Mixed reef parameters

[cbs49er]

So unfortunately I had been pretty much with my dad while he was in the hospital for months. I hadn't been checking water parameters and had slowly started dosing kalkwasser. I've lost a few torch heads and just haven't seen any growth.
These are the parameters I just took, I'm getting ready to do my weekly 5 g water change for my 25 IM lagoon
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate close to 0
Phosphate .15
Calcium est 495
Kh 9
Ph 8
Mag around 1180

I'm dosing 140ml/day of kalk, dosing every 2 hrs. I have 2 more pumps that I got from a local reefer. I'm also going to start adding some easy sps. I'm running a radion g4 blue xr15 at 50% but I have a filter on it. Also run a bubble magus skimmer, and have chaeto but i havent put my grow light on it for months. Any recommendations on testing throughout the week and what numbers I should change? Was definitely going to use one of the dosers for mag and maybe ab+. Really bummed about my torches, they're my fav. Hammers really haven't been growing either. Thanks

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Sorry to hear about your dad; i hope he's ok.
Since your nitrates are 0, your corals are probably starving...
No need to test ammo and nitrite anymore.
The magnesium level you posted is low, but Mg tests are often less than reliable so keeping alk and calcium in line is a better target (and yours look fine).

What parameters does your salt mix up to? A 25% weekly water change should keep up with most of your demand, IME.

It can be difficult to keep a true mixed reef since you're basically trying to meet the needs of animals from 3 very different environments (relatively speaking).

Good luck

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Here's a good thread about magnesium

Just say NO to magnesium testing: RMM is born

OK, this thread has been many years in the making, and I'm posting it here since folks in the chem forum are probably already tired of all the threads relating to problematic magnesium testing. I'm going to propose a method, let's call it the Randy Magnesium Method, or RMM for short. All good...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Beautiful tank, BTW

 

[scotty333]

The order of adjustments should be
Test salinity or tell us the result
Stabilise kh if not already keep at 9
I prefer personally .1 po4 for a mixed reef
Nitrates raise to 10
Calcium leave if it’s 495 ( how did you “est”?)
Mag you’ll want your lfs to double check , which kit you using?) none are perfect but Salifert at least might be within 100ppm so target 1350-1450 , lots of room to increase if truely 1180
If you can raise your ph it’s better , I give a lot of importance to that , many don’t but I believe 8.2-.4 would be great , more surface agitation , introduce more fresh air ( tubing outside to your skimmer maybe or a fan blowing on the surface could help
Your 25% wc will bring most of these parameters closer to my suggestions so I would do 2-3 over a week and you should ( depending on salt mix be with more balanced )
This is what I would do to rule out “ out of whack params,
Oh and feed a little more or add some no3 product but watch your po4 if feeding more

 

[scotty333]

Tank looks good btw

 

[cbs49er]

The order of adjustments should be
Test salinity or tell us the result
Stabilise kh if not already keep at 9
I prefer personally .1 po4 for a mixed reef
Nitrates raise to 10
Calcium leave if it’s 495 ( how did you “est”?)
Mag you’ll want your lfs to double check , which kit you using?) none are perfect but Salifert at least might be within 100ppm so target 1350-1450 , lots of room to increase if truely 1180
If you can raise your ph it’s better , I give a lot of importance to that , many don’t but I believe 8.2-.4 would be great , more surface agitation , introduce more fresh air ( tubing outside to your skimmer maybe or a fan blowing on the surface could help
Your 25% wc will bring most of these parameters closer to my suggestions so I would do 2-3 over a week and you should ( depending on salt mix be with more balanced )
This is what I would do to rule out “ out of whack params,
Oh and feed a little more or add some no3 product but watch your po4 if feeding more

Thx all for responses

-Salinity is always 1.025 Hanna
-Temp 77-79
-Calcium salifert test, what was left in the syringe was in between 500-490
-Mag I tested with a salifert test, since I only dose kalk, I figured it'd be low
-Phosphate used Hanna
-Kh and ph used api
-reasoning I went with kalk dosing was bc my Calcium and ph was always low
-use tropic Marin pro
- being in an apartment and it being so hot in California makes leaving doors open hard but I'll try increase agitation
- only have 3 fish and I feel I feed a decent amount bc I distract the wrasse and clown so I can feed my Mandarin

 

[Hubert J. Farnsworth]

i'd hold off on any adding any corals, particularly sps, before you get you numbers in a range you like and stabilized.

if your salinity is fine, not sure i'd trust anything but a newly calibrated refractometer, then IMO you would be best slowly adjusting your magnesium up to where you want it. i think you can do your 20% water change first and then work on mag, maybe not more than 50 ppm per day and take a week to get it up where you want to be, or to at least what your salt mixes up to.

not only do most of us think euphyllia like higher than average mag, but more importantly adjusting calc and alk with lower levels of mag can cause some precipitation and cascading swings in calc and alk, making things worse. getting mag up first will allow you to make those changes slowly too, without any surprises.

if you aren't having algae issues now, i wouldn't be too worried about the phosphate and nitrate. yes, i'd work on getting nitrates up and phosphates down a little, but you can do that by feeding more and skimming less for the nitrates and the water change will help on phosphates.

sorry to hear about your dad. good luck getting things back on track.