Alk, Ca, Mg etc for SPS dominated tank

[Magik]

Hi,

I have an LPS dominated reef with a couple softies/zoas, do not plan to keep SPS. My parameters as of today morning are:

Temp 78F, salinity 34-35ppt (calibrated refractometer), Alk 7.3dKH, calcium 412ppm, magnesium 1300ppm. Looks like most people have all those parameters higher, although I am currently close to NSW levels. I was thinking of trying to raise them to 8-8.5 dkH, ~1400ppm Magnesium and keep calcium 400-450pm. I understand that order in which you do it is also important, I was planning to start with raising Alk.

My reef is 4 months in a new tank, but LR is from my 6 and 5yo tanks.

 

[Magik]

Sorry, meant "LPS dominated"

 

[steallife904]

If all is doing well I wouldn't touch it! I once randomly decided I wanted to up my alk level and it had bad results.

 

[Magik]

Thanks! I am not even sure how well things are doing, got a lot of corals recently, will see. I have started to test Alk daily or every other day and I wonder what my target levels should be?

 

[nereefpat]

You are close to nsw levels, like you said. Most folks try to keep alk a point or two higher, so when it drops (consumed in our small tanks) you are still in a safe range.

 

[Magik]

You are close to nsw levels, like you said. Most folks try to keep alk a point or two higher, so when it drops (consumed in our small tanks) you are still in a safe range.

Ok, thanks, so I will just raise alk to 8 and let everything else be and will retest Ca and Mg another week.

 

[Rcj520]

I'd suggest raising them all slightly like you said. But the biggest deal is stability. So the best number is the best numbers that you can keep stable

 

[eastlake]

Be careful about raising it. Your corals will tell you where it needs to be, if they look happy I wouldn't touch it at all. I had my alk in the low 7 range as well and the corals colors were great and they were growing, I decided to bump it up slowly to 8-8.2 because it seemed that's what every other sps keeper was running and that coupled with a temp spike has killed 99% of my sps. Every tank is different so if your corals look happy and they're growing, as the old saying goes, if it ain't broken don't fix it.