Raising Calcium/KH/Magensium

[DiscoHobbit]

I could not find a thread that answers my question, but I am sure it exists, so I am sorry for maybe double posting:

My tank is about a month old (my cycle went insanely quick and eventhe uglies are already dying down do to the additon of copepods), I only did one 25L water change and im running cheato and mangrove to get nitrates down (which is working very well to my surprise). And yes I am making sure they dont hit absolute zero. I have some softies and LPS coral in there that are thriving (Euphillias are already splitting heads). Now these are my measurements:

As you can see, the KH is too low and Calcium and Magnesium could also be bumped up. I'd like to keep my corals thriving.

If i understand correctly, the KH is not really a value, but more of an indicator. If KH is good, then you can increase calcium, because otherwise it will "snow" down?

I already have the Aquaforest KH buffer (solid) and my Red Sea Magnesium and Calcium (both liquid) should arrive today. Now how do I go about raising my levels? Do I first get KH up to around 8 and then increase Calcium and Magnesium or can i just throw it all in at once (ofcourse not exceeding the recommended increase per day).

Also, as coral use Calc and Mag, it ofcourse becomes depleted, but is the same for the KH?

 

[griss]

Honestly, IMO, your Ca and Mg are fine where they are.

Alk (dKH) and Ca have an inverse relationship, if one increases the other will drop. I had a bad batch of salt a while back that had insanely high Ca levels (at the time I wasn't testing Ca) and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get the dKH up in the proper range. Once I tested Ca and saw it was off the chart on a Salifert test kit, I ditched the salt and got a new bucket. Since then, I've been able to maintain all my parameters.

That said, if you want to increase your dKH, here are some dosing calculators. I would work on getting the dKH up to where you want it and then adjust Ca if it drops.

@kharmaguru in pretty knowledgeable about this too

 

[Genetics]

Your values are fine. Calcium and alk could be slightly higher. If you supplemented with just kalk in top of water you would stabilize calcium and alk levels for softies. The occasional water change would keep magnesium in range.

 

[DiscoHobbit]

oh lol, in my own country's reef sub i got roasted pretty hard and told i am comitting animal cruelty for my water params when i was asking what was wrong with my torch (turned out to be brown jelly, so nothing to do with water really). Then again, that sub is pretty full of people who think they invented reefing and won't hear anything else then their opinion. Im glad Reef Central is wayyyy better.

Glad to hear they are fine! Im still gonna raise my values a little just to get the most coraline and growth and be on the safe side, thx for all the info!

 

[griss]

oh lol, in my own country's reef sub i got roasted pretty hard and told i am comitting animal cruelty for my water params when i was asking what was wrong with my torch (turned out to be brown jelly, so nothing to do with water really). Then again, that sub is pretty full of people who think they invented reefing and won't hear anything else then their opinion. Im glad Reef Central is wayyyy better.

Glad to hear they are fine! Im still gonna raise my values a little just to get the most coraline and growth and be on the safe side, thx for all the info!

Yep, unfortunately, in any hobby there are those who think they know everything. I'm of the opinion that there are as many ways to do things right in this hobby as there are ways to do things wrong

The most successful reef I ever had was very minimalistic. It was a 200 gallon tank with a Jaubert/NNR/Plenum sandbed made popular by Bob Goemens in the early to mid 1990s. It had a 55 gallon sump I made out to plywood and resin. It had an, "underpowered" Sander skimmer for the tank size. Lighting was (3) 250 watt 6500K Iwasaki metal halides and (2) 400 watt 20000K Radium metal halides that I had retrofitted into an old Hamilton fixture. When I got heavily into Acros, I added a *gasp* AquaMedic Calcium reactor. I only did 10 gallon waters changes once a week, at best. My Acros and Montis grew like crazy in that tank and I rarely had any issues with nuisance algae.

 

[DiscoHobbit]

Yep, unfortunately, in any hobby there are those who think they know everything. I'm of the opinion that there are as many ways to do things right in this hobby as there are ways to do things wrong

The most successful reef I ever had was very minimalistic. It was a 200 gallon tank with a Jaubert/NNR/Plenum sandbed made popular by Bob Goemens in the early to mid 1990s. It had a 55 gallon sump I made out to plywood and resin. It had an, "underpowered" Sander skimmer for the tank size. Lighting was (3) 250 watt 6500K Iwasaki metal halides and (2) 400 watt 20000K Radium metal halides that I had retrofitted into an old Hamilton fixture. When I got heavily into Acros, I added a *gasp* AquaMedic Calcium reactor. I only did 10 gallon waters changes once a week, at best. My Acros and Montis grew like crazy in that tank and I rarely had any issues with nuisance algae.

being prety new in the hobby, but having read and watched almost everything by BRS, i must admit i have no clue what all this equipment is, but since im geussing its pretty unconventional ill say: "HOW dare you?!!". hahaha

I actually got shit on because i did what my LFS told me to:
Put water in, put 2 hardy fish in and add bacteria and corals for exponential bacteria growth.
It worked, i went through my cycle within 3 weeks and my ammonia is at 0, nitrate shot up to 80 but now back down to 10 (which still kinda baffles me as i only did a 25L water change and there is not a lot of algae. When the brown algae showed up i just dumped a truckload of copepods and since then the brown algae is almost gone as well. So im guessing the lil ball of cheato and my tiny mangrove are doing the heavy lifting?

But i was told this was not possible and that my corals would die in the long run even though they are growing and splitting, which is weird but i guess time will tell...

Anything i'm missing or should keep an eye on?

 

[griss]

being prety new in the hobby, but having read and watched almost everything by BRS, i must admit i have no clue what all this equipment is, but since im geussing its pretty unconventional ill say: "HOW dare you?!!". hahaha

I actually got shit on because i did what my LFS told me to:
Put water in, put 2 hardy fish in and add bacteria and corals for exponential bacteria growth.
It worked, i went through my cycle within 3 weeks and my ammonia is at 0, nitrate shot up to 80 but now back down to 10 (which still kinda baffles me as i only did a 25L water change and there is not a lot of algae. When the brown algae showed up i just dumped a truckload of copepods and since then the brown algae is almost gone as well. So im guessing the lil ball of cheato and my tiny mangrove are doing the heavy lifting?

But i was told this was not possible and that my corals would die in the long run even though they are growing and splitting, which is weird but i guess time will tell...

Anything i'm missing or should keep an eye on?

I think you’re good.

 

[Genetics]

oh lol, in my own country's reef sub i got roasted pretty hard and told i am comitting animal cruelty for my water params when i was asking what was wrong with my torch (turned out to be brown jelly, so nothing to do with water really). Then again, that sub is pretty full of people who think they invented reefing and won't hear anything else then their opinion. Im glad Reef Central is wayyyy better.

Glad to hear they are fine! Im still gonna raise my values a little just to get the most coraline and growth and be on the safe side, thx for all the info!

What country? I believe brown jelly is still thought of as a bacterial disease and not a water parameter disease.

 

[DiscoHobbit]

netherlands!

 

[Scotty333!!!]

Don’t do what I did and followed the dosing amounts
Go half and test then you’ll have something to work off