

[tupes]

Also manually remove and algea you can.

 

[Bauyer9]

Magnesium is 1475, lights is a maxpect razor, they go for 0% to 65% starting at 8am and reach 65% at 12, then 65% until 6pm, then down to 0% from 6pm to 10pm.. so they’re on 65 percent for 6 hours and a few hours before/after they are ramping up and down. So if my mag/salt/ calcium is high, how do I fix that? I DONT dose anything, and as you can see it’s not like I have a ton of corals......

 

[tupes]

What kind of test kit are you using? How old is it?

 

[Bauyer9]

For the magnesium I’m using the result of a sample I sent away to ICP analysis, I couldn’t get a result with my test kit and just tried again with no luck. I have the seachem magnesium kit

 

[jsker]

Po4's are high, get them down to a .03 to a trace and your GHA will start going away. I use a product with lanthanum chloride to get my phosphates down quickly and then control my phosphates with a GFO reactor for the reason I feed heavy to feed the corals.

Yes the Mg and Ca are a little high Ca 400 to 450 and Mg 1320 to 1400. Alk could be a little bit higher. I run mine at 8.3 ish steady. Balance the alk out and the Ca and Mg will be consumed at a higher rate

 

[jsker]

For the magnesium I’m using the result of a sample I sent away to ICP analysis, I couldn’t get a result with my test kit and just tried again with no luck. I have the seachem magnesium kit

How old is the test kit? I find the salifert and aquaforest Mg test kits really do a good job

 

[Bauyer9]

Any advice on how to get these numbers where the need to be? Idk what’s causing them to be high, is it the salt? I don’t dose anything

 

[Bauyer9]

The mag test kit was new, they also sent me replacements for the different titrants

 

[jsker]

Any advice on how to get these numbers where the need to be? Idk what’s causing them to be high, is it the salt? I don’t dose anything

What salt are you using? I would suggest a salt that has less Ca and Mg. What do you think @tupes ? Your system is at that year old point and the parameters will settle in if and when more corals are added. As far as dosing some use a two part, I use the balling method and have had great results using a salt (reef salt)that is closer to the parameters in the ocean and then dose.

 

[jsker]

I like the tank by the way

 

[tupes]

The only salt I've used is Red Sea and Red Sea Coral Pro for the past 7 years I've been reef keeping.

As @jsker said, that would be my same recommendations. Reef crystal salt and been around for a while and I've heard good things about it. It wouldn't hurt to do a few water changes and get your water tested again. If you are out of salt, try a new one.

 

[Bauyer9]

So I brought the water down to 1.024. I had always kept it at 35PPM and never paid attention to the other side of the refractometer. Unfortunately I just bought a new 5 gallon box of salt, so I’m stuck with reef crystals for a while. It seemed when I cut out water changes everything started to perk up. It’s got to be something I’m doing. I had a reef tank a few years ago that did well, this one is almost a year old and I’ve never had good luck, I’ve made numerous posts trying to find out what’s going on.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So I brought the water down to 1.024. I had always kept it at 35PPM and never paid attention to the other side of the refractometer. Unfortunately I just bought a new 5 gallon box of salt, so I’m stuck with reef crystals for a while. It seemed when I cut out water changes everything started to perk up. It’s got to be something I’m doing. I had a reef tank a few years ago that did well, this one is almost a year old and I’ve never had good luck, I’ve made numerous posts trying to find out what’s going on.

I can't see a reason to want to have lowered it from 35 ppt.