Should I be happy or scared?

[Fyveonit]

My numbers seem a bit on a high side for not really dosing anything other than 10ml Vibrant and around 8ml Strontium weekly for my Red Sea Reefer series 34gal.

also about every other month I add .25g of the Red Sea Reef Foundation ABC all in one powder to the sump.


9.8 dKH
450 Calcium
Magnesium: low to mid 1500s

Fritz RPM Salt

Is this too high? I know it's in an acceptable range, but should I correct anything? Corals seem to be happy, I just want to know for sure.

This is my first full blown reef, it's about 8 months old. So I am just checking in I guess to make sure I am still on the right path...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The numbers are fine.

I personally think supplemental strontium is never needed, and it definitely isn't needed if you are not dosing calcium and alkalinity, since it is only consumed along with them.

Which magnesium kit? Some folks find the Red Sea kit reads high.

 

[Fyveonit]

It is the Red Sea kit

 

[seastar]

The best man in the biz already answered this question for ya, but I recently ditched my Redsea magnesium for the same reason. I still use their calcium and alkalinity test. I ended up getting a Salifert mag test as I heard it was more accurate. It's pretty easy to use as well.

 

[Fyveonit]

I personally think supplemental strontium is never needed

I only picked a bottle up, b/c most suggested it would boost the coraline spread from my seed to all my baserock.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I only picked a bottle up, b/c most suggested it would boost the coraline spread from my seed to all my baserock.

I don't think there is any evidence of that and think it quite unlikely.

It certainly isn't a widespread opinion in the chemistry forums I frequent.

 

[Damien Buckley]

I never got a result under 1600 with the Red Sea mag kit. It is effectively useless. When I got an ICP test it came back with mag at 1350 - WAY under what the RS kit read. I bought a NYOS kit & it was almost Line-ball with the ICP so I stick to that now. I'm super careful with it though as it can still vary in results a bit. As others mentioned I find the Red Sea alkalinity & calcium kits ok.

Doesn't RS Foundation A contain strontium?