switching calcium additive

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Potassium is depleted in some folks tank, but not in mine. Testing for it is not as easy as for other things, but there are some kits. It's hard to say in general if it is worth it unless you have a heavy SPS tank, which seems where creatures suffer from low potassium.

I'd probably stop measuring ammonia and nitrite.

 

[Wiz]

Im lookin at price and the esv calc is pretty cheap compared to the full brs two part. If I use esv calcium and store bought soda for the two part you suggest in your article, is it ok to use kent magnesium for the 3rd part as I already have that?
That would be what I already do except replace advantage with esv.
Sorry to keep you randy or if I'm being repedative or redundant. I just wanna be sure.
Thx

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I think you'll find the BRS or Dr. Foster and Smith calcium chloride is cheaper than any hobby brand.

Same for magnesium, and there is a desirability of using the specific ratio of magnesium chloride to sulfate that you can DIY or get from BRS as a mix. One cheap option is to buy just the magnesium chloride from one of these sources and get Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) from a drug store.

Pure magnesium supplements (either a DIY or any commercial magnesium supplement) will overload on chloride relative to what you want in a DIY two part.

The parts are all designed to work together to have the least undesirable impact on the tank water once the calcium and alkalinity are used up.