Beginner Mistake, Learn From My Story!

[youclowntoomuch]

I've been reefkeeping for just about a year now, with pleaty of mistakes made along the way. I'm a stickler for deatils so most of the mistakes were pretty minor and not tank-crash worthy. In february of this year I made a purchase from a local reefer getting out of the hobby.At the time I thought it was a steal, red sea black 5 gallon bucket of salt mix for only 30 bucks. This would last my nano nearly a year! As time goees on I slowly start to see my coral receding, firstly the hammer , looking deflated , then my zoas looking depressed and colorless. For the life of me I couldnt figure out what was going on, my testing showed that my tank was constantly dropping in magnesium , while all other elements were -meh. Not once did it occur to me to test the salt mix (begginers error) , but upon doing that this past weekend I found that the mix was at only 900 ppm magnesium! Add on top of that , I believed my problem was that I wasnt dosing, so I bought doser and begin to dose AFR, this caused a horrible alk swings , and combined with the already low mag , a disaster was brewing. Now that I have the issues pinned down Im hopeful for a full rebound. Take my advice beginners!If your tank looks sad, test that salt!

 

[Kooma]

Something to keep in mind is test alk when it comes to All For Reef dosing. Adjust dosing slowly over a couple weeks until all is where you want. If mag is low, dose mag manually slowly over a week to bring it in line. Same goes for calcium.

Once you get calcium and mag in like and all is stead with your testing and AFR dosing, the AFR will replenish the consumed mag and calcium. Test alk every few days and adjust dosing very slowly. Test mag and calcium monthly once you have your dosing settled in.

And buy better salt, don’t forget to shake the bucket before you scoop!

 

[Fish Fan]

I've been reefkeeping for just about a year now, with pleaty of mistakes made along the way. I'm a stickler for deatils so most of the mistakes were pretty minor and not tank-crash worthy. In february of this year I made a purchase from a local reefer getting out of the hobby.At the time I thought it was a steal, red sea black 5 gallon bucket of salt mix for only 30 bucks. This would last my nano nearly a year! As time goees on I slowly start to see my coral receding, firstly the hammer , looking deflated , then my zoas looking depressed and colorless. For the life of me I couldnt figure out what was going on, my testing showed that my tank was constantly dropping in magnesium , while all other elements were -meh. Not once did it occur to me to test the salt mix (begginers error) , but upon doing that this past weekend I found that the mix was at only 900 ppm magnesium! Add on top of that , I believed my problem was that I wasnt dosing, so I bought doser and begin to dose AFR, this caused a horrible alk swings , and combined with the already low mag , a disaster was brewing. Now that I have the issues pinned down Im hopeful for a full rebound. Take my advice beginners!If your tank looks sad, test that salt!

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Magnesium is notoriously difficult to accurately test, and for that reason many reefers here at R2R don't test for MAG at all. This post from RHF may help:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/just-say-no-to-magnesium-testing-rmm-is-born.1017528/
You may also find this post helpful:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/article-thoughts-on-nutrient-target-ranges.1095268/
Good luck!