The keys for SPS survival are?

[AaronReef]

What salt are you using?

 

[tent boy]

IO. Is that bad? I have been adding cal,alk and mag to get the numbers up.

 

[AaronReef]

No, just curious, as I had a similar experience with a particular brand of salt (not IO or RC), and since changing over everything is doing much much better. Good luck to you!

 

[tent boy]

Over a 2 day period my cal went from 395 to 370. The alk went from 9.3 down to 7.5. I used the calculator to figure out how much to add. If I 2 part BRS cal and alk every other day is this "stable" enough or should I do it every day. Is this enough of a decrease to maybe use kalk instead? Im trying to keep this as simple as possible.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

my suggestion

my suggestion

use kalk as replacement for evaporation (daily) and THEN figure out how much two part you need to dose daily.

 

[pisces4u]

use kalk as replacement for evaporation (daily) and THEN figure out how much two part you need to dose daily.

+1

My ATO resevoir is filled with ro/di+aragamite (similar to kalk). I dose 45ml of the BRS cal and alk each morning into a 65g system with about 50 sps frags and colonies to maintain 440 cal and 9 alk.

Also, you won't be able to maintain cal and alk if your magnesium is too low. I've never used IO, but I wouldn't be surprised if it mixes up less than 1350 mag. Also, mangroves absorb magnesium ions as they grow which can lead to problems if you aren't repleneshing it via dosing or regular water changes.

 

[tmz]

You may find kalk to be enough. If not as Gary suggests you can tweak with 2part.

Calcium is ok north of 400. As long as you keep it over about 400ppm stability is not very important.

Alkalinity should not be allowed to shift more than 1 dkh per day. Sps can be very sensitive to alkalinity shifts. Alkalinity also depletes quicker than calcium. For every 20ppm of calcium used in calcium carbonate precipitation( growth of coral skelton, coraline, etc.) 1 meq/l or 2.8 dkh of alkalinity(carbonate) is used. Daily additions of alkalinity are quite common.