Time to supplement?

[brclark82]

Info- 55 gallon, no sump, HoB skimmer and HoB filter, 10 months old, have gone though ugly stage already and tank looks good currently (no algae or bacteria issues)..still battling some high phosphates from when I was learning (just added skimmer about a month ago)

Livestock- 2 small clowns, YWG, Firefish
4 Zoa frags, 1 Duncan, 1 BTA

Current parameters tested with Hanna/Salifert
Nitrate- 13.3
Phos- 0.76
1.025 SG
8.3 pH
78.5-79 F
Calc- 360
Mag- 1020
dKH- 8.6

I have had the Zoas/Duncan/BTA for about a month. The Duncan and BTA are doing great, the BTA is probably 50% bigger than the day I brought it home and looking great and the Duncan has already added a head.

The Zoa’s look great but haven’t added any new polyps or gotten much larger than I can tell.

I know the calc/mag are low and was wondering if it was time to start supplementing.

I use IO salt so maybe just change salts for water changes instead?

Just looking for input, thanks

 

[LouisianaReef]

IMO I would just use more WCs to boost your levels. You don't have many nor high demand corals.

 

[Dom]

IMO I would just use more WCs to boost your levels. You don't have many nor high demand corals.

I agree.

Commonly, people look at water changes as a way of exporting nutrients. But what people don't realize at first is that newly prepared water has all the elements consumed by the tank and resupplies the tank during water changes.

Supplementation is a logistical thing. It makes sense to supplement when the tank is 300 gallons and a 20% water changes is 60 gallons. It isn't practical or cheap to do such big water changes on a weekly basis, so you supplement.

FAITHFUL, WEEKLY 20% water changes will take you a long way.

 

[MnFish1]

Info- 55 gallon, no sump, HoB skimmer and HoB filter, 10 months old, have gone though ugly stage already and tank looks good currently (no algae or bacteria issues)..still battling some high phosphates from when I was learning (just added skimmer about a month ago)

Livestock- 2 small clowns, YWG, Firefish
4 Zoa frags, 1 Duncan, 1 BTA

Current parameters tested with Hanna/Salifert
Nitrate- 13.3
Phos- 0.76
1.025 SG
8.3 pH
78.5-79 F
Calc- 360
Mag- 1020
dKH- 8.6

I have had the Zoas/Duncan/BTA for about a month. The Duncan and BTA are doing great, the BTA is probably 50% bigger than the day I brought it home and looking great and the Duncan has already added a head.

The Zoa’s look great but haven’t added any new polyps or gotten much larger than I can tell.

I know the calc/mag are low and was wondering if it was time to start supplementing.

I use IO salt so maybe just change salts for water changes instead?

Just looking for input, thanks

Yes. You can supplement using the BRS calculators - OR - you can do water changes. Your Ca and Mg are low. The stony corals will definitely need more Ca.

 

[Lavey29]

I agree with the above but would hand dose some mag and cal until they are in proper ranges and you need to lower phosphates also.

 

[MnFish1]

PS I would supplement the Mg prior to the rest - simply because a higher Mg level will help minimize precipitation

 

[brclark82]

Maybe I should check my water change water and see if it’s low and possibly switch salts…I have a quite a few water changes the last few weeks since I got the skimmer and trying to get the phosphates under control and haven’t seen much of an increase in either

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

generally, if alkalinity is ok then alk/calcium/mag are ok.

I don’t believe the magnesium is accurate as there’s no way to get from normal IO to the alk/calcium/magnesium values you show. I’d ignore the magnesium for now, since it will be fine.

 

[brclark82]

generally, if alkalinity is ok then alk/calcium/mag are ok.

I don’t believe the magnesium is accurate as there’s no way to get from normal IO to the alk/calcium/magnesium values you show. I’d ignore the magnesium for now, since it will be fine.

Thanks for your input, I’m using a Salifert test kit with an expiration of 2028 and have gotten a similar result on 3 consecutive tests about a week apart but I also understand you know what you’re talking about maybe I got a bad kit.

I will just continue on my current 10% changes 1-2x/week and see how things go for a while. Also will test my new after change parameters to see what I’m adding.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for your input, I’m using a Salifert test kit with an expiration of 2028 and have gotten a similar result on 3 consecutive tests about a week apart but I also understand you know what you’re talking about maybe I got a bad kit.

I will just continue on my current 10% changes 1-2x/week and see how things go for a while. Also will test my new after change parameters to see what I’m adding.

It may be that the salinity is substantially lower than you think. Natural seawater at a sg of 1.025 is only 1212 ppm, so raising it to 35 ppt (sg = 1.0264) will help.