salt water mix and levels

[petemichelle]

im tired to fighting my levels of mag, cal, and kh. the water my fish store sells me are mag 1000, kh 7, calcium 360, at 1.022 salinity. I asked him if i should add more of the salt he uses to raise the levels before my water change and he says to bring the levels up the salinity would go too high. that i should keep the salinity around 1.022 and 1.023. is this true about the salinity. i have a 29 gal bio cube with fish and live rock right now, but want to add corals, everything i've read says the magnesium should be around 1350, kh from 8-12, and calciium around 450. what should the salinity be for a mix reef tank? he said if I get in the 1.026 range that i take a chance of getting ich. is this true? has anybody tried red sea coral pro salt mix? even with that mix, what should i be mixing the salinity to?

 

[navila06]

If I were you I would stop buying the water from your LFS, and start making your own water. I use instant ocean reef crystals.

 

[Downbeach]

I would take the advice you're getting from that person with a grain of salt. You can keep your SG at that level for a FO tank, but if you want to go into corals, etc. you need to be around 1.026. Get a decent RO/DI unit, and start making your own water, I use Reef Crystals, although I've used Red Sea in the past without problems. Once you get your SG up to 1.026, by extension your Ca, Mg and Alk will also rise. It would be prudent to look for/join a local reef club, and get some advice from the members about the LFS's in your area.
As far as Ick, you should be using a QT to make sure you don't introduce it into your main system. It sounds to me like he's trying to prepare you for something, he knows is coming, I'd be very cautious.

PS I would also suggest you get a decent refractometer, along with a bottle of calibration solution to measure your SG.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Red Sea Salt mixes pretty true. But you can Dose whats needed to the tank to get it all up relatively easy.
Baking Soda for ALK
Liquid Reef Calcium, Kalkwasser, Calcion, Kent Turbo Calcium. Bunch of different options for Calcium out there.
An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
Kent Magnesium, Magnesian. Few different ways to Dose for Magnesium also.
I use Calcion, Kent Magnesium and Baking Soda for my tank.

 

[petemichelle]

I guess it's a consensus 1.026 is where I need to be when mixing my own salt. Can I get some more feed back on this. I've only got yhe one response as far as a target level

 

[Reefing Madness]

I keep mine at 1.025

 

[Downbeach]

I guess it's a consensus 1.026 is where I need to be when mixing my own salt. Can I get some more feed back on this. I've only got yhe one response as far as a target level

Here's a good artcle:

The “How To†Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners Part 1: The Salt Water Itself by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

[mike007]

I think anywhere between 1.023 and 1.026 is fine. Ca 400 is okay. Alk 8-10 is fine. You can raise these levels with supplements.

 

[beaslbob]

I recommend you use any of the comercially available mixes to the right salinity (or specific gravity).

Then use the diy two part to maintain calcium, alk, magnesium. The ingredients for that are very inexpensive and the method is really easy to use.

See stickie here: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-chemistry-forum/39332-do-yourself-two-part-links.html

I also added a teaspoon of so of mrs. wages pickling lime to a gallon of my top off water as well.

my .02

 

[bms270]

Once you get your params to the correct levels (mentioned above), then Kalkwasser is the best thing to maintain your Calcium and KH levels. just add it to your top-off water and you should be fine.

 

[BrntWaffles]

I guess it's a consensus 1.026 is where I need to be when mixing my own salt. Can I get some more feed back on this. I've only got yhe one response as far as a target level

I keep mine at 1.026

 

[justgotwet]

I keep mine around 1.025 , also dont forget to heat your water when mixing.









Larry

 

[petemichelle]

okay ive got the magnesium at 360, the calcium at 420-440, the kh at 8-9, and the salinity at 1.025-1.026. i'm using the red sea pro salt. my big issue still is keeping the levels up once i get them there. i only have a 29 gal biocube presently, and have to use 40 mil of 2 part B-ionic to keep the levels up. i have the coral life skimmer, and ultraviolet light, 25 lbs of live rock, 2 inches of .05 to 1.7 live sand, i have 2 clown fish, a 6 line wrasse, a green chromisis, and a purple flame goby. my clean up crew is a skunk shrimp. around 15 blue hermit crabs. 15 nassarius vibes snails, 20 dwarf ceriths. I have a green bubble tip anemone as well.

my concern and question is what can be consuming all this alk, calcium, and even magnesium. is it the rock, and maybe after it saturates to the right levels, then the huge consumption will stop and fall into a reasonable rate. the B-ionic even says i shouldn't be dosing over 1 ml per gal, per day. There's only 20 gal of water in this 29 gal biocube after the sand and rock, so i'm at double every day. the tank is only 3 months old. all my other levels , ammonia, nitrite, phosphates, are at 0. ph is always 8.3 i have a refugium in the back with small live rock and cheat. i keep it lite 16 hours and opposite the lighting in the display tank. I am also using chemipure elite, and phosban. i think that's all the parameters. let me know if i've left any out. but please give me your thoughts as to why the large consumption. i do a weekly water change of about 8 gallons.

 

[Downbeach]

What is your consumption? Do you have any coraline algae? Coraline will consume your Ca and Alk at the same ratio of any "stoney" type corals, etc.

PS I'm assuming that your Mg is 1360, and not 360. All your param's look fine. Keep in mind that in a smaller tank there will be less of your Ca and Alk in reserve, so the numbers will drop more quickly than in a tank with more volume.

 

[petemichelle]

yes, my mag is 1360, not 360. sorry for the typo. my consumption is equivelant to 40ml of b-ionic PER DAY. In other words about 40 to 60 calcium, and 1 or 2 kh per day if the b-ionic is not added. I understand about the reserves but what is using up all the ca and alk??? I do not see any coraline algae. the live rock is man made but had been cured at the local fish store for at least a few months.

 

[petemichelle]

come on, there isn't anybody that has this same issue or know where all the calcium is going? what's using it up? it's only 20 gal of water in a 29 gal biocube using 40ml of cal and alk per day every day???

 

[petemichelle]

does anybody know if maybe the skimmer is removing the calcium? also i get alot of calcium build up on my equipment, ie pumps and uv light and the glass in the sump area where i add the alk and calcium b-ionic. I check the mag levels and they are around 320 to 360. any suggestions? anybody??

 

[Downbeach]

Are you sure of your tests accuracy? It sound like a good deal of it is precipitating out, much of it on your equipment. How are you dosing it?

 

[jduck]

Is that 40 ml of each ESV 2 part?

 

[CORALMECHANIC]

I use coralife salt in the bags that way I can mix all the salt up before making water, just incase anything settles to the bottom of the bag because its finer or coarser than the rest I keep mine at 1.26-1.28 with just about all types of coral soft, hard, sps, leathers etc etc