very low alk,mag. ?

[block head]

babysitting a friends 180. tank looks like chit.test results: sailfert alk 4.2,mag 915,cal 435. . salinity is good at 35% . he hasn't been dosing, ato is hooked up to kalk reactor. last water change was done a week ago. the plan was to stop by every 3 days and feed. i plan on going daily to get things on track. how quickly should i raise alk and mag? he's got bionic , buffer and mag to dose. (brs and kent ) thanks ,james

 

[toddmh]

wow that is pretty low..Here is what I reference on water parameters..

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

you know to dose the alk slowly....

Mg need not be so slowly dosed. It's going to take a lot of Mg!

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

6314.5 ml RHF

 

[block head]

6314.5 ml RHF

ouch. the biggest question i have is, how quickly should i adjust alk and mg ? i' ve never had to make massive changes in alk. my thought is to try and raise alk from 4.2 to 8-9 over a week of daily dosing.mg i feel comfortable raising from 915 to 1300 -1400 over a week as well. i'm not really finding a general rule of thumb on how quickly it's safe to raise alk.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

It would depend on how the tank takes the raise. I would probably start at .5 dKh, and if things look fine another .5 in the evening. I'm not afraid of making a little larger correction than that, but I know my tank. I think how well it will handle the adjustment no matter how large will have a lot to do with any other stresses its facing. You may want to forgo worrying about pH and use baking soda so not to drive it up to high; if you do use soda ash be sure to watch it.