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- Jan 31, 2016
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I have a Red Sea 425XL that is mostly soft coral and LPS. I have 5 SPS frags (2 acros, 1 milli, and 2 mantis). I'm trying to figure out how to get my levels in order and correct the SPS frag issues. The red monti cap is fine. Deep red and growing. The rainbow monti has gone from light blue with green polyps to a mostly solid light blue. I believe one of the acro frags is gone but I've had some SPS come back from nearly complete white to fully colored again. The other two - one has a slight brown, fuzz algae on the tip and the other (the christmas millepora) has faded and one side has the brown fuzz algae. I've read that brown algae on SPS can be a sign of excess nutrients and overfeeding. I usually feed the tank 1-2 times per day with frozen and usually feed what I'd consider decently heavy. I also dose 20 mL of Red Sea AB+ per day based on Red Sea's "Reef Care Recipe" suggestions.
The Reef Care recipe suggests the following levels:
Salinity 34 ppt/1.024 sg
Calcium 450 ppm (recommends dosing 15.3 ml/day. I've set the doser to 5 ml/day as I've usually tested high)
Magnesium 1350 ppm (recommends dosing 5.1 ml/day. I've set the doser to 1 ml/day and to follow the one-third Calcium dosing)
Alkalinity 11.5 dkh (recommends dosing 45.8 ml/day. I've set the doser to 15 ml/day. same as above, staying with one-third)
Nitrate 2 ppm
Phosphate 0.1 ppm
NoPox - 5 ml/day (that's what been being dosed)
My last two water tests: 8/31/20 9/23/20
Salinity 34/1.024 34/1.024
Temp 77 78
Calcium 600 ppm 585 ppm
Magnesium 1395 ppm 1425 ppm
Alkalinity 8.6 dkh 12.5 dkh
Nitrate 2 ppm 2 ppm
Phosphate .034 .273
Ammonia 0 ppm 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm 0 ppm
PH: 7.8 7.8
Mag and Alk are slightly over Red Sea's recommendation. Calcium is way over. I thought raising Alk would cause Calcium to drop based on some materials I read but 600 to 585 isn't that big of a change. Phosphate is the other issue I can never seem to get in line. I've just started dosing Brightwell Aquatics Phosphate-E (5 ml once per week). The display doesn't have algae. I have a clump of gracillaria in the sump. I run two 12 oz bags of Chemi-Pure Elite and one 100-ml bag of purigen in the return pump chamber (just tossed around the pump itself). I did let the purigen go an extra 7-10 days from when it should've been replaced, for what it's worth.
The Reef Care recipe suggests the following levels:
Salinity 34 ppt/1.024 sg
Calcium 450 ppm (recommends dosing 15.3 ml/day. I've set the doser to 5 ml/day as I've usually tested high)
Magnesium 1350 ppm (recommends dosing 5.1 ml/day. I've set the doser to 1 ml/day and to follow the one-third Calcium dosing)
Alkalinity 11.5 dkh (recommends dosing 45.8 ml/day. I've set the doser to 15 ml/day. same as above, staying with one-third)
Nitrate 2 ppm
Phosphate 0.1 ppm
NoPox - 5 ml/day (that's what been being dosed)
My last two water tests: 8/31/20 9/23/20
Salinity 34/1.024 34/1.024
Temp 77 78
Calcium 600 ppm 585 ppm
Magnesium 1395 ppm 1425 ppm
Alkalinity 8.6 dkh 12.5 dkh
Nitrate 2 ppm 2 ppm
Phosphate .034 .273
Ammonia 0 ppm 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm 0 ppm
PH: 7.8 7.8
Mag and Alk are slightly over Red Sea's recommendation. Calcium is way over. I thought raising Alk would cause Calcium to drop based on some materials I read but 600 to 585 isn't that big of a change. Phosphate is the other issue I can never seem to get in line. I've just started dosing Brightwell Aquatics Phosphate-E (5 ml once per week). The display doesn't have algae. I have a clump of gracillaria in the sump. I run two 12 oz bags of Chemi-Pure Elite and one 100-ml bag of purigen in the return pump chamber (just tossed around the pump itself). I did let the purigen go an extra 7-10 days from when it should've been replaced, for what it's worth.