I have been noticing an up and down trend in both of my tanks, one a nanoreef with no dosing, no nothing, just running naturally with a skimmer and in my 120g mixed reef which I run GFO on and off for the past year and a half and dose alk and Ca via a doser. I saw this post and it got me to thinking....
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2109831
When I started this tank 2 1/3 years ago I originally used Red Sea salt, the regular version, as the parameters were near to sea water levels and I was running Zeovit at the time. I went off the Zeovit about a year and a half ago but continued to use the Red Sea regular salt. It was pretty stable. My only issue was always low alk which I contributed to the GFO sucking it out, some coral growth, and the salt which ran around 7.5dKH-8dKH. About a year ago I could only get the Red Sea Coral Pro from Dr's Foster and Smith where the shipping of salt is cheap. It has much higher parameters, It states Ca. 450, Alk 12.2, Mag 1450 on the bucket. I thought that might work fine as I wanted my alk a bit higher, around 8.5-9.0 and figured this would help me achieve this. About 3 months ago I took the GFO off the system as I was having some issues and wondered if it was causing a problem. I waited 3 months and have slowly put it back on the system. So far all is well with that aspect of things. I am still having issues with my SPS no matter what I try. slow growth, random STN, etc. I started checking parameters, especially my alk and found it very high, around 11 dKH. I initially attributed this to lack of GFO and the alk going up as my dosing regiment was a bit high and the salt had high values. So I backed the doser down slowly over the last few months, only to find the alk staying fairly high, between 9.5-10.5. At least it was lower than 11.0. I am not one to chase numbers but I have been concerned with low growth and random STN on my acros. The nano reef seemed to be doing well and corals would rebound if I moved them. I recently got a hydrometer that floats in the bucket and is very accurate for salinity and found my salinity was fairly low, 1.020. I slowly have been bringing the salinity up over the past month, I am around 1.023 now after a month of water changes. Now both tanks are looking a little funky so I decided to test all parameters for the heck of it. WOW!!!! Here are my readings from the main tank, then my make up water.
Main 120g Tank- Alk- 10.5dKH, Ca 600ppm, Mag 1800ppm, PO4- .24
Make-Up Water- alk 14.5dKH, Ca. 650ppm, Mag 2000ppm PO4 .19
I feed very heavily and have attributed increasing PO-4 numbers to the increased feedings and taking GFO off the system, it was running around .12 when I had the GFO on the system...still too high but, you know how it goes. I am super unhappy with these numbers out of the bucket...I can't remember testing my make-up water in the recent past so no comparison numbers but I tested and re-tested three times to be sure. This is a problem and could definitely be leading to generalized stress on the tank. My mag has traditionally been on the high side in the main tank...1350-1500 regularly without dosing, but like I said, my growth is very spotty. I would say the system is overall unhappy with the given parameters. I have two buckets of this salt, recently purchased. I am thinking to find the Red Sea regular salt as I really liked that salt to begin with and mix it with the Red Sea regular 1/3 to 2/3 over time and see if I can get things to slowly come back in line. Like I said, I hate to chase numbers but these parameters are unacceptable. In the meantime I have backed my dosing times down a bit and will re-test every 5 days and see what comes of things. Thoughts, musings, suggestions??
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2109831
When I started this tank 2 1/3 years ago I originally used Red Sea salt, the regular version, as the parameters were near to sea water levels and I was running Zeovit at the time. I went off the Zeovit about a year and a half ago but continued to use the Red Sea regular salt. It was pretty stable. My only issue was always low alk which I contributed to the GFO sucking it out, some coral growth, and the salt which ran around 7.5dKH-8dKH. About a year ago I could only get the Red Sea Coral Pro from Dr's Foster and Smith where the shipping of salt is cheap. It has much higher parameters, It states Ca. 450, Alk 12.2, Mag 1450 on the bucket. I thought that might work fine as I wanted my alk a bit higher, around 8.5-9.0 and figured this would help me achieve this. About 3 months ago I took the GFO off the system as I was having some issues and wondered if it was causing a problem. I waited 3 months and have slowly put it back on the system. So far all is well with that aspect of things. I am still having issues with my SPS no matter what I try. slow growth, random STN, etc. I started checking parameters, especially my alk and found it very high, around 11 dKH. I initially attributed this to lack of GFO and the alk going up as my dosing regiment was a bit high and the salt had high values. So I backed the doser down slowly over the last few months, only to find the alk staying fairly high, between 9.5-10.5. At least it was lower than 11.0. I am not one to chase numbers but I have been concerned with low growth and random STN on my acros. The nano reef seemed to be doing well and corals would rebound if I moved them. I recently got a hydrometer that floats in the bucket and is very accurate for salinity and found my salinity was fairly low, 1.020. I slowly have been bringing the salinity up over the past month, I am around 1.023 now after a month of water changes. Now both tanks are looking a little funky so I decided to test all parameters for the heck of it. WOW!!!! Here are my readings from the main tank, then my make up water.
Main 120g Tank- Alk- 10.5dKH, Ca 600ppm, Mag 1800ppm, PO4- .24
Make-Up Water- alk 14.5dKH, Ca. 650ppm, Mag 2000ppm PO4 .19
I feed very heavily and have attributed increasing PO-4 numbers to the increased feedings and taking GFO off the system, it was running around .12 when I had the GFO on the system...still too high but, you know how it goes. I am super unhappy with these numbers out of the bucket...I can't remember testing my make-up water in the recent past so no comparison numbers but I tested and re-tested three times to be sure. This is a problem and could definitely be leading to generalized stress on the tank. My mag has traditionally been on the high side in the main tank...1350-1500 regularly without dosing, but like I said, my growth is very spotty. I would say the system is overall unhappy with the given parameters. I have two buckets of this salt, recently purchased. I am thinking to find the Red Sea regular salt as I really liked that salt to begin with and mix it with the Red Sea regular 1/3 to 2/3 over time and see if I can get things to slowly come back in line. Like I said, I hate to chase numbers but these parameters are unacceptable. In the meantime I have backed my dosing times down a bit and will re-test every 5 days and see what comes of things. Thoughts, musings, suggestions??
...I shut down the Calcium and dropped the alk dosing down a bit more. I plan to test each day for the alk, ca, and mag and once calcium comes more in line I will slowly add back in Ca dosing while testing. This will be a pain...as I said I hate chasing numbers but it seems appropriate given my issues at this point.
.
