Switching salts help

[reef’r]

So I’ve been a reef crystals user since the beginning, about 13 months now. My corals all survive in the tank, but growth is SLOW. So a new lfs opened up in my area and yesterday I went in to ask some questions and maybe get some recommendations and their suggestion was to switch up my salt, they recommended aqua forest or Red Sea coral pro. Now I have absolutely no issues with RC but my params do not line up at all with what is stated on the bucket, I’ve never mixed up a batch of high alk RC and alk in my tank sits are 7-7.5 with 50ml a day of kalk. Hoping to gather some other opinions here about making the switch and also in a 38g tank, assuming about 30 gallons total water volume would I be okay to just go ahead and mix up my next 5g water change with all the Red Sea salt or should I move slow? I’m not to worried about making the switch all at once because corals move from tank to tank with different salts all the time

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I would just proceed with normal 10%-20% water changes weekly. Then test and correct accordingly.

But I've never associated coral growth with salt choice. Corals need light, flow, and nutrients to thrive. And very often in threads of "my corals survive but don't grow", it often comes down to lights being too low....light is 80% of it IMO.

 

[reef’r]

I think my lighting is definitely adequate I’ve never done a par test though. Current setup is aquatic life hybrid so
4x blue plus
Xr15 running all channels 100% currently sitting at 40% schedule intensity
In order are two orphek or4 bars, however I didn’t necessarily purchase these for more punch, just wanted to let the corals glow for a couple hours morning and night and love the orphek blue plus. Should I increase my radion intensity a good bit more?

 

[reef’r]

I think my lighting is definitely adequate I’ve never done a par test though. Current setup is aquatic life hybrid so
4x blue plus
Xr15 running all channels 100% currently sitting at 40% schedule intensity
In order are two orphek or4 bars, however I didn’t necessarily purchase these for more punch, just wanted to let the corals glow for a couple hours morning and night and love the orphek blue plus. Should I increase my radion intensity a good bit more?

Edit currently schedule intensity on radion is 45%

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I'm not familiar with this light, but hope others can help, I think @Lavey29 mentioned he runs xr15's....

 

[reef’r]

I'm not familiar with this light, but hope others can help, I think @Lavey29 mentioned he runs xr15's....

And I agree with you on the salt, many sick tanks running RC and even just purple box IO. She was more or less pointing towards a high alk salt that mixes more steady than RC I think. I’m gonna try it out nonetheless I use so little water that I can really use any salt I want cost is not prohibiting

 

[Reef.]

Swapping salt is easy, just change over with water changes, keep an eye on your alk.

If going for Red sea most go for the blue bucket rather than the Pro as the parameters are better, the other salt you mentioned is excellent too so either would be a good choice, I would go for which ever is cheaper.

 

[rishma]

I agree with the comments above. I don’t think switching salts is an issue (i recently switched). I also doubt it’s the solution to your growth.

I’ll note that 50ml kalkwasser per day is very little in a 30 gallon tank. That is about 0.06 dKH. That matches your slow growth. Higher alkalinity might help some, but I don’t think that will be the whole answer either.

A lot of things impact growth, as mentioned. Do you know your nitrate and phosphate?

 

[Lavey29]

Edit currently schedule intensity on radion is 45%

45% on an XR15 light produces basically no usable par at all for the tank and you don't want all channels at 100% spectrum. Set it on the AB plus setting. My XR15 lights run at 100% intensity and I barely get the required par for a mixed reef.

 

[Uncle99]

Salt is salt.
Changing it (unless you have no choice) is a bad idea.
Reef Crystals had nothing to do with your perceived issues.
Some of the best tanks I’ve ever seen were done on Reef Crystals.

 

[rishma]

Salt is salt.
Changing it (unless you have no choice) is a bad idea.
Reef Crystals had nothing to do with your perceived issues.
Some of the best tanks I’ve ever seen were done on Reef Crystals.

Agree in general that salt is salt.

I don’t agree changing is a bad idea, I am neutral on it because…salt is salt. :)

Agree that RC isn’t the issue, I use it.

 

[Lavey29]

Salt is salt.
Changing it (unless you have no choice) is a bad idea.
Reef Crystals had nothing to do with your perceived issues.
Some of the best tanks I’ve ever seen were done on Reef Crystals.

Agree, like anything else you change it affects stability in the tank.

 

[reef’r]

45% on an XR15 light produces basically no usable par at all for the tank and you don't want all channels at 100% spectrum. Set it on the AB plus setting. My XR15 lights run at 100% intensity and I barely get the required par for a mixed reef.

I was worried about this also, so in switching my light where should I start. I’m currently all channels 100% at 45% over all. I’ll switch it back to AB+. Where should I start over all intensity?

 

[reef’r]

I agree with the comments above. I don’t think switching salts is an issue (i recently switched). I also doubt it’s the solution to your growth.

I’ll note that 50ml kalkwasser per day is very little in a 30 gallon tank. That is about 0.06 dKH. That matches your slow growth. Higher alkalinity might help some, but I don’t think that will be the whole answer either.

A lot of things impact growth, as mentioned. Do you know your nitrate and phosphate?

Doing full params test I’ll update once I’m done

 

[reef’r]

The big three are low, P04 I’m not sure is too bad I’ve seen a lot of tanks lately running “high” P04 with no issues which is why I haven’t worried about it. If switching salts isn’t the answer can someone help me out a little with dosing levels up??

 

[Uncle99]

MG looks like error at 1100ppm.
CA low low should be 420-460ppm.
Alk for me is on the fringe of acidic water, bump to at least 8-9dkh so you have some room for error.

I’ve never seen MG test that low from any salt.
Even if accurate, far to low, should be say 1350-1450ppm, so bump both into range if your confident in your test results.

I have some concern as to test results as they were all lower than expected for a system.

 

[Lavey29]

I was worried about this also, so in switching my light where should I start. I’m currently all channels 100% at 45% over all. I’ll switch it back to AB+. Where should I start over all intensity?

Just start at 50% intensity on AB plus setting. Increase intensity 1% per day after that till you get to 75% then re evaluate the tank. Rent a par a par meter.

 

[reef’r]

MG looks like error at 1100ppm.
CA low low should be 420-460ppm.
Alk for me is on the fringe of acidic water, bump to at least 8-9dkh so you have some room for error.

I’ve never seen MG test that low from any salt.
Even if accurate, far to low, should be say 1350-1450ppm, so bump both into range if your confident in your test results.

I have some concern as to test results as they were all lower than expected for a system.

Low mag like this has been an issue for me since I started with RC. I confirmed test twice using aquaforest kit, it’s brand new but maybe a bad kit who knows. I stopped being too concerned with mag after reading the article on here from Randy about not really worrying much about mag. Focusing more on other params such as alk and cal. Yes my goal is to raise alk however I’m not trying to chase numbers. I do want to bump it to around 9, should I increase kalk dose, or use soda ash?

 

[reef’r]

Just start at 50% intensity on AB plus setting. Increase intensity 1% per day after that till you get to 75% then re evaluate the tank. Rent a par a par meter.

Sounds good brother thank you

 

[Uncle99]

Low mag like this has been an issue for me since I started with RC. I confirmed test twice using aquaforest kit, it’s brand new but maybe a bad kit who knows. I stopped being too concerned with mag after reading the article on here from Randy about not really worrying much about mag. Focusing more on other params such as alk and cal. Yes my goal is to raise alk however I’m not trying to chase numbers. I do want to bump it to around 9, should I increase kalk dose, or use soda ash?

Both are quite fine, you pick what makes sense to you.

Get it to 8dkh first, MG to 1350ppm and CA to 420ppm and get those numbers to “hold” for two months. The higher the Alk, the higher the cost.

Is doesn’t matter nothing if your 8,9,10,11 BUT, it MUST remain absolutely stable, 24-7. Without this stability backbone, nothings going to be happy except pest type crap.

I found it easier to manage water chemistry with a cheap $80 Jabeo DP-4. I buy only premixed product as it doesn’t clog the Doser and is in the same relative concentration every time.

As an example, my Doser adds on every hour, 2ml of Seachem Fusion 2 ALK, and on every half hour 2ml Seachem Fusion 1 CA, 10ml per day Red Sea MG. These amounts are what the system is using and I need to replenish, only what’s used.

That amount of course, different in every system.

All systems have a sweet spot where they prefer to run at. If that number is in, or close to traditional ranges, and holds firm, just keep that number.