Jimbo662 Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Well, after yesterdays meeting I thought I need to do some testing! Prev Today Salinity 1.024 1.024 Alk 133 133 Cal 344 521 Kh ??? off the chart. Using salifert, after emptying the solution out of the syringe there was no color change (tested twice) Mag 1260 1125 Phos .07 0 (prev test was done last weekend, before that was showing .03..probably overskimmed to clean up after I overflowed the skimmer) Ni 0 0 Na 10 0 other than phos all other previous tests were done about a month ago. I've been doing 5 gal water changes about every other day and using the removed water to do water changes in my QT tank. Any Idea how / why the Kh would be so high? In all my previous tanks it ever went above the 13 range. I checked my RO. I've got 160 going in and 0 out. Using Red Sea Coral Pro salt. I read a post on reef central that upping the salinity to 1.026 would raise the mag. Anyone heard this before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 I would think upping the mag would raise salinity but not necessarily vice versa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 I would suggest that you should just dose in some Mag rather than increasing the salinity. You have Alk as 133 but the dKh is off the charts? According to the conversion, 133ppm is about 7.5dKh. What did you use to get Alk reading? I can't remember if you said you were dosing 2 part or Kalk? You may be dosing too much and that's why the Ca and Alk are high. I would suggest that instead of doing small 5gal changes frequently, do large changes less frequently, perhaps 20-25 gal once a week. At least until the params get more in line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 Alk reading was with a hanna checker. Not doing any dosing. What would I use to dose mag? On BRS I only see reference to 2 part dosing with mag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Before you start changing anything, test your parameters with different test kits. Having a 200 ppm calcium swing would be difficult to do, and at 500 ppm i would expect to see some precipitation occurring. Additionally, measuring KH and alkalinity are telling you the same thing (proxies for bicarbonate ion concentration). So you don't need to measure both. They should have the same reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 Just tested with a salifert kit and got around 370. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 370ppm Alk? Yeah, that's really high. You probably are dosing too much. For the Mag, you can just get a magnesium additive and dilute it in your top off water. This is what I'm using: http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0002DGLQC Keep in mind you have to add a ton of the stuff to make a significant impact. I'm adding about 1/2-1 cup per day right now in my DATO. (see this thread: http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/35461-low-magnesium/) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 no, 370 calcium. The alk is stable at 133. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Ahh ok. Whew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 So you think I should dose the mag to get it back up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 I wouldn't freak out about it. What's your tank load like, SPS wise? It seems unlikely to me that 100 ppm of mg was consumed in a tank (assuming with a light sps load). You can't go back in time and retest your old test, but what about testing again today? Overall, with either reading you should probably be up a bit higher with mg, so it won't hurt to dose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 only 6 stick and all are less than 1 1/2" and a couple of small monti's. Majority of the tank is lps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Chalices will suck up mag. I always shot for 1350 to 1500 on my mag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 Looks like I'll get to put my DOS to use again! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Yeah, no reason not to bring it back up. If nothing else it will just make your corals happier which never hurts. Just don't mimic me and have raw magnesium fall onto your montis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 LOL...I learned from your mistakes! I'll set the DOS up to drip near the drain area in the sump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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