SPS/LPS Keepers... I was thinking

[ek9vboi]

So I was doing my regular testing and water changes...

I came to think about what could possibly be eating up my calcium levels and why i could not get them up to what I wanted. Looked around and saw A LOT of coralline algae everywhere and it got me thinking. "What if," what if I scraped all of the coralline algae off the glass in the sump?! It made sense to me, less coralline algae on the sump tank glass = less consumption of calcium/alk/mag... etc. So I just scraped it all off the sump, removed the clouded water of coralline algae and did my usual water change. Hopefully my tank parameters will show some signs of tank conditions improving.

As for the display tank, I left all the coralline algae alone unless it was on glass that I use to look into my tank. The back wall was left alone.

BTW I just started to add in additives in my water changes to bring up the calc and mag levels overtime.

Any input about doing this? Good idea? Bad? LMK

 

[ReefWreak]

Theoretically the less coraline mass you have the less it's going to absorb calcium from your water. It's going to grow out again of course, but for the mean time it will reduce it's uptake. I wonder if coraline ever stops growing or if there is a cycle of life for it or anything like that. Somewhere to "prune" it to to keep it from consuming calcium. Interesting idea.

 

[ReefWreak]

In retrospect, I don't think that coralline would make enough of a difference to be noticeable. Still interesting idea.

 

[bawla47]

actually, corraline can take up a considerable amount of your calcium.

alot of jap run tanks absoultey HATE coralline growth.

alot run there numbers lower, in the 350-375 calc range and it seems to help slow its growth.

 

[chrisaggie]

Yes, coraline can/does take up calcium and alkalinity from your water, but you should easily be able to adjust for these losses. I would reccomend using a good two part to keep your parameters up. I can get expensive if you have to dose a lot, but you should be ok for now. At one point I was dosing 800mL of each 2 part per day.

 

[ek9vboi]

I was thinking the same as well, although it doesn't take up a lot it still absorbs calcium and alk. My tank is currently at:

Calcium: 390 ppm
Alkalinity: 9.0dKH/3.20 mel/q
Magnesium: 1230 ppm

This is irrelevant but I just recently got a magnesium kit and started testing that. From the time I tested FMAS held the "test your tank water" my level was 1150ppm, not sure if it was user error or not. But after testing it 2 twice I have seen the mag level go up. I think this has to do with my recent water change when I started to add Reef Complete by Seachem to bring up the calc, etc levels all in one shot. If so, the additives seem to be doing their job. BTW I used this calculator to figure how much I needed to dose after I tested the salt and water mixed together and had been sitting for atlease 24hrs.

http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/chemcalc.html
All you do is plug in the information. In my case I do weekly 5g water changes. Plug in the current water parameters and then plug in what you would like them to be and its does everything.

New batch of SW mixed using IO (not including additives):
Calcium: 350 ppm
Alkalinity: 10.9 dKH/ 3.89 meq/l
Magnesium: 1185

I've already added the additives, just waiting to test it but I won't be testing it until friday or saturday when I usually do my water changes. I am aiming to get my calcium level up to 450ppm, the alk seems ok and the mag will eventually go up as I use Reef complete to bring up the calcium.

 

[ReefWreak]

Yeah I got worried about my Mag level from the FMAS meeting too. Mine measured like 270 or something, and I know that couldn't have been right. But when I really tested my water it was in the 1100s. Its now in the 1300s, after a 1.9L jug of Kent Tech M, which I bought with the salifert kit because I knew it would be low anyway, when I last stopped by Robert & Larry's. Great store as always too. That was the day they got those wicked acros and clams and stuff.

 

[ek9vboi]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10124617#post10124617 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefWreak
Yeah I got worried about my Mag level from the FMAS meeting too. Mine measured like 270 or something, and I know that couldn't have been right. But when I really tested my water it was in the 1100s. Its now in the 1300s, after a 1.9L jug of Kent Tech M, which I bought with the salifert kit because I knew it would be low anyway, when I last stopped by Robert & Larry's. Great store as always too. That was the day they got those wicked acros and clams and stuff.

270ppm for magnesium? WOW!!! I thought my level was low, but I didn't know the levels for magnesium could get that low.

When you tested the water again, was that from your own test kit before you started to dose Kent Tech M? Or did Robert/Larry test it for you?

I was thinking of buying either the Kent stuff or epsom salt and mixing it up to bring up my mag level. But from after the tests and the results, I don't think I will be doing it if the levels continue to increase with the addition of Reef Complete to my new batch of water changes.