Over the last month I have noticed more and more nussance algae and some corals not looking great. This has not been severe, but a slow progression of green algae building up on the glass more often and soft corals shrinking up, the bounce mushrooms in particular and my leather closing up more. My system does not use up alkalinity or calcium up very fast so I've tested alkalinity weekly and calcium every few weeks, as the Reef Crystals typically have more calcium and magnesium than my system uses. However, when I go back and look at my testing, the results seem off and the issues started around the same time I started a new bucket of salt.
On May 1st my parameters were as follows:
Nitrate: 4.3
Phosphate: 0.08
Alk: 8.9
Cal: 450
Mag: 1290
I dosed magnesium following this and got it to around 1400 and continued to do 5 gallon water changes on my 30 gallon aquarium weekly. Things started looking off and I did an additional 20 gallon water change to correct any underlying issues and fed reef roids to keep nutrients up during this time and keeping SG at 1.026. Things did not improve and I tested all my parameters again on May 23rd and my parameters were as follows:
Nitrate: 2.9
Phosphate: 0.07
Alk: 9.3
Cal: 430
Mag: 1230
Over the past couple days I corrected the Nitrate to 5 ppm, calcium to 470, and mag to 1350. However, until this month I have never had to dose calcium or magnesium. The alarming thing is that I had to dose 75ml of Brightwells Magnesion when Magnesium was up to 1400 earlier this month. I wish I tested the bucket, but I hastily dumped it out and am going to start a new bucket for my next water change. At this point, should I just continue small water changes until things look better or, if I suspect I was using a bad salt batch, would it be better to do another large water change to get things back on track and then continue with the smaller weekly water changes?
On May 1st my parameters were as follows:
Nitrate: 4.3
Phosphate: 0.08
Alk: 8.9
Cal: 450
Mag: 1290
I dosed magnesium following this and got it to around 1400 and continued to do 5 gallon water changes on my 30 gallon aquarium weekly. Things started looking off and I did an additional 20 gallon water change to correct any underlying issues and fed reef roids to keep nutrients up during this time and keeping SG at 1.026. Things did not improve and I tested all my parameters again on May 23rd and my parameters were as follows:
Nitrate: 2.9
Phosphate: 0.07
Alk: 9.3
Cal: 430
Mag: 1230
Over the past couple days I corrected the Nitrate to 5 ppm, calcium to 470, and mag to 1350. However, until this month I have never had to dose calcium or magnesium. The alarming thing is that I had to dose 75ml of Brightwells Magnesion when Magnesium was up to 1400 earlier this month. I wish I tested the bucket, but I hastily dumped it out and am going to start a new bucket for my next water change. At this point, should I just continue small water changes until things look better or, if I suspect I was using a bad salt batch, would it be better to do another large water change to get things back on track and then continue with the smaller weekly water changes?