Seeking tips on levels.

Dekon · Dec 9, 2015

A little background information, my tank crashed back in June due to a miscalibrated refractometer. I am finally getting the reef fever after the crash left me a little disheartened. Now I want to raise some of my levels in my tank.(65Gal with a 20Gal sump/refugium). Right now here are my parameters:

Nitrate- undetectable
Nitrite- undetectable
Calcium- 340
Alk- 9dKH
Mag- 1080
pH- 8.2

I would like to get my Calcium up to 420 and my Mag. to 1300. Right now there are no corals in the tank. I did use E.S.V. B-Ionic 2 Part for my Cal. and Alk. before the crash. I never had to dose for Mag. before. Can I use just the E.S.V. part B to raise my Cal. without using part A? What should I do for the Mag?

Thanks,
Richard

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 9, 2015

A crash wouldn't cause magnesium to drop, and that level is very low. I'd verify it with another kit or using that kit on some new salt water before dosing magnesium.

Calcium is best raised with calcium chloride, but the B-ionic calcium part is OK (just expensive for this purpose).

This calculator shows how much of various products you'd need:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html

Dekon · Dec 10, 2015

Thanks for replying Randy. I retested some water that is for an upcoming water change and it tested at 1100 with a Salifert and an Elos test kits. I am using I/O for my salt.

Next question, what is my best option for getting CaCl?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 10, 2015

Dekon said:
Thanks for replying Randy. I retested some water that is for an upcoming water change and it tested at 1100 with a Salifert and an Elos test kits. I am using I/O for my salt.

Next question, what is my best option for getting CaCl?

What salinity do you use? IO should have a lot more magnesium than that at 35 ppt.

Most hobby brands are fine for calcium chloride, but bulk calcium chloride from BRS, Byckeye, and Dr Foster and Smith will be cheaper and likely just as good (maybe better). A lot cheaper is Dowflake, if you can find it.

Dekon · Dec 10, 2015

I keep my salinity at 1.025.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 10, 2015

It should typically have more than that (more than 1200 ppm at that salinity), but between potential variations in the batch of salt, the test for salinity and the test for magnesium, it's probably not evidence of a bad test kit.

Since slightly too high magnesium seems to be no problem, I'd probably raise it to about 1300 ppm. The best way to do so is to use a mixture of 10 parts magnesium chloride and 1 part of magnesium sulfate. The latter is Epsom Salt from a drug store, and the former can be obtained from BRS, Dr Foster and Smith.

Downbeach · Dec 10, 2015

Is your Refractometer now properly calibrated with a 35ppt solution? I'm still suspicious of your SG. If your device is off/mis-calibrated, you may not be adding enough salt mix to your make up water, and by extension not enough Ca, Mg and alk. IO should test out ~ 1350ppm for Mg @ 1.026(35ppt).

Tanggirl12 · Dec 10, 2015

Do you have a lot of coraline algae? Mine depleted my Mg quickly when it started taking off.

Dekon · Dec 10, 2015

Downbeach said:
Is your Refractometer now properly calibrated with a 35ppt solution? I'm still suspicious of your SG. If your device is off/mis-calibrated, you may not be adding enough salt mix to your make up water, and by extension not enough Ca, Mg and alk. IO should test out ~ 1350ppm for Mg @ 1.026(35ppt).

Yes, it is calibrated correctly, I make sure of it ever time I use it now. Lesson learned on that issue.

Dekon · Dec 10, 2015

Tanggirl12 said:
Do you have a lot of coraline algae? Mine depleted my Mg quickly when it started taking off.

I would not say a lot of coraline.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 10, 2015

Dekon said:
I would not say a lot of coraline.

While coralline does use magnesium in a fairly high proportion to calcium relative to many corals, the magnesium depletion rate by coralline is still only about 1/10 of the calcium depletion rate, and the B-ionic should contain close to enough magnesium to offset the depletion (my DIY two part recipe does).

Tanggirl12 · Dec 10, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
While coralline does use magnesium in a fairly high proportion to calcium relative to many corals, the magnesium depletion rate by coralline is still only about 1/10 of the calcium depletion rate, and the B-ionic should contain close to enough magnesium to offset the depletion (my DIY two part recipe does).

I use your recipe, I get great growth.

Dekon · Dec 10, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
While coralline does use magnesium in a fairly high proportion to calcium relative to many corals, the magnesium depletion rate by coralline is still only about 1/10 of the calcium depletion rate, and the B-ionic should contain close to enough magnesium to offset the depletion (my DIY two part recipe does).

Looks like I am going to try your two from now on Randy. Do you have a link to it? Thanks