So I’m trying to better understand how these parameters affect each other and why some of my corals get unhappy.
I currently dose ESV 2 part. I thought I had found my sweet spot on the dosing. I have a 100g tank and I was dosing 38mL of each part and things were staying stable (Alk 8.5, Ca 440, Mg 1350). After I figured out the 38mL I was checking Alk and Ca pretty regularly for a while but not the Mg.
A couple weeks ago I discovered that my Mg had gone below 1200. I was under the impression that the ESV included Mg supplementation but I guess I was wrong, or that my tank is using more then the ESV was able to provide. So I started dosing the recommended 150mL/day to increase Mg by 10ppm each day. I wanted to get it up to 1400 and it took over 2 weeks, and almost half the gallon of ESV Mg. I had also started dosing 4mL of tropic Marin trace elements during that time because it was suggested that I was deficient on them based on an ICP test I shared here. During all this new dosing, many of my SPS corals that I never saw showing any PE were starting to come out really nicely. I once again thought I had found my sweet spot! I stopped with the Mg dosing after it got to 1400 and it has been holding steady in the high 1300s. I continued with the trace elements daily but then I started to see my SPS not opening and started to wonder if maybe I was over doing the trace. I noticed my PO4 had gotten back up to .2 which I thought I had taken care of by carbon/bacteria dosing before I started with the Mg/trace dosing. My Alk/Ca/Mg we’re still reading consistent until last week when Alk began to climb from 8.5 to 9.8 over 7 days. The only change I made at that particular time was going from 4mL of each trace daily down to every other day, and resuming my NoPox/microbacter7 doses I had cut in half when my PO4 was in an okay spot.
What I’m really trying to get down to here is why is my Alk rising when I’m adding the same amount of 2 part? Ca and Mg are stable. I’m pretty sure my SPS is closed up because of my PO4 rising again. Could this cause the tank to not use as much Alk? I thought Alk and Ca were consumed in the same ratio in general, so why wouldn’t Ca be also rising? How does raising Mg affect my Alk/Ca consumption? Does making adjustments to the carbon/bacteria dosing to control PO4 have any affect on Alk/Ca/Mg? Everything was stable when I was doing the carbon/bac dosing before.
I currently dose ESV 2 part. I thought I had found my sweet spot on the dosing. I have a 100g tank and I was dosing 38mL of each part and things were staying stable (Alk 8.5, Ca 440, Mg 1350). After I figured out the 38mL I was checking Alk and Ca pretty regularly for a while but not the Mg.
A couple weeks ago I discovered that my Mg had gone below 1200. I was under the impression that the ESV included Mg supplementation but I guess I was wrong, or that my tank is using more then the ESV was able to provide. So I started dosing the recommended 150mL/day to increase Mg by 10ppm each day. I wanted to get it up to 1400 and it took over 2 weeks, and almost half the gallon of ESV Mg. I had also started dosing 4mL of tropic Marin trace elements during that time because it was suggested that I was deficient on them based on an ICP test I shared here. During all this new dosing, many of my SPS corals that I never saw showing any PE were starting to come out really nicely. I once again thought I had found my sweet spot! I stopped with the Mg dosing after it got to 1400 and it has been holding steady in the high 1300s. I continued with the trace elements daily but then I started to see my SPS not opening and started to wonder if maybe I was over doing the trace. I noticed my PO4 had gotten back up to .2 which I thought I had taken care of by carbon/bacteria dosing before I started with the Mg/trace dosing. My Alk/Ca/Mg we’re still reading consistent until last week when Alk began to climb from 8.5 to 9.8 over 7 days. The only change I made at that particular time was going from 4mL of each trace daily down to every other day, and resuming my NoPox/microbacter7 doses I had cut in half when my PO4 was in an okay spot.
What I’m really trying to get down to here is why is my Alk rising when I’m adding the same amount of 2 part? Ca and Mg are stable. I’m pretty sure my SPS is closed up because of my PO4 rising again. Could this cause the tank to not use as much Alk? I thought Alk and Ca were consumed in the same ratio in general, so why wouldn’t Ca be also rising? How does raising Mg affect my Alk/Ca consumption? Does making adjustments to the carbon/bacteria dosing to control PO4 have any affect on Alk/Ca/Mg? Everything was stable when I was doing the carbon/bac dosing before.