Switching salts help

[reef’r]

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.

I don’t think kalk would be the ideal method to raise my level to desired amounts as according to Randy’s calculator to go from 330 calc to 450 would take 4.5 gallons of kalk lol. So soda ash for the alk, what about for the calcium? I already had Brightwell magnesion for the mag

 

[reef’r]

 

[Uncle99]

I don’t think kalk would be the ideal method to raise my level to desired amounts as according to Randy’s calculator to go from 330 calc to 450 would take 4.5 gallons of kalk lol. So soda ash for the alk, what about for the calcium? I already had Brightwell magnesion for the mag

I’m not sure what’s available in your area.
Red Sea, Brightwell and Seachem all have supplements.

I can’t see your system so making any recommendations is not possible

 

[Pod_01]

Just a comment, as mentioned I don’t suspect salt is an issue. When I started I used Red Sea Pro salt and I was not a fan, I still have bucket left. Not easy salt to work with from my experience.

Your Alk level is reasonable, I run my Alk at 7.6… Ocean is at 6.5 dKh so I don’t think that is a problem. Your PO4 also looks reasonable.

The Calcium should be around 400-500 and Mag should be 1200-1450. It may be test error so I would try to verify these values and make adjustments.
Sometimes low Calcium and Magnesium can be caused by low salinity… I use TM Hydrometer it gives me the most repeatable results.

Slow growth can be caused by lack of trace elements, for example I use Tropic Marin A and K elements …
Corals do require essential elements and if PO4 is available the lack of trace element may be cause for slow growth.

Good luck,

 

[gbroadbridge]

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

The brand of salt is not going to make any short term measurable difference to coral growth.

It takes a long time for a small frag to settle in and start exponentially growing.

Of course the LFS would like to sell you stuff, but what they cannot sell you is a bottle of patience.

 

[reef’r]

Just a comment, as mentioned I don’t suspect salt is an issue. When I started I used Red Sea Pro salt and I was not a fan, I still have bucket left. Not easy salt to work with from my experience.

Your Alk level is reasonable, I run my Alk at 7.6… Ocean is at 6.5 dKh so I don’t think that is a problem. Your PO4 also looks reasonable.

The Calcium should be around 400-500 and Mag should be 1200-1450. It may be test error so I would try to verify these values and make adjustments.
Sometimes low Calcium and Magnesium can be caused by low salinity… I use TM Hydrometer it gives me the most repeatable results.

Slow growth can be caused by lack of trace elements, for example I use Tropic Marin A and K elements …
Corals do require essential elements and if PO4 is available the lack of trace element may be cause for slow growth.

Good luck,

I’ve seen your tank I know you have some crazy coral so I take your .02 cents to heart. I’m going to return the Red Sea salt, and as far as trace elements go I have been considering changing from kalk to AFR. Something like tropic Marin a and k can I add it into my kalk?

 

[rishma]

with such low alkalinity demand, you won’t be dosing much AFR and therefore not much trace elements. If trace elements are part of the issue, I don’t think switching to AFR will help much (I use AFR, so not bashing it)

TM A and K are a good approach. You cannot mix them into your kalkwasser.

 

[rishma]

The low calcium could be from low salinity. Or test error. I see you tested salinity but it’s worth investigating the accuracy of the salinity test before taking action. If you have been maintaining alkalinity with kalkwasser then it’s really unlikely that your calcium is low (unless salinity is low).

Low salinity also would cause low magnesium, but test error is very common with magnesium.

 

[Pod_01]

I’ve seen your tank I know you have some crazy coral so I take your .02 cents to heart. I’m going to return the Red Sea salt, and as far as trace elements go I have been considering changing from kalk to AFR. Something like tropic Marin an and k can I add it into my kalk?

As @rishma mentioned TM A and K cannot be added to Kalk, but you can add extra to your AFR…
I am just not sure how much you can add before things don’t work.

From my experience it is easier to just dose TM A and K by hand.

Good luck,

 

[reef’r]

As @rishma mentioned TM A and K cannot be added to Kalk, but you can add extra to your AFR…
I am just not sure how much you can add before things don’t work.

From my experience it is easier to just dose TM A and K by hand.

Good luck,

Where can I find the best info for learning how to implement a and k?

 

[reef’r]

The low calcium could be from low salinity. Or test error. I see you tested salinity but it’s worth investigating the accuracy of the salinity test before taking action. If you have been maintaining alkalinity with kalkwasser then it’s really unlikely that your calcium is low (unless salinity is low).

Low salinity also would cause low magnesium, but test error is very common with magnesium.

I’ve been checking my refracto with calibration fluid pretty much every use but I have had a recent deal with low salinity. Wave maker was triggering my ato, my tank is an all in one so when the pump would come on it would effect water level in the filter chambers, I’ve since changed location of my pumps. I’m going to check my RC water tomorrow before my water change and I’ll post my readings and I’m going to also look into adding in the A- and K+ elements by hand and continue kalk dosing because it’s easy and I only have a single head doser. I would like to run my alk around 9, but it’s been solid and steady around 7.5 so I’ve just been running with it

 

[gbroadbridge]

I’ve been checking my refracto with calibration fluid pretty much every use but I have had a recent deal with low salinity. Wave maker was triggering my ato, my tank is an all in one so when the pump would come on it would effect water level in the filter chambers, I’ve since changed location of my pumps. I’m going to check my RC water tomorrow before my water change and I’ll post my readings and I’m going to also look into adding in the A- and K+ elements by hand and continue kalk dosing because it’s easy and I only have a single head doser. I would like to run my alk around 9, but it’s been solid and steady around 7.5 so I’ve just been running with it

Are you mnaking your own calibration fluid for your refractometer?

If not you should, as the pre-bottled stuff is almost always incorrect.

 

[reef’r]

Are you mnaking your own calibration fluid for your refractometer?

If not you should, as the pre-bottled stuff is almost always incorrect.

I do not, I just have the BRS fluid

 

[rishma]

I’ve been checking my refracto with calibration fluid pretty much every use but I have had a recent deal with low salinity. Wave maker was triggering my ato, my tank is an all in one so when the pump would come on it would effect water level in the filter chambers, I’ve since changed location of my pumps. I’m going to check my RC water tomorrow before my water change and I’ll post my readings and I’m going to also look into adding in the A- and K+ elements by hand and continue kalk dosing because it’s easy and I only have a single head doser. I would like to run my alk around 9, but it’s been solid and steady around 7.5 so I’ve just been running with it

If you want to raise alkalinity to 9, you could increase your kalkwasser dose from 50ml to 250 ml and it should take about a week to 10 days to drift up to 9. You could then reduce your kalkwasser dose back to 50. My guess is 50ml won’t maintain it at 9, and you will need to dose a little more than that daily.

 

[Pod_01]

Where can I find the best info for learning how to implement an and k?

You can look up the information on TM web site, they even provide dosing calculator.

For your tank (30 gal) you add approximately 1ml of A and 1 ml of K each day. You can go up to 2ml of each but for example my tank I only dose 1ml / per 25gal.

Observe and if unpleasant things like algae takes off reduce the dose. If things are looking good you can bump the dose up, just don’t go over 2ml.

If you decide to use AFR you will need to reduce your TM A and K, AFR contains A and K.

 

[reef’r]

If you want to raise alkalinity to 9, you could increase your kalkwasser dose from 50ml to 250 ml and it should take about a week to 10 days to drift up to 9. You could then reduce your kalkwasser dose back to 50. My guess is 50ml won’t maintain it at 9, and you will need to dose a little more than that daily.

You can look up the information on TM web site, they even provide dosing calculator.

For your tank (30 gal) you add approximately 1ml of A and 1 ml of K each day. You can go up to 2ml of each but for example my tank I only dose 1ml / per 25gal.

Observe and if unpleasant things like algae takes off reduce the dose. If things are looking good you can bump the dose up, just don’t go over 2ml.

If you decide to use AFR you will need to reduce your TM A and K, AFR contains A and K.

Thank you both very much for the help. I really appreciate it and will definitely put both your recommendations to work

 

[Reef.]

RC alk is around 12 I believe, if you are dosing AFR and your alk is 7.5 and your corals aren’t growing I would stop before adding anything else to the tank as there is a serious issue needs fixing, sounds your salinity is extremely low or you are testing it incorrectly because no way on earth should RC be that low.

I would definitely change salt as why use a 12 dkh salt when you want your alk at 9, use a salt with 8.5 or 9 ie either one of the two options you mentioned.

 

[gregrock68]

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.

Agree - my xr15 is 100% power on my 40 gallon, with an AI Blade running on a ramp up to start the day, then it runs at 70% all blue, then ramps down, total time is 11hours for it. Low light is probably the issue

 

[NDFoz]

Just throwing my two cents on this subject as well. I do not use RC I use TM Pro and have so since day one. It mixes INSANELY well and fast. I test the water in the 40g Brute container 1x per month just to make sure things are relatively close so I’m not causing any issues. And they always seem to be stable within 1-3% of what is stated on the bucket.

I personally stopped AFR because I couldn’t seem to get my parameters to stabilize week in/out. I am now using AF Compound 3-in-1 and to say my parameters are almost dead on every single week is an understatement. Since I knew relatively about what was being used each week I started a little over 1/2 what’s recommended by AF and tested daily and adjusted up accordingly. Now I am at 4.50ml’s per day and my Ca=420-440ppm Alk=8.3–8.8 Mg=1300-1330.

I actually thought for the longest time with TM Pro and AFR I needed to drop TM Pro and was going to switch to TLF or something else. But I talked to the two Salty Only LFS’s and they both were using RC for all of their systems except for their quarantine system they were using some probiotic enhanced stuff I can’t remember (apparently gotta get those fish to have healthy guts). So for the first 30-60 days the fish are in that special stuff and the corals are in RC from the time they get there through quarantine and then into the main systems when they go on the sales floor. The other LSF uses straight RC. I asked what they use at home in their home systems and they all use the TM Pro for the same reason I do because it mixes in no time at all and it stores incredibly well.

Best of luck to you and your reefing goals.

 

[reef’r]

RC alk is around 12 I believe, if you are dosing AFR and your alk is 7.5 and your corals aren’t growing I would stop before adding anything else to the tank as there is a serious issue needs fixing, sounds your salinity is extremely low or you are testing it incorrectly because no way on earth should RC be that low.

I would definitely change salt as why use a 12 dkh salt when you want your alk at 9, use a salt with 8.5 or 9 ie either one of the two options you mentioned.

Freshly mixed 5gal of reef crystals. 1.025 salinity instead of 1.026 as I haven’t trimmed it yet for my water change, but that won’t change much. And currently I am not dosing AFR, I was considering it for the trace element addition I’m currently dosing kalk. I have absolutely no problems with RC salt and had no desire to switch I just took the lfs direction. I will be returning the Red Sea coral pro and continuing on with RC I’ll just dose it up to the levels I want before using it