neglected tank, need help with a plan

[formsix]

Hi! So my 2 year old tank was basically in "maintenance mode" for the last year do to work-related changes (i.e., living out of state for most of that time).

The tank is 75g with a 40g refugium, 3 fish, a handful of LPS corals, and lots of inverts -- including a flame scallop that has been with us for 2 years. My goal is not an SPS clean tank, but I do need to balance Ca and Mg for my LPS. I have acans, a duncan, and a blasto that all seem healthy but growth has slowed considerably (which, no doubt, is due to my low Ca levels). I do have outrageous coraline growth on the tank which might account for the low Ca, so it's not like nothing is growing!

salinity: 1.025 (always steady between 1.025 and 1.026)
Ca: 340
Mg: 960
Phosphates: .12
Nitrates: 20
Kh/Alk: 8.3

I use regular IO salt for weekly water changes of about 15% volume (it was every 2-3 weeks this past year) and have not dosed ANYTHING in the past year. Before that I had started to dose Mg and Ca after I added the LPS, but that fell by the wayside. I am running GFO and Carbon, just changed out the GFO media, and plan to change it again soon to get my phosphates in check.

My plan is to start dosing Mg ASAP (but slowly - half recommended dose) until I get it up to 1300 using Kent's Iron and Magnese. I also plan to dose Reef Advantage Calcium to get my Calcium up (at least for starters b/c that's what I have). Should I start this right away or wait a week or so until my Mg rises? Is there a better way to do this? Any dosing I do right now will be by hand, but I guess I could consider a reactor if it will make things easier. Thanks for any advice and ideas!

 

[Capiross1]

My advice is to get your mg in check before you start dosing ca/alk, mg basically keeps the ca/alk from bonding together and once you get that straitened out you'll find in much easier to adjust the ca/alk


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[Capiross1]

And I'd test after dosing to see what and how your dosing is effecting everything I know certain things that say there calcium may actually raise your Alk as well


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[formsix]

And I'd test after dosing to see what and how your dosing is effecting everything I know certain things that say there calcium may actually raise your Alk as well

Thanks so much! I think I'll dose Mg in the morning and test at night for the next little while and get my Mg stable before adding in the calcium. Even though my numbers are low, the tank has been seemingly fine for months so I'm not in a rush to make big changes.

 

[Capiross1]

Yea try not to raise anything to fast I'd say you could raise the mg by 100 per day with no problems


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[cougareyes]

You can safely raise your mg by 100 a day, I would get a single element mg product, I like the brightwell magnesion it's really easy to use. I know the Kent's Iron and Magnese says it won't grow unwanted algae, but too much iron and you will get algae. It's hard to use these multiple all in one type products. Each tank is going to use different elements at different rates.