mfraembs
Active Member
I have a new large system that is around 500 total gallons and am having some difficulties getting my Calc / Alk / Mag in balance. As of now it's a fish only system and hope to start introducing some corals soon once I get this imbalance squared away. From my testing I started with the current parameters which is pretty crazy.... Salt mix is red sea black bucket.
The Start
4/30
Alk - 5.15 Dkh
Calc - 583 PPM
Mag - 1029 PPM
PH - has been staying pretty consistent around 8.1
Seeing that my Mag is extremely low I figured most of my Alk was participating thus creating high calc. Luckily I had some Sodium Bicarbonate on hand and hooked up my Doser. This is a new system with no coral so I have not been dosing anything at this point and have been doing a 30 gal weekly water change to this point. I decided to dose the Bicarb to minimize the PH swing with the 500 ml/day of BiCarb. I don't have any mag on hand (should arrive soon) so I ran down to my LFS and picked up a bottle of API Mag to get me by and am dosing 80ml/day until my Mag from BRS comes in.
Today
05/04
Alk - 6.41 DKH
Calc - 612 PPM
Mag - 1070
PH - Has been staying between 8.1 to 8.2
I assume my Calc is still rising probably because of the Mag but am planning to double my Mag dose to 160 ml/day and keeping the BiCarb the same. Would you be worried about the Calc being so high??? as mentioned I only have fish in the system at this point, I am concerned playing mad scientist and screwing up the balance of the system even more. Typically with new systems I just ride this out but have never seen such a crazy imbalance but feel that I need to get this addressed quickly so I can start introducing some coral.
I originally thought my trident reagent may be bad so I confirmed the testing above with my Hanna checkers. Unfortunately the numbers above are accurate.... haha!
Do you agree with the doing above and increasing the mag? Would you be concerned with Calc being that high?
The Start
4/30
Alk - 5.15 Dkh
Calc - 583 PPM
Mag - 1029 PPM
PH - has been staying pretty consistent around 8.1
Seeing that my Mag is extremely low I figured most of my Alk was participating thus creating high calc. Luckily I had some Sodium Bicarbonate on hand and hooked up my Doser. This is a new system with no coral so I have not been dosing anything at this point and have been doing a 30 gal weekly water change to this point. I decided to dose the Bicarb to minimize the PH swing with the 500 ml/day of BiCarb. I don't have any mag on hand (should arrive soon) so I ran down to my LFS and picked up a bottle of API Mag to get me by and am dosing 80ml/day until my Mag from BRS comes in.
Today
05/04
Alk - 6.41 DKH
Calc - 612 PPM
Mag - 1070
PH - Has been staying between 8.1 to 8.2
I assume my Calc is still rising probably because of the Mag but am planning to double my Mag dose to 160 ml/day and keeping the BiCarb the same. Would you be worried about the Calc being so high??? as mentioned I only have fish in the system at this point, I am concerned playing mad scientist and screwing up the balance of the system even more. Typically with new systems I just ride this out but have never seen such a crazy imbalance but feel that I need to get this addressed quickly so I can start introducing some coral.
I originally thought my trident reagent may be bad so I confirmed the testing above with my Hanna checkers. Unfortunately the numbers above are accurate.... haha!
Do you agree with the doing above and increasing the mag? Would you be concerned with Calc being that high?
