Dosing Calc, Alk, Mag with Seachem

[viking]

Hi All,

I'm battling with low parameters and cannot for the life of me get them stable in an acceptable range. Here are my current params:

Calc -- 420 ppm
Alk -- 7 dkh
Mag -- 1150 ppm
pH -- 8.14

I'm using Reef Fusion 2 part and Seachem's Mag crystals per the recommended dose and get a temporary increase but the next day it falls right back to these numbers.

On Sunday I started using Seachem's reef carbonate thinking the Alk wasn't meant to be increased with the part 2; only maintained. When I dose this my pH goes up to 8.41 (which I think is an acceptable swing, please let me know of I'm wrong). During the day my pH slowly drops and then bottoms out at 8.14. This is pretty consistent. I know pH will drop at night but it doesn't bounce back in the am without me dosing.

I only have a 29 gallon, so I know it is a little difficult to keep params stable, but I know many of you have smaller tanks and are able to do so.

Looking for any advise here regarding products, method of dosing (without an osmolator or dripping jugs), or dosing regimen (when, where, how much).

I'm really banging my head against the wall at this point and have lost some o my more sensitive LPS (4 heads of torch and acan).

 

[dannyp02908]

Need to bring that mag up to an acceptable level. I also use SeaChem for mag. I found that the dosing on the back did not match up to what i saw for increases. It says the bottle has 80000 ppm. I had to dose half the jar on my system to bring my mag up 200 ppm and my system is only around 120 gallons total. you need your mag to come up first. Bring your mag to 1300-1350. It should remain fairly stable and replenish the little loss with water changes. As soon as you have the mag acceptable, concentrate on your ALK. At 1350 for mag, i think ALK should be 8-9. when you have your alk up around 8 or 9, test it the following day. Make sure your mag held, and see what you lost for ALK. That will be your daily dose. If you bring ALK to 9 and 24 hours later it is 8, you need a 1dkh maintenance dose daily. Once you have that figured out, move on to calcium. Your calcium looks good now, but as you raise and maintain your alk, your calcium may drop. Figure out calcium usage the same way as alk.

What kind of corals do you keep? Lots of coralline?

 

[beckbrass]

May have missed it but what salt do you use. With regular water changes, with good salt, on a tank that small I'm guessing mag would be close to good as would all the other parameters unless you hav a ton of corals.

 

[stingythingy45]

Agree with above statements.Just would like to add that you need to stop chasing PH and just get the alk around 8-9 dkh.

 

[JohnK]

Yup, same here. When mg does get low it normally takes a ton of supplement to bring it up.

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Looks like you should need almost 10 oz of the dry seachem addative to bring it up to 1350. (see cautions in the calculator when you plug in the numbers). Once you bring the mg up, it should be much easier to get the Ca and alk stable.

 

[viking]

What kind of corals do you keep? Lots of coralline?

A mixed reef right now with more SPS than LPS. 4 SPS pieces, 3 LPS, and various softies. I started building up coralline a few months ago and now it starting to catch hold.

May have missed it but what salt do you use. With regular water changes, with good salt, on a tank that small I'm guessing mag would be close to good as would all the other parameters unless you hav a ton of corals.

I'm using Reef Crystals. I do a 20% water change every two weeks.

 

[viking]

Yup, same here. When mg does get low it normally takes a ton of supplement to bring it up.

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Looks like you should need almost 10 oz of the dry seachem addative to bring it up to 1350. (see cautions in the calculator when you plug in the numbers). Once you bring the mg up, it should be much easier to get the Ca and alk stable.

And I shouldn't be raising Mag by more than 100 ppm per day, is that true? If so, is my best method for dosing to be a jug that would raise it 100 ppm dripped for the day and then again on a second day? With the seachem additive can i just dump in all 100 ppm mixture at once or would that totally shock the system? I really needed to pay attention in my chemistry class...

 

[JohnK]

I'd make up a jug and add 100 ppm worth in one shot, each day until you hit 1350-1400. No need to worry about trying to drip it IME/IMO.

 

[dannyp02908]

agree with John. When i found my mag low (caught it by seeing my alk unstable), i literally brought it up 250ppm in 2 days. Just remember, get on the Alk as soon as mag is good. otherwise, the system will use the mag again.

 

[viking]

I'd make up a jug and add 100 ppm worth in one shot, each day until you hit 1350-1400. No need to worry about trying to drip it IME/IMO.

Since I have the Mg crystals, should I mix it in a gallon of saltwater and do a mini water change? I obviously wouldn't throw it in my 5 gal. ATO container since it would take over a week for me to use 5 gal worth of RO/DI.

 

[JohnK]

I would mix it with RO water. You might get some funky precipitation if you mix it in saltwater. Just add whatever amount of mg crystals/water solution to the tank and the ATO will add that much less straight RO that day.

 

[stingythingy45]

Definitely add it to fresh water when mixing.And watch your salinity with a small tank.
I know when I added lots of Randy's home made MG suppliment to a small tank it raised salinity.
But that's a combo of magnesium flake and epson salt.

 

[JohnK]

Yea, good point Bob. The supplement is all salt so it does raise SG.

 

[Bobbofin]

Been using SeaChem Reef Builder, Advantage Calcium and Advantage Mag for years. Make 2 part with it and dose daily. I use the Bendix bottles that Bulk Reef sells. 120 grams of cal per liter and 180 grams of alk per liter. Dose 100ml alk and 50ml cal daily. Good stuff.