Hello,
I use the seachem alk and calcium which is a powder, and my tank is up to almost 2 tablespoons a day now. I use the redsea magnesium and have the lfs shop (but only the person I trust now) to do it, and I start super low with that. So when I found I was 100 ppm down plus maybe 150 I dosed with 20ml then 30 then 40 then 50. After 50 I tested and was right at 1390-1400 range. It took a week and I literally ignored and threw their instructions away. They are terrible and extremely confusing and I am honestly surprised people haven’t crashed their tanks by using those specific directions.
Using the redsea trace elements was about as bad but was manageable if you know math. So I based my tank on 200 gallons of water (give or take). Then their supplements are based on the amount of calcium in your tank. So 2 tablespoons is about 100 grams, converted to liquid is right about 2ml of each per day. Now since I’m only at 1.5 tablespoons now I’m doing 1 ml per day but on Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday it’s 1.5 ml to make the difference up. I have to admit I have now gone to a journal per say about the dosing and where I am at normally. I record every element that I test and compare it and go from there.
Now the tricky one is the noprox no3no4 from redsea, actually good directions well for me. This works very well, but there is a draw back. That is, once you start it at all there really is no going back. The living organisms in your tank or corals animals etc, (probably not fish), or invertebrates but definitely corals, become addicted to the noprox. If one were to stop suddenly it would be like a human who has smoked for 50 years just quits, or a better example would be medication like prednisone and or benzodiazepines which have life long withdrawal symptoms (even years after one had been off they still do), noprox is similar. It’s no worse than vodka dosing (per say making your tank intoxicated or drunk or addicted to alcohol). Ever wonder why when someone stops dosing the noprox or vodka and or vinegar (isn’t as bad but don’t hear much on that version), things go south fast. That’s one of the main reasons because they are similar to an addictive drug for humans. Even when I’m in my zone for nitrates, the bare min even at 2ppm is 16ml a day and I was able to get down to 8, but then I had a massive cyano breakout afterwards. Things and some coral went south, then I reduced back up to normal when nitrates are high which is 30ml, and in a week cyano, all hair algae is literally gone. Some tiny strands stick around, but then I found that 16-20 a day ml works fairly well.
In terms of water changes per this method I would always do water changes first always. But even with me doing 80 gallons a week, my nitrates stayed at 20-30ppm. Sometimes jumped to 40 and I started to have sps die after a few months. I was also dumb enough to skip a month of water changes because my lfs said our sps tank does great at 50ppm (and lol it does it’s strange), buttttt the sps in that tank are use to it and need it. So it doesn’t affect them as much as when I tried and looked really dumb.
But like today I came home on lunch break and found my power was out. It was out for three hours and then was curious why my generator was not on. Come to find out my neighbor shut it off, so their baby could sleep. It was shut off and I turned it back on, and they knocked on my door and asked to shut it off and they shut it off earlier. (Despite them going into my fenced backyard through the gate), that’s locked so over the fence. I simply told them I can’t, my salt water tank would die. So far everything seems fine lol except they are mad at me (and the power is on) but they came over again and said it couldn’t happen again. In terms of being polite I just said please stay out of my yard, there is a lock on my gate for a reason. But so far things seem fine and corals are looking happier (polyp extension wise) with the third light running white and blue. The coral was shading others way too much from growth, so this fixes the problem till they grow even more. Which then I will need to cut and trim a lot away.
