Some might know that I have a really hard time keeping any SPS corals alive in my reef tank. ZOAs, Acans and other corals like chalices and bubble corals are not an issue. However, the monti caps and acro are my nemesis.
So I recently tested my tank and found that my calcium is 390 and alk was 7.0 which is not in the ranges I would like or have had some success with keeping a monti cap from regressing. So this past weekend I did a 5 gallon water change and another 5 gallons will be going into the tank today.
Recently since a LFS store, which i go to often, doesn't carry H2Ocean anymore sold me Salinity AquaVitro. The packaging says they guarantee a min deg/l of 3.2 and a max of 3.8 meg/L, however, when checking the water with my test I find a 2.7 meg/L.
I am currently dosing the BRS two part which is the recipe that Randy gave them. I dose Calcium 3 times a day and ALK twice a day and it appears the dosing is not able to keep up with the supply and demand?
I know I have a nutrient issue and am addressing that slowly not to "shock" anything by taking it all out at the same time. I don't know what the nitrate or po4 levels are because the readings are "undetectable", but since there is algae in the tank there is an apparent abundance of nutrients in my opinion.
So my issues are two fold:
1. Dosing is not keeping up. Should I increase the timings of the dosing? For Calc it is 4 / 4/ 5 (min) and ALK its 3 minutes twice a day
2. How to increase the ALK of the 5 gallon water change bucket from 2.7 meg/L
i am thinking I want the water change water to be a 8 dkh that way when I change weekly it will adjust the over all ALK of the tank. So once I reach 8 dkh I will then be more constant and not have to change my dosing timings. Does that make sense?
"Z"
So I recently tested my tank and found that my calcium is 390 and alk was 7.0 which is not in the ranges I would like or have had some success with keeping a monti cap from regressing. So this past weekend I did a 5 gallon water change and another 5 gallons will be going into the tank today.
Recently since a LFS store, which i go to often, doesn't carry H2Ocean anymore sold me Salinity AquaVitro. The packaging says they guarantee a min deg/l of 3.2 and a max of 3.8 meg/L, however, when checking the water with my test I find a 2.7 meg/L.
I am currently dosing the BRS two part which is the recipe that Randy gave them. I dose Calcium 3 times a day and ALK twice a day and it appears the dosing is not able to keep up with the supply and demand?
I know I have a nutrient issue and am addressing that slowly not to "shock" anything by taking it all out at the same time. I don't know what the nitrate or po4 levels are because the readings are "undetectable", but since there is algae in the tank there is an apparent abundance of nutrients in my opinion.
So my issues are two fold:
1. Dosing is not keeping up. Should I increase the timings of the dosing? For Calc it is 4 / 4/ 5 (min) and ALK its 3 minutes twice a day
2. How to increase the ALK of the 5 gallon water change bucket from 2.7 meg/L
i am thinking I want the water change water to be a 8 dkh that way when I change weekly it will adjust the over all ALK of the tank. So once I reach 8 dkh I will then be more constant and not have to change my dosing timings. Does that make sense?
"Z"