Question on Alk/Ca

Always match your levels to your salt.

If you keep Alk at 12 and your salt is 7. Doing a large water change will cause a big swing and strip your corals. The levels you posted are based around Red Sea coral pro salt which has extremely high Alkalinity but try keeping those levels with say Tropic Marin Pro and you will encounter trouble. Take a look on the bucket of salt you use and try to match those parameters. Chasing high or low numbers will spell doom for your tank. Keeping your figures stable are what matters.
 
In case you aim for a higher Alkalinity, you should also go for a higher Ca value.
Both will work as long as you keep your values stable.

Also it depends at which salinity level you have this values (higher salinity, higher values)

Different Alk-Levels of your salt mixture vs you tanks Alk are not so seriously as one might think.
Imagine: tank with 12 °dKH and 10% waterchange with 7°dKH .... this is quite some difference.....
-> tank water afterwards will be at 11,5 °dKH (0,9x12 + 0,1x7) which is just a drop +0,5°dKH.

best rgds
Martin
 
I keep my Alk at 9. It has proven to be the sweet spot for my tank. My LPS noticeably extend and inflate more at this level.

I keep my Ca at 450, Mg at 1450. These fluctuate alot though as I don't dose them daily. I haven't noticed any adverse effects from it as long as it's within a certain range.
 
Google some of the reef chemistry papers that Dr Holmes-Farley wrote 10+ years ago. What matters is that the two are in balance - one too high and the other too low is no good. Other than that, you will find great results with levels anywhere in the spectrum.

Here is a good tip to remember: a bit of muratic acid will drop the alk in any new salt mix quickly and safely - you can google the amounts to add.

Personally, I like to have mine about 9.0ish so I add a bit of muratic to my freshly mixed IO salt.
 
This is all interesting. I've got some of the redsea ABC+ coming and was going to start using it. Right now I'm just doing kalk w/ my ATO and doing water changes. Corals seem ok (just ok).. I mean I see some growth but just not explosive growth. Thought maybe this stuff might help? I was curious on what you all thought about those high all numbers...

If all were balanced, would the higher numbers lead to faster growth?
 
No, at least not noticeable.

Much more important are
- stability of Ca,Alk Mg and also the availability of other trace elements
- Very low but Non-0 values for Nitrate and Phosphate
- intensity and spectrum of Light.
Type of light source: Light that comes from "one spot only" (HQI) is by far not as good as "light that comes from all over your tanks surface" like it does eg from neon tubes which has nearly no shading effect
- intensity of water flow
 
Thanks for all the insight...Will assess all these things and go from there. I've also read that smaller frags take a while to establish and really start growing which is where I am. Smaller stuff.. I see a lot of encrusting around the bases of frags onto the rocks so that may be an indication that things are happening and it will just take time.
 
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