Water Change/ Dosing Big MAC

[SneekaPeek]

Hello,
I have always wondered how to minimize fluctuations if the salt brand you use is not the levels you want your tank to be.

Im using tropic marin pro reef and my levels are around:
1350ppm Mag
7dkh Alk
420ppm Cal

I do a water change of 25% and my alk falls to 5.7dkh. I have been finding that the tropic marin pro reef has a really low alk of 4dkh on fresh batch. I wait a couple hours to dose my alk back up, but I think this fluctuation is starting to stress a couple of my corals out.

-How can I minimize the fluctuation?
-Does everyone dose their tank after water change to bring levels back up to normal?
-Whats everyones water change routine?

I know its best to find a salt with close to my parameter levels, but I can't find a salt closer to nsw than tmpr.

 

[sirreal63]

The old school way is to make sure the new water matches the parameters of the tank. I usually let my new water mix up overnight and check it before doing the water change, if it needs some adjustment I do it at this point and let it mix a few more hours.

 

[SneekaPeek]

The old school way is to make sure the new water matches the parameters of the tank. I usually let my new water mix up overnight and check it before doing the water change, if it needs some adjustment I do it at this point and let it mix a few more hours.

Has there been any troubles adding alk to new salt water? I have talked to a couple of folks here in san diego and they all say just wait a couple of hours after I do water change to re-adjust parameters, and after a while I should get a feel of how much I dose every time. I just don't know what to do at this point. I hear stories that mixing alk in fresh batch creates precipitation and the new water tends to not take alk.

Right now im dosing 1 1/2 tsp alk seachem reef builder and 10 blue spoons of tropic marin bio-mag to get my levels at where they are 2 hours after water change.


Thanks for the help. Its much appreciated.

 

[sirreal63]

I use baking soda to add alk and have never had an issue, hopefully you are making small adjustments at a time to minimize any precipitation, use the calculator here to help.
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

It is helpful to let freshly mixed water continue to mix for several hours so it stabilizes, overnight has always worked well for me. I haven't had to play much with IO as it mixes fairly close to my tank parameters.

 

[Dapg8gt]

I agree adjust the new water before it goes in your tank. I have had to do it for years with aquavitro with no issues. Now I'm back to reef crystals and all is good no dosing.

 

[SneekaPeek]

I use baking soda to add alk and have never had an issue, hopefully you are making small adjustments at a time to minimize any precipitation, use the calculator here to help.
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

It is helpful to let freshly mixed water continue to mix for several hours so it stabilizes, overnight has always worked well for me. I haven't had to play much with IO as it mixes fairly close to my tank parameters.

Thank you!

 

[SneekaPeek]

I agree adjust the new water before it goes in your tank. I have had to do it for years with aquavitro with no issues. Now I'm back to reef crystals and all is good no dosing.

Thanks for the response