2-Part Questions from a Newb

[thewalkingdad]

First time reefer. I have the first few test coral in my new 175. They are mostly softies/zoas, but I do have a few (~5) LPS/SPS that I got for free that are also in the tank. I've watched every BRS video on 2-part (twice), but I'm dosing 2-part for the first time and still learning. There is likely a lot I am missing at this point and I have a few questions.

I have a Trident and calibrated it last week. The calibration reading was spot on with the calibration fluid. I'm using a DOS/Trident to control the dosing of my Alk and Ca and a BRS 1.1ml/min doser for Mg.

My Alk is consistently low 6-7 dKH, which is in-line with my salt (TM Pro) and my Ca and Mg levels are usually pretty high.

My Ca is constantly hovering around 500+ which has increased from about 450. I don't know why. My salt should keep it at 440-ish, but it is rising without me dosing it. I've heard that sometimes Ca can leach from new sand or rocks, but who knows. Ideally, I want my Ca to stay around 440-450.

I'm using BRS 2-part for dosing my 2-part.

My tank seems to consume 1 dKH per day. I've been dosing soda ash to slowly bring it up to about 9 dKH. Put another way, I'm dosing Alk, but not Ca. I've heard this isn't good. But I don't want to dose Ca since it is already higher than I want. I haven't noticed any type of precipitation (maybe a benefit of having higher Mg?).

I seem to be consuming a good chunk of Mg too, but I don't know why. I'm trying to stay at 1350, but need to dose about over 100ml per day to do that. That seems like WAY too much Mg based on what I've read. Either way, my numbers range about 1330-1350.

My pH stays around 8.2 by a combination of dosing Alk, running chaeto in my fuge, and having a recirculating Co2 scrubber on my skimmer. Ideally, I'd like a pH of 8.3, but am not going to go to extreme measure to get there since I'm already at 8.2.

I don't know if my nitrates, phosphates, temp, ORP, and salinity matter for my 2-part questions, but here are the numbers in case people are curious:
2ppm nitrates (I know, too low. I'd like to raise them)
.12 phosphates (I know, too high. I'd like to lower them. I could use my GFO, but I don't want phosphates to bottom out for fear of a dinos outbreak)
Temp ranges from 77-79
ORP is about 350
Salinity is 1.026 SG

So here are my questions:

1. Am I completely screwing up my tank by only dosing Alk and Mg?
2. Do my numbers (either tested values or dosing numbers) seem way off?
3. Should I stop dosing altogether until my coral are consuming Ca?
4. Any clues as to why my Ca would be higher (and slowly rising) when I'm not dosing Ca and do about 1.5% water changes daily?
5. What else am I missing here?

 

[Deep dive coral]

Hello and welcome to the addiction I mean hobby. If you have a DOS and a trident you can set the trident and DOS to decided how much part to dose. Magnesium you shouldn't have to dose everyday with what you have in your tank unless you didn't list everything.

 

[Macbalacano]

Just saw your build thread, but can you post a recent tank shot? Just want to able to size up the current LPS/SPS corals and to see if you've got lots of coraline growing - trying to understand if the Alk consumption is normal.

I personally wouldn't worry too much about the Calcium levels at their current level. i'd leave it as is. Not sure about it rising, I have not experienced this before.

I recently was messaging Randy and he told me that it's totally fine to be dosing Alk / Ca at totally different levels.

Mag consumption is odd.

What are you using to test each parameter? It could also be a possible testing error.

Agreed. Nitrates are low, i'd work to bring those up.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the phosphate level. You could lower it, but just a touch. I'd be more concerned about the ratio between nitrates and phosphates in the tank. And both of these levels also depend on the types of corals you keep.

 

[Rp8]

How is everything reacting to your current levels? Is all is good with the inhabitants, I wouldn't worry to much. Chasing levels usually leads to problems

 

[thewalkingdad]

Just saw your build thread, but can you post a recent tank shot? Just want to able to size up the current LPS/SPS corals and to see if you've got lots of coraline growing - trying to understand if the Alk consumption is normal.

I personally wouldn't worry too much about the Calcium levels at their current level. i'd leave it as is. Not sure about it rising, I have not experienced this before.

I recently was messaging Randy and he told me that it's totally fine to be dosing Alk / Ca at totally different levels.

Mag consumption is odd.

What are you using to test each parameter? It could also be a possible testing error.

Agreed. Nitrates are low, i'd work to bring those up.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the phosphate level. You could lower it, but just a touch. I'd be more concerned about the ratio between nitrates and phosphates in the tank. And both of these levels also depend on the types of corals you keep.

Picture below. I don't have any coraline algae that I've been able to spot, but some GHA

I'm using my calibrated Trident for all testing right now. Like I said, it was spot on with the calibration fluid. I thought that maybe there was a chance microbubbles could be messing with the test results, but I don't know how to confirm that.

Is there a way to bring up nitrates without also bringing phosphates drastically up?

 

[thewalkingdad]

How is everything reacting to your current levels? Is all is good with the inhabitants, I wouldn't worry to much. Chasing levels usually leads to problems

At this point, everything seems pretty happy. Even the LPS/SPS are doing well. Nice fluffy tissue and good polyp extension where you'd expect to see it. The softies are fine, but those are nearly indestructible. I do have some GHA that popped up after I came out of the ugly brown stage, but that is more likely due to my nutrients and not my major elements.

 

[Macbalacano]

That is a very nice new looking tank, like your scape and am exciting to see this grow!

I personally think your tank consuming that much alk/mag is odd based on the stage your tank is in and your corals, but that's just me.

Any chance you can use something else to test? Maybe have you LFS test the water too to double check the readings.

 

[thewalkingdad]

That is a very nice new looking tank, like your scape and am exciting to see this grow!

I personally think your tank consuming that much alk/mag is odd based on the stage your tank is in and your corals, but that's just me.

Any chance you can use something else to test? Maybe have you LFS test the water too to double check the readings.

Thanks. It has been a labor of love, lol.

I have the RedSea test kit I can use. I'm concerned my human error will screw with the results, but I'll compare results with my Trident.

 

[Macbalacano]

Thanks. It has been a labor of love, lol.

I have the RedSea test kit I can use. I'm concerned my human error will screw with the results, but I'll compare results with my Trident.

Yes, let us know what the RedSea kit reads. You can do it, its pretty simple

Especially if you can do this build - i just looked through your build thread and you seem pretty handy! haha

But seriously, awesome job so far!

 

[thewalkingdad]

Yes, let us know what the RedSea kit reads. You can do it, its pretty simple

Especially if you can do this build - i just looked through your build thread and you seem pretty handy! haha

But seriously, awesome job so far!

Thanks. It's a monster build and sometimes I kick myself for taking on such a large project when I have no experience in any of this than some limited experience in FW tanks.

 

[vetteguy53081]

You have few corals (frags) and I would not does and let the elements in the salt do the supplementing especially if your doing routine water changes.

 

[Rmckoy]

For how new the rank looks .
I would lean more towards testing error .

but nothing is impossible

 

[thewalkingdad]

Yes, let us know what the RedSea kit reads. You can do it, its pretty simple

Especially if you can do this build - i just looked through your build thread and you seem pretty handy! haha

But seriously, awesome job so far!

Manually testing confirmed that Ca was at least 500 (the Aquaforest test I have maxes out at 500).

And the RedSea test showed Alk in the range of 9.5-10.5

The Trident test at noon had Alk at 9.02 and Ca at 555.

The most concerning thing is how my Ca numbers keep rising despite not dosing anything

 

[Macbalacano]

Manually testing confirmed that Ca was at least 500 (the Aquaforest test I have maxes out at 500).

And the RedSea test showed Alk in the range of 9.5-10.5

The Trident test at noon had Alk at 9.02 and Ca at 555.

The most concerning thing is how my Ca numbers keep rising despite not dosing anything

How was the mag?

 

[thewalkingdad]

How was the mag?

I don't have a manual Mg test

I thought I did, but I don't.

 

[Macbalacano]

Ah still a bit strange in terms of alk/mag consumption and increasing calcium. Any ideas #reefsquad ?

 

[John08007]

Something I think you may have missed. I believe before you start to dose 2 part you are suppose to get your parameters corrected. Then your daily dosing keeps it stable. From reading your post I don't think you ever had your alk corrected.

FYI, I don't have a trident but I've heard horror stories of people using them to control dosing and crashing their tanks. I believe it's possible when you're low on reagents that your testing can be thrown off, this would cause the wrong amount of alk to be added to your tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Manually testing confirmed that Ca was at least 500 (the Aquaforest test I have maxes out at 500).

And the RedSea test showed Alk in the range of 9.5-10.5

The Trident test at noon had Alk at 9.02 and Ca at 555.

The most concerning thing is how my Ca numbers keep rising despite not dosing anything

Add another syringe of fluid from any calcium kit and add the value to the first syringe worth to read any calcium value. If 555 ppm is correct, it is not hurting anything. I'd jsut keep an eye on it and not dose any.

At 1 dKH per day of alk consumption, the balanced amount of calcium consumption is only 7 ppm per day, and magneisum will be an undetectable less than 1 ppm per day.

Just dose alk to maintain it. Stop dosing magnesium and just monitor it for a couple of weeks.

 

[reses12]

I’d agree with stopping dosing until your parameters are stable. High calcium will precipitate out if maintained at high levels, which is only an issue for your equipment in the long run. Keep up with regular small water changes and you’ll see your parameters level out to your aquarium’s “normal.”
Just my two cents.

 

[thewalkingdad]

Add another syringe of fluid from any calcium kit and add the value to the first syringe worth to read any calcium value. If 555 ppm is correct, it is not hurting anything. I'd jsut keep an eye on it and not dose any.

At 1 dKH per day of alk consumption, the balanced amount of calcium consumption is only 7 ppm per day, and magneisum will be an undetectable less than 1 ppm per day.

Just dose alk to maintain it. Stop dosing magnesium and just monitor it for a couple of weeks.

Thanks, Randy. I appreciate the insight. I will do as you suggest. I like the idea of continuing to dose the alk to keep alk and pH up.