Let's talk about Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium in an SPS Tank

[telamont]

excellent thread thanks everyone

 

[dankreef]

Good info thanks.

 

[yudruln8]

Lots of good info

 

[BIG_KAHUNA]

So I haven't gotten a chance to work all the way through this thread but maybe you guys can tell me why I'm having such a hard time raising my Mag levels? Using Brightwell Magnesion. Dosed almost 200ml over 3 days and levels remain at 1200. I just can't seem to get them to rise. dkH @ 9.8 and Ca at 400 afraid to try and raise the Ca until I get Mg up. Any ideas? Do additives go bad?

 

[animalkingdom]

So I haven't gotten a chance to work all the way through this thread but maybe you guys can tell me why I'm having such a hard time raising my Mag levels? Using Brightwell Magnesion. Dosed almost 200ml over 3 days and levels remain at 1200. I just can't seem to get them to rise. dkH @ 9.8 and Ca at 400 afraid to try and raise the Ca until I get Mg up. Any ideas? Do additives go bad?

It takes a lot of Mag to budge the levels. Important info is tank size
But dkh 9.8 and ca 400 isn't bad

 

[tiomm]

Wait a minute... One thing is still unclear to me.
My alk usually swings between 6 and 9 dKH between waterchanges.
Do I have to keep it stable at, say 9 dKH to keep my SPS happy or is this ok?

Same goes for my Ca and Mg, they swing between WCs but never reach "bad" levels.

 

[jcmelski]

Yes, you should prevent any drastic swings. Even if it;s still in the "good range"

 

[Dtech07]

as i heard you need your parameters to be the boring roller coaster not the fun one. Ocean and better coral sellers keep their swings to .5 this creates a very stable environment and the corals can propagate naturally. when the swings are large (fun roller coaster)then the corals stop propagating and start expanding energy to adapt which will lead to slow growth, STN, RTN, even death.

 

[tiomm]

Great answers!
Thanks for enlightening me.
Will get some buffers tomorrow.

 

[JohnV8r]

deleted

 

[SantaMonica]

For months my mag would magically stay the same, then I would not test for a while and it would drop a bit. But sometimes it seemed to even increase.

 

[Falcao]

hey guys, when you dose, do you dose the equal doses at the same time. I heard that sometimes you might separate dose from during the day(Ca) and at night(alk) to compensate ph levels at night. Does that sound right?
thanks

 

[jcmelski]

You can do that if you want. Or you can wait 10-20 minutes before adding the next dose.

 

[Aquarist007]

Wait a minute... One thing is still unclear to me.
My alk usually swings between 6 and 9 dKH between waterchanges.
Do I have to keep it stable at, say 9 dKH to keep my SPS happy or is this ok?

Same goes for my Ca and Mg, they swing between WCs but never reach "bad" levels.

The best way to keep consistent parameters without big swings is smaller but more frequent water changes with a quality salt mix.
Keep in mind that sea water levels of Cal are 390 and alkalinity is 7.6.

Using two part systems for more demands and a calcium reactor for greater demands cause less skewing of parameters then trying to only dose one of them

 

[Showdizzle]

a lot of great info here that is easy to understand. really good thread

 

[epicurus84]

Imho everybody should look at the corals. I feel mine grow better with an Ca of 410 rather then 450. With my mag at about 1250. And my KH of 7.5.

When i get my levels at 450-1350-9 my corals won't grow. While dropping it a little bit lower they are fine again.

 

[Touring]

The first thing that i was told was to do 1 gallon water changes everyday and I would never have to dose. So far so good...

 

[jacky.l]

good info

 

[raybyrne67]

Great thread, consistant water parameters took me about about a month nail down. Things are growing well and the color of the corals are good. Also seing good polyp extension from my sps. The info in this thread has been a big help!

 

[Poletti1230]

I always dosed alk at night and cal during the day. With my reactor now I don't have to worry abut it