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?
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?