New Reef Tank odd parameters

[Mrcote1]

Hey everyone,

I Started up a new tank in October and this is my third go at it. I swore I wouldn't chase parameters but my levels seem concerning.

Nitrate: 0ppm
Phosphate: 0.01
Alkalinity: 5.9 dkh
Magnesium: 1500
Calcium: 550

I have coral in the tank but nothing crazy. Its a 160 gallon system and I do a 5 gallon water change every week using reef crystals. Why is my calcium and magnesium so high and my alkalinity so low? Corals seem happy for the most part (torches have decent extension, acans arent very puffy though)

 

[rishma]

Hey everyone,

I Started up a new tank in October and this is my third go at it. I swore I wouldn't chase parameters but my levels seem concerning.

Nitrate: 0ppm
Phosphate: 0.01
Alkalinity: 5.9 dkh
Magnesium: 1500
Calcium: 550

I have coral in the tank but nothing crazy. It’s a 160 gallon system and I do a 5 gallon water change every week using reef crystals. Why is my calcium and magnesium so high and my alkalinity so low? Corals seem happy for the most part (torches have decent extension, acans arent very puffy though)

Nothing to panic about, IMO.

Are you dosing anything?

Reef crystals is ok salt, I’m currently using it because I got some for free, but it’s not the best salt in my opinion. It’s probably fine.

I would ignore the magnesium test entirely. Search RMM for future reference.

I find calcium tests frequently inaccurate. Not as bad as magnesium, but I find them often misleading. It’s ok though because corals seem to tolerate a wide range. I’ve had 600 ppm (per ICP test) and corals looked great. Your salt may be high in calcium, or test might be inaccurate. I would not worry about it for now.

Alkalinity tests are usually reliable. After double checking it I would suggest using baking soda to bring it up. 7-11 dKH is a good range. I target 8-9.

0.01 phosphate is low in my opinion. I target 0.1 ppm. New tanks are often low due to phosphate binding to fresh calcium carbonate surfaces. I’d buy some food grade trisodium phosphate and dose to bring it up. Many of us have found that zero or near zero phosphate precedes breakouts of dinoflagellates. That’s an experience you don’t want.

 

[Mrcote1]

Nothing to panic about, IMO.

Are you dosing anything?

Reef crystals is ok salt, I’m currently using it because I got some for free, but it’s not the best salt in my opinion. It’s probably fine.

I would ignore the magnesium test entirely. Search RMM for future future reference.

I find calcium tests frequently inaccurate. Not as bad as magnesium, but I find them often misleading. It’s ok though because corals seem to tolerate a wide range. I’ve had 600 ppm (per ICP test) and corals looked great. Your salt may be high in calcium, or test might be inaccurate. I would not worry about it for now.

Alkalinity tests are usually reliable. After double checking it I would suggest using baking soda to bring it up. 7-11 dKH is a good range. I target 8-9.

0.01 phosphate is low in my opinion. I target 0.1 ppm. New tanks are often low due to phosphate binding to fresh calcium carbonate surfaces. I’d buy some food grade trisodium phosphate and dose to bring it up. Many of us have found that zero or near zero phosphate precedes breakouts of dinoflagellates. That’s an experience you don’t want.

If I were to dose for alkalinity as opposed to using baking soda, any recommendations? And i run an oversized UV so hopefully I wont get dinos. I have battled them in the past though. I feed a lot so not sure why my nutrients are so low

And yea I will probably get a different salt mix once my bucket of reef crystals is gone. Im also using Hanna to test dkh, nitrate and pohsphate, and salifert kits for everything else

 

[rishma]

If I were to dose for alkalinity as opposed to using baking soda, any recommendations? And i run an oversized UV so hopefully I wont get dinos. I have battled them in the past though. I feed a lot so not sure why my nutrients are so low

And yea I will probably get a different salt mix once my bucket of reef crystals is gone. Im also using Hanna to test dkh, nitrate and pohsphate, and salifert kits for everything else

Do you have an alkalinity supplement already? If so, go ahead and use it.

If you don’t have one, then I’d use one of Randy’s DIY recipes. The simplest is just baking soda. Many of the commercial products are based on these recipes. You can buy components from BRS if you don’t want to use food grade baking soda.

Here are couple of threads, there any many.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/randy-recommended-diy-two-part-recipes.984604/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-diy-two-part-recipes-with-higher-ph-boost.344500/

 

[rishma]

regarding nutrients, it’s common for them to be low in new tanks.

I trust Hanna for dKH and phosphate.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

As to baking soda, it’s not like it’s a poor alternative to only pick due to low cost. It’s a perfect additive for well alone. It does have a small pH drop when using it, but you can bake it to avoid that if you want.

Nutrients are low, I’d feed more or dose N and P.

 

[Mrcote1]

As to baking soda, it’s not like it’s a poor alternative to only pick due to low cost. It’s a perfect additive for well alone. It does have a small pH drop when using it, but you can bake it to avoid that if you want.

Nutrients are low, I’d feed more or dose N and P.

Just ordered some PH calibration solution so I can use this method to raise alkalinity while monitoring PH!

As for nutrients. Im battling some unknown type of algae/fungus. Its like a thicker shorter green hair algae except its clearish brown and its not chrysophates. Its growing like crazy on every inch of rock so im thinking thats sucking up all my nitrate and phosphates. I just doubled my cleanup crew and added an urchin and will double my feeding to try and fix that. I dose AB+ everyday so the corals have something to eat

 

[Ryan Souza]

Can we get some pictures? By any chance was this new tank started with dry rock?

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Hey everyone,

I Started up a new tank in October and this is my third go at it. I swore I wouldn't chase parameters but my levels seem concerning.

Nitrate: 0ppm
Phosphate: 0.01
Alkalinity: 5.9 dkh
Magnesium: 1500
Calcium: 550

I have coral in the tank but nothing crazy. Its a 160 gallon system and I do a 5 gallon water change every week using reef crystals. Why is my calcium and magnesium so high and my alkalinity so low? Corals seem happy for the most part (torches have decent extension, acans arent very puffy though)

What test kit are you using, have we ruled out testing error

 

[Mrcote1]

Can we get some pictures? By any chance was this new tank started with dry rock?

I started with all dry rock from Marco rocks and a few pieces of live rock from my LFS to seed the tank

 

[Mrcote1]

What test kit are you using, have we ruled out testing error

I am using Hanna for Nitrate, Phosphate and Alkalinity. I am using Salifert for Calcium and Magnesium

 

[Ryan Souza]

So I've seen this before, including in my own tank. I think there may not be enough biology to sustain a balance in the tank. People end up dosing phosphate and nitrate to keep nutrients off 0 to try and promote competition against whatever algae that is. Another indicator I don't see any corraline which normally tells me the tank is ready for coral and is finding balance. This is all anecdotal obviously, but my suggestion is manual remove of the algae, keeping nutrients off 0, and adding more live rock if feasible. This is how I beat dinos when I was starting my tank and was at a similar stage as yours. Also not 100% sure of this but does ab contain a carbon source in it? Could be helping fuel whatever that algae may be. As for the alk,ca and mag i think they are not that bad, I also have not tested mag in years and agree with Randy's method. As said above reef crystals has higher values of those. I would just get alk up around 7 and wouldn't worry about the rest, and focus on nutrients.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I am using Hanna for Nitrate, Phosphate and Alkalinity. I am using Salifert for Calcium and Magnesium

On the Salufert magnesium are you going all the way to blue, or only tell it turns gray. On calcium are you waiting a moment towards the end when it starts to turn? Reason for waiting, if you wait a moment it will turn blue from purple after 4 or five seconds without adding a new drop.

 

[mboley]

Just ordered some PH calibration solution so I can use this method to raise alkalinity while monitoring PH!

As for nutrients. Im battling some unknown type of algae/fungus. Its like a thicker shorter green hair algae except its clearish brown and its not chrysophates. Its growing like crazy on every inch of rock so im thinking thats sucking up all my nitrate and phosphates. I just doubled my cleanup crew and added an urchin and will double my feeding to try and fix that. I dose AB+ everyday so the corals have something to eat

It sounds like you've been doing nothing to maintain your alkalinity. You can use baking soda to raise it and dose soda ash to maintain it. You need to start doing something to maintain the alkalinity; don't worry about Ph monitoring.

And you need some Nitrates and Phosphates. You are mistaken to think zeroing these will help you avoid algae.
Please don't take offense; you need to start reading more.

 

[Mrcote1]

It sounds like you've been doing nothing to maintain your alkalinity. You can use baking soda to raise it and dose soda ash to maintain it. You need to start doing something to maintain the alkalinity; don't worry about Ph monitoring.

And you need some Nitrates and Phosphates. You are mistaken to think zeroing these will help you avoid algae.
Please don't take offense; you need to start reading more.

I started taking readings on everything regularly. I slowly brought my alk up to 7.5 and just picked up an ecotech versa 4 so I can start dosing. Seems like the tank consumes around .2 DKH per day but oddly enough, calcium and magnesium still havent dropped a bit!

As for nutrients, i am now overfeeding and i switched my protein skimmer to a dry skim to try and limit how much nutrients it strips from the water. All nuisance algae has also disappeared (partially thanks to an urchin i got)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I started taking readings on everything regularly. I slowly brought my alk up to 7.5 and just picked up an ecotech versa 4 so I can start dosing. Seems like the tank consumes around .2 DKH per day but oddly enough, calcium and magnesium still havent dropped a bit!

As for nutrients, i am now overfeeding and i switched my protein skimmer to a dry skim to try and limit how much nutrients it strips from the water. All nuisance algae has also disappeared (partially thanks to an urchin i got)

Not odd at all. If you drop alk by 0.2 dKH per day to make calcium carbonate, calcium will drop about 1.4 ppm and magnesium be less than 0.2 ppm. It will take a considerable time before you can detect such a drop in calcium and it will be lost in salinity changes. I’d stop testing magnesium at all.