Something seems off.

[sangria517]

So I have recently having to start dosing my 180. My goal is to keep calcium 400-425 and Alk around 9. I was having to dose something every day. For a while there it was Cal one day then Alk the next, then I got them on the same page and I was dosing both every other day. Since my last water change which was almost a week ago, I have not had to dose anything. My Ca was 450 and Alk was 10. I let it come down and yesterday I did have to dose Alk as it was 8.5 so it is back to 9 but my Ca has been at 420-425 for three days now. Should I be worried? I am waiting on my Mag test to come back. I had one and it was faulty. It said my Mag was 850 which seemed crazy so I went to my LFS so they could Aquaspin and sure enough my mag was 1250. They were out of tests at the store so I ordered one on line but it is still not here yet.

Here are my numbers since my water change on Saturday.

Spin at LFS
Ca-475
Alk-10
Mag 1250
pH-8.0


12/2
Ca 450
Alk 9

12/3
Ca-425
Alk-9

12/4
Ca-425
Alk-8 Dosed to 8.8 (ran out of Alk so could not get to 9)

12/5
Ca-420
Alk-9

12/6
Ca-420
Alk-9

They system itself is 180 gallon tank with 30g sump-estimated 165 gallons total in the system. I am in the process of finding a salt I like. I believe this last water change, I did aqua forest reef + but did not have enough for the 50g so I used a little red sea blue to get me there. so like 40g aquaforest and 10g red sea blue.

Test kits I use

Salifert for Ca
Red Sea for Alk and pH.
I ordered Salifert for Mg.

What I dose with (also trialing stuff out)
ESV Bionic 1 and 2 initially but have since ran out.
Sicce for Calcium right now
Alk I am technically out of but did an emergency run to Petco and grabbed their Alk part 1 just incase. Do not plan on using it but my LFS is only open Thursday to Sunday.
I did order some All For Reef because I did want to try that as well. That should be here tomorrow.

 

[TX_REEF]

I don't see anything extremely concerning in your numbers. What is the observable issue you're trying to diagnose? Do you have inhabitants struggling? Sometimes it's easy to do too much for no reason in this hobby :)

 

[sangria517]

No in fact everyone is quite happy which is the main thing. Just weird that I haven’t had to dose calcium in a few days and it is just holding steady. I was having to dose all and calcium every other day prior to the most recent water change. I wasn’t sure if there was something else I should be testing or looking out for.

 

[TX_REEF]

when you do a water change, you're also adding more calcium (and other beneficial components) back into the tank, so that could be a factor temporarily. Calcium consumption also depends on coral growth, so perhaps a small change temporarily stunted growth. If everything is happy, I really wouldn't sweat it.