Need help on what to dose for calcium

Idech

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My tank is a 10 months old mixed tank. I used to dose All for reef daily but the alkalinity was too high (9.5 or so) and magnesium was not stable, instead it was decreasing. I was using Brigthwell magnesium powder to raise mag but ran out. I took a lot of it to maintain magnesium and it was a pain.

So now I’ve been dosing EVB- Ionic liquid magnesium for the past few days and it has raised magnesium with a small daily amount. It needs to be fine tuned and I’m working on it. I like it so far; I bought a 1 gallon bottle.

But now without AFR calcium is decreasing. I thought about using AFR but I’m afraid it’s going to raise alkalinity like it did before.

Here are my parameters (after a 3 day blackout but not so different than what they were) :

Alk : 9.0 (was 8.7 before blackout)
CA : 400 (was 425 before blackout and is steadily decreasing)
Mag : 1340 (was 1280 before starting using ESV-Ionic a few days ago)
Nitrates : 13.7
Phos : impossible to know, I’m dosing sodium silicate so Hanna not working and Salifert impossible to read
Salinity : 1.026

I would like to dose 1 more thing only, for calcium.

So my question :

can I just buy ESV-B calcium buffer (component no 2) ? I wouldn’t get the no 1 since alkalinity is already a little too high for my taste.

Or should I just give AFR another try since I have lots of it left ?

Thanks !
 

Tamberav

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I don't use AFR but I thought the point of it was so you could just dose one thing?

:thinking-face:
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I don't use AFR but I thought the point of it was so you could just dose one thing?

:thinking-face:

That is the point, but if you have other additions or sinks for alk, an all in one won’t get calcium right.
 

Reefer Matt

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I use this ln my sps tank. The cal and mag are in one bottle, alk in the other.
 

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Randy Holmes-Farley

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I use this ln my sps tank. The cal and mag are in one bottle, alk in the other.

That's likely a fine choice, but don't believe Seachem's assertion that 1:1 dosing is proper since they misdesigned it for that purpose.
 

Reefer Matt

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That's likely a fine choice, but don't believe Seachem's assertion that 1:1 dosing is proper since they misdesigned it for that purpose.
Correct. Mine was not a 1:1 ratio for a while. Alk was always more (10ml or so) for a year or so, but is now 1ml difference. 47ml cal/mg, and 48ml alk, daily.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Thank you. If I go this way, do I have to buy amino acids or anything else separately if I’m not doing regular water changes ?

Mist people do not dose amino acids. Why are you asking about it?
 
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Idech

Idech

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Mist people do not dose amino acids. Why are you asking about it?
I’m a new reefer and probably not using the right terms.

I want to know what other component I need to add to the water to replace whatever evaporates and/or is being used up and that we can’t test for, since I’m not doing regular water changes.

I thought those were amino acids but I must be wrong.
 

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