Advice on water chemistry - 3 month old tank

[Marco333]

My 40 breeder has been set up for about 3 months. No sump. I have a HOB skimmer and two powerbeads. Tank has about 2 inches of sand and 30 lbs of live rock. I do one 5 gallon water change every week. Tank has a few soft and LPS corals and two ocellaris clownfish and CUC. I use instant ocean salt. I finally purchased some water test kits yesterday (I know I should have done this sooner). I purchased Nitrate, Magnesium, Calcium, and Alk, all made by Salifert.

Here are my results. Does anyone have any recommendations based off of these results? It seems my Calcium and Magnesium are a bit low. How would you recommend I raise these?

Salt: 1.026
Alk: 8.6
Cal: 380
Mag: 1170
Nitrate: 0ppm (The test did not register any nitrate). I use RODI water but was still surprised I don't have any nitrate.

Thank you for any advice!

 

[Sk8r]

Mag's a tad low: use Tech-M or other mg supplement to reach 1350. That will stabilize the alk; bring your cal to 420. And everything will be happier, particularly the stonies.

 

[Marco333]

Thanks for the reply! To clarify, will bringing my Mag to 1350 also bring my calcium to 420 or do I need to supplement calcium as well?

 

[Ron Reefman]

You need to supplement the Ca as well. You can get a 2 part system that will allow you to raise Ca or alk as needed.

You might also consider switching to IO Reef Crystals salt as that already has higher Mg, Ca and alk. If you continue to do 5g water change every week then you may not need to dose at all.

BTW, welcome to the addiction.

 

[Jdack]

Very nice result for not having test kits. Its a testament to the power of weekly water changes

 

[nereefpat]

Good advice above.

To summarize: CaCl to raise Ca. MgCl or MgSO4 to raise Mg. Both can be purchased online from bulk reef supply, Drs foster and smith, etc.

 

[Marco333]

Thanks all for the replies!


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[mcgyvr]

Just switch salts IMO.. Go with reef crystals or similar with higher numbers and you more than likely don't need to worry about dosing anything..

But you can certainly start dosing if you want too..

 

[Marco333]

Thanks. I am going to first try just switching to Reef Crystals. If that doesn't work I will then explore dosing.


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[kevin21]

I use reef crystals and it maintains my levels well in my 28g. I do however have kent liquid calcium and kent tech-m on hand just in case I need to adjust. My Alk stays in line as long as I keep up with my weekly changes and mag and cal stay consistent.