Dosing Questions...

[Angelo Fatica]

Hey all, i tested my water last night and tonight to see the amount i need to dose for calcium, alk, and magnesium. Last night, my alk was at a 7.2, magnesium was around 1425 ppm, and calcium was at about 520 ppm (This was after a water change that I did a day before). Tonight, I saw that my alk was at 7.0, magnesium was at 1360 ppm and my calcium was oddly higher than last night? It wasn't much higher by any means but enough to be confusing as to how... is the alk drop causing the calcium to raise? Any thoughts would be appreciated on that. I have a 20 gallon tank, about 15 gallons of water when subtracting rock displacement. I dose seachem reef fusion A and B and purple up for when I absolutely need it, not often though. Any help on how to dose the tank based on the drops i had in terms of mL? Should I dose just alkalinity until it reaches an even point with the calcium? Any help appreciated. Thanks guys.

 

[kevin_e]

Probably just variation in the results of the testing equipment we use. Look for trends in testing over time. Not specific day to day numbers.


I would not recomend dosing calcium or alk on their own.

Do you have a lot of coral? I'm not sure you nees to be dosing right now. What do you mean you dose Purple Up as needed?

 

[Angelo Fatica]

Probably just variation in the results of the testing equipment we use. Look for trends in testing over time. Not specific day to day numbers.


I would not recomend dosing calcium or alk on their own.

Do you have a lot of coral? I'm not sure you nees to be dosing right now. What do you mean you dose Purple Up as needed?

i have a pretty decent amount of corals, I have recently changed my rock work around so maybe stirring the sand could have raised the parameters too... I will ride it out for a few days and test consistently to try and see the trend of the parameters. I have a couple montipora and a birdsnest frag along with lots of lps/euphellya dont check my spelling haha. I only dose purple up if my calcium was way too low even after water change but I have been getting more consistent with them so i havent used it in a long while.

 

[Angelo Fatica]

Also keep in mind that I did not dose anything since I did my water change wednesday. Alk definitely dropped and I wonder if that was what was causing the calcium to be so high because I remember reading that too low of one can precipitate out so that calcium levels raise, something to that degree. I've been dosing two part for a few months now ever since I added more sps into my tank and the two part has always given me consistent results but I'm just unsure as to what would cause such an imbalance between the two. I'm not worried about magnesium at all.

 

[VA5]

What are you using to test? All test have some inherent variation from the testing reagents to user error.
7.0 to 7.2 definitely seems like it is just routine variation. Not at all an expert here but Ca seems high.
What is your pH.? If alk is on the low side in a smaller system you can have a sudden pH drop.
If pH is lower than 8 I’d consider changing salt mixture to a more stable one (Red Sea reef). Also do you use RO/DI water?
Hope you can figure it out

 

[Angelo Fatica]

What are you using to test? All test have some inherent variation from the testing reagents to user error.
7.0 to 7.2 definitely seems like it is just routine variation. Not at all an expert here but Ca seems high.
What is your pH.? If alk is on the low side in a smaller system you can have a sudden pH drop.
If pH is lower than 8 I’d consider changing salt mixture to a more stable one (Red Sea reef). Also do you use RO/DI water?
Hope you can figure it out

I use salifert for mag and calcium and the hannah checker for alk. I was thinking ph might have been a problem but wasnt sure. I'm not worried about the drop in alk overnight as that's normal for my tank, but the calcium raising kind of raised questions. Also I would have expected my parameters to have been closer to 9 or 10 for alk as that's what my salt(reef Crystal's) usually tests at for others at 1.026. Since the alkalinity is lower than I would have expected, I'm willing to bet the high calcium was not due to the water change I did a day before as the salts always overshoot parameters for coral demand over the time till next change. Seems like ph is the main culprit here I guess as that's the only thing that can explain the issue of such an imbalance. I dont have my ph tester cause I threw away my old kits so I have to pick another one up. I use my lfs mixed saltwater and they do rodi with reef Crystal's.

 

[kevin_e]

Also keep in mind that I did not dose anything since I did my water change wednesday. Alk definitely dropped and I wonder if that was what was causing the calcium to be so high because I remember reading that too low of one can precipitate out so that calcium levels raise, something to that degree. I've been dosing two part for a few months now ever since I added more sps into my tank and the two part has always given me consistent results but I'm just unsure as to what would cause such an imbalance between the two. I'm not worried about magnesium at all.

Dosing 2 part and purple up may be causing the imbalance.

Purple up is calcium

 

[Angelo Fatica]

Dosing 2 part and purple up may be causing the imbalance.

Purple up is calcium

But like I said I dont dose purple up unless I have an issue with calcium being super low. I almost rarely ever use it, i just wanted to list it in case that stuff stays in rock or sand and leeches over time.

 

[kevin_e]

You saod calcium went up after a water change. What salt are you using? And what did it rise from?

 

[IslandLifeReef]

If it were me, I would just do a 1 gallon water change 2-3 times per week. That should keep all of your parameters stable.

 

[Angelo Fatica]

You saod calcium went up after a water change. What salt are you using? And what did it rise from?

I use my lfs water as I dont have rodi water system so they use reef Crystal's. It was around 520 or so Thursday night which made sense cause I think it averages at 550 for freshly mixed water. Last night it was around 540 or so... I'm gonna test again later this afternoon to see if it went down or if I was in error but I tested it twice to make sure and it was steady last night.

 

[Angelo Fatica]

If it were me, I would just do a 1 gallon water change 2-3 times per week. That should keep all of your parameters stable.

I planned on 2 gallon every week to see what the effects would be, do you think I could just try that?

 

[kevin_e]

I use my lfs water as I dont have rodi water system so they use reef Crystal's. It was around 520 or so Thursday night which made sense cause I think it averages at 550 for freshly mixed water. Last night it was around 540 or so... I'm gonna test again later this afternoon to see if it went down or if I was in error but I tested it twice to make sure and it was steady last night.

Those 20 ppm differences are pretty common. Wouldnt read into it too much. Look for long term trends not day to day.

 

[Angelo Fatica]

Those 20 ppm differences are pretty common. Wouldnt read into it too much. Look for long term trends not day to day.

I plan on checking every couple days to see what happens with it so I can declare emergency or false alarm, thanks

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I planned on 2 gallon every week to see what the effects would be, do you think I could just try that?

You could as long as your parameters stay stable. If you think you need to dose, I would try more frequent water changes. On that size tank, you could mix or buy 5 gallons of water a week and spend 5 minutes doing a water change 2-3 times each week. That would ensure stability. If you still need to dose, then yes, I would only change water every 1 to 2 weeks as long as nutrients don't get to high.

 

[Thor2j]

Wrong place

 

[Thor2j]

I use my lfs water as I dont have rodi water system so they use reef Crystal's. It was around 520 or so Thursday night which made sense cause I think it averages at 550 for freshly mixed water. Last night it was around 540 or so... I'm gonna test again later this afternoon to see if it went down or if I was in error but I tested it twice to make sure and it was steady last night.

You have something mixed up with your calcium readings. Reef crystal mixes to 400, mg 1320, and dkh of 11.
Not 530-

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You use Purple Up when you absolutely need it? When is that? I personally can’t think of a time I’d use it. [emoji23]

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I planned on 2 gallon every week to see what the effects would be, do you think I could just try that?

Gauge the need for dosing on alkalinity. If it is not dropping enough to need dosing, calcium and magnesium aren’t either.

 

[Angelo Fatica]

You use Purple Up when you absolutely need it? When is that? I personally can’t think of a time I’d use it. [emoji23]

I wish I never even said I used it[emoji23] I used it about 6 months ago when i had super low parameters and was suckered into using that to bring my calcium up when i could have started 2 part. I use 2 part strictly now but i wanted to be as transparent as possible with what I've put into the tank so far. I basically just dont use purple up anymore