Few questions…

[christa1421]

1. When is the magnesium level worrisome? It’s continuously been high and it’s creeping up to that 1500 level. Should I try to lower it? And if so, what is the best way to do that?
2. I think my frammer coral is done for. I’ve had it for about 3 weeks. Started off good but I mistakenly placed it too close to a torch, so I moved it. And it was not happy about that move. It’s been losing polyps daily for the last 2 weeks. Not sure if there is a way to save it or if I should remove. Do dying corals affect the quality of water or affect anything? I’ve included pics of my current parameters and frammer.
3. I feed the coral 2x a week (alternate between Red Sea AB+ reef energy with Ocean Magik live phytoplankton one day and then Reef roids with Kent’s Marine coral vite 3 days later). However, instructions for both Red Sea AB + reef energy and Ocean magik both say to feed daily. I guess my question is, those who use Red Sea AB+ and/phytoplankton…are you target feeding daily? I don’t want to over feed but want to ensure I’m giving them enough.
Sorry, I know that was a lot. I’m still new and learning and you all have a wealth of knowledge and have been so helpful. Thanks for any advice!!

 

[DanyL]

1. Are you dosing anything? Magnesium is consumed quite slowly and often being dosed once in-a-while, only when needed. Methods like AFR usually have issues keeping one parameter or the other in check, which is why you need to dose it up to the highest parameter from all 3 - let's say mag is your limiting parameter, so you would need to stop dosing AFR, and separately increasing the others (which, yeah.. makes the whole idea behind AFR kind of redundant).
I wouldn't worry too much about Magnesium at this level though, as long as its been going up slowly and you don't dose anything to make it go up any further.
2. There is a reason why they separated Torch and other previously classified Euphilias as separate specious, as you unfortunately noticed, they will string each other.
The pictures aren't good enough to be able to diagnose the state of the coral as only the dead head is visible, if the other one is in good shape I would cut it down and throw out the rest, to make sure no bacterial infection would spread to the other head as well.
3. It highly depends on your very own system. I for one dose a good amount of AB+ and Acropower daily, but I also have hundreds of grown up corals to take it in as well as quite aggressive nutrient export.
Generally, you don't target feed a coral in bad shape, and you need to closely monitor your nutrients and base your feedings accordingly.

 

[christa1421]

1. Are you dosing anything? Magnesium is consumed quite slowly and often being dosed once in-a-while, only when needed. Methods like AFR usually have issues keeping one parameter or the other in check, which is why you need to dose it up to the highest parameter from all 3 - let's say mag is your limiting parameter, so you would need to stop dosing AFR, and separately increasing the others (which, yeah.. makes the whole idea behind AFR kind of redundant).
I wouldn't worry too much about Magnesium at this level though, as long as its been going up slowly and you don't dose anything to make it go up any further.
2. There is a reason why they separated Torch and other previously classified Euphilias as separate specious, as you unfortunately noticed, they will string each other.
The pictures aren't good enough to be able to diagnose the state of the coral as only the dead head is visible, if the other one is in good shape I would cut it down and throw out the rest, to make sure no bacterial infection would spread to the other head as well.
3. It highly depends on your very own system. I for one dose a good amount of AB+ and Acropower daily, but I also have hundreds of grown up corals to take it in as well as quite aggressive nutrient export.
Generally, you don't target feed a coral in bad shape, and you need to closely monitor your nutrients and base your feedings accordingly.

1. The only thing I have had to dose so far is for alkalinity. Usually about every 5 or 6 days it drops from 9.5 to 8.5 so I add the Red Sea foundation kit (just the alkalinity).
2. I only have one frammer coral. Those pictures were showing the progression of how it has been losing its polyps over the last few weeks.
3. I should’ve clarified; my feeding coral schedule question pertains to all my other coral (mostly softies and LPS) not the frammer necessarily. I just wasn’t sure if I needed to follow the directions on the bottle and feed daily or follow what the general consensus seems to be, of only feeding 2x a day.

 

[DanyL]

1. Your graphs were a bit misleading as they show a quite steady parameter readings.
Alkalinity is one of the most delicate parameters we need to keep track of, and you wouldn't want it to fluctuate this much. Try to keep it as stable as possible for as long as possible. Splitting your dosing to a daily dose would be the right thing to do.
2. I see, sometimes they do bounce back, but unfortunately, chances are it'll not survive.
3. Like I said earlier, there really isn't any consensus in terms of how many times you feed your fish or coral, it mostly depends on the way you run the system. For example I only feed my fish once a day, but I do so heavily because I'm able to export my nutrients quickly enough for them to not creep up.
My best advice here is to follow your parameters and make sure the system can handle it, you don't necessarily need to chase a certien number, but keeping them stable when everything looks good and healthy is the correct way to go.

Also, I didn't ask it earlier but how often do you change your water and what percentage to tank volume?

 

[christa1421]

1. Your graphs were a bit misleading as they show a quite steady parameter readings.
Alkalinity is one of the most delicate parameters we need to keep track of, and you wouldn't want it to fluctuate this much. Try to keep it as stable as possible for as long as possible. Splitting your dosing to a daily dose would be the right thing to do.
2. I see, sometimes they do bounce back, but unfortunately, chances are it'll not survive.
3. Like I said earlier, there really isn't any consensus in terms of how many times you feed your fish or coral, it mostly depends on the way you run the system. For example I only feed my fish once a day, but I do so heavily because I'm able to export my nutrients quickly enough for them to not creep up.
My best advice here is to follow your parameters and make sure the system can handle it, you don't necessarily need to chase a certien number, but keeping them stable when everything looks good and healthy is the correct way to go.

Also, I didn't ask it earlier but how often do you change your water and what percentage to tank volume?

Thank you so much for the info! I’ll start checking the alkalinity daily then to ensure it stays at the 9.5 dkh. I didn’t realize 8.5 to 9.5 was too big of a jump. So maybe instead of dosing only once I week, I might need to do a little bit every other day, depending on the alkalinity level. This is my first saltwater tank and I’m trying to learn a much as I can. It’s a 40g breeder with a 20g long sump with an ATO, protein skimmer, and refugium. I am almost to the 6 month mark and am sending in my first ICP test in a few weeks. I change 15g every 2 weeks. Once I get the ICP tests, I’m considering getting into reef moonshiners. Still researching that, but so far it seems to have great reviews and results.

 

[DanyL]

We were all new to the hobby once

Generally the most 3 important parameters you want to keep stable are Alk, Ca and Mg, with Alk being the most delicate out of the 3.

Your tank looks good and as long as you keep up your parameters stable it'll bounce back and you'll notice the impact with higher consumption of the 3, which you'll need to replenish.

My recommendation is to stay away from complicated methods like reef moonshiners or Zeovit for now, it's not that they won't work, they will and they do very well. However it is easier to mess up with them, they require a bit more experience and the benefit of using them can only be appreciated by those who went through it all.
My suggestion for you is to start with a simple 4 or 2 part trace elements combined with the one of the commercial Balling methods (2-part/3-part), you more likely to easily understand what's going on with them and succeed.

Good Luck!

 

[christa1421]

Thanks so much for helping and explaining. I really appreciate it!

 

[vetteguy53081]

1. When is the magnesium level worrisome? It’s continuously been high and it’s creeping up to that 1500 level. Should I try to lower it? And if so, what is the best way to do that?
2. I think my frammer coral is done for. I’ve had it for about 3 weeks. Started off good but I mistakenly placed it too close to a torch, so I moved it. And it was not happy about that move. It’s been losing polyps daily for the last 2 weeks. Not sure if there is a way to save it or if I should remove. Do dying corals affect the quality of water or affect anything? I’ve included pics of my current parameters and frammer.
3. I feed the coral 2x a week (alternate between Red Sea AB+ reef energy with Ocean Magik live phytoplankton one day and then Reef roids with Kent’s Marine coral vite 3 days later). However, instructions for both Red Sea AB + reef energy and Ocean magik both say to feed daily. I guess my question is, those who use Red Sea AB+ and/phytoplankton…are you target feeding daily? I don’t want to over feed but want to ensure I’m giving them enough.
Sorry, I know that was a lot. I’m still new and learning and you all have a wealth of knowledge and have been so helpful. Thanks for any advice!!

1. When is the magnesium level worrisome? It’s continuously been high and it’s creeping up to that 1500 level. Should I try to lower it? And if so, what is the best way to do that? Up to 1500 acceptable. Is your salt brand high in Mag ?
2. I think my frammer coral is done for. I’ve had it for about 3 weeks. Started off good but I mistakenly placed it too close to a torch, so I moved it. And it was not happy about that move. It’s been losing polyps daily for the last 2 weeks. Not sure if there is a way to save it or if I should remove. Do dying corals affect the quality of water or affect anything? I’ve included pics of my current parameters and frammer. Stress and if polys bailing out- Too much water flow but can also be light or both
3. I feed the coral 2x a week (alternate between Red Sea AB+ reef energy with Ocean Magik live phytoplankton one day and then Reef roids with Kent’s Marine coral vite 3 days later). However, instructions for both Red Sea AB + reef energy and Ocean magik both say to feed daily. I guess my question is, those who use Red Sea AB+ and/phytoplankton…are you target feeding daily? I don’t want to over feed but want to ensure I’m giving them enough. Im not a fan of AB+ but 2-3X a week is more than sufficient

 

[vetteguy53081]

1. The only thing I have had to dose so far is for alkalinity. Usually about every 5 or 6 days it drops from 9.5 to 8.5 so I add the Red Sea foundation kit (just the alkalinity).
2. I only have one frammer coral. Those pictures were showing the progression of how it has been losing its polyps over the last few weeks.
3. I should’ve clarified; my feeding coral schedule question pertains to all my other coral (mostly softies and LPS) not the frammer necessarily. I just wasn’t sure if I needed to follow the directions on the bottle and feed daily or follow what the general consensus seems to be, of only feeding 2x a day.

Alk is fine- Important to keep it stable as it works with CA and ph and when you chase alk . you alter the other two

 

[christa1421]

1. When is the magnesium level worrisome? It’s continuously been high and it’s creeping up to that 1500 level. Should I try to lower it? And if so, what is the best way to do that? Up to 1500 acceptable. Is your salt brand high in Mag ?
2. I think my frammer coral is done for. I’ve had it for about 3 weeks. Started off good but I mistakenly placed it too close to a torch, so I moved it. And it was not happy about that move. It’s been losing polyps daily for the last 2 weeks. Not sure if there is a way to save it or if I should remove. Do dying corals affect the quality of water or affect anything? I’ve included pics of my current parameters and frammer. Stress and if polys bailing out- Too much water flow but can also be light or both
3. I feed the coral 2x a week (alternate between Red Sea AB+ reef energy with Ocean Magik live phytoplankton one day and then Reef roids with Kent’s Marine coral vite 3 days later). However, instructions for both Red Sea AB + reef energy and Ocean magik both say to feed daily. I guess my question is, those who use Red Sea AB+ and/phytoplankton…are you target feeding daily? I don’t want to over feed but want to ensure I’m giving them enough. Im not a fan of AB+ but 2-3X a week is more than sufficient

I use instant ocean reef crystals so there is some added calcium and magnesium in it. So is it fair to say if my mag gets above 1500 then I would need to change the salt to something like just the regular instant ocean (that doesn’t have the added calcium and mag)? Could it be high from the coral food? Kent marine coral-vite has calcium and magnesium in it…maybe I should stop giving that (they only get that once a week, for about 2 months now…but my calcium and magnesium have always mostly been on the higher side. Plus they get reef roids once a week. They really seemed to start elevating after I started with the corals. I’ve attached the trends for those 3 (alk, ca+, and mag so you can see the trends)