Help: Some of my test results are worrying

[newreefer_59]

Have a 150 gallon reef tank up and running for one year to this point. Some LPS and SPS coral and 5 fish, some cleaner shrimp and snails/crabs. I do a 15% water change EVERY 10 days. My last tests a day after the last W/C (yesterday) were:

Calcium ~350
Magnesium ~1200
KH ~ 6
PH ~ 8.7

All other tests looked fine. The tank and critters all look fine too, except my small clove polyp softie all died after it has been there for about 6 months.

I have been dosing Calcium, Magnesium and KH from those Coralife store bought bottles......Is there something I can do to bring these levels back.

Please advise......much appreciated!

[christyf5]

I dunno, your levels don't look *that* bad to me. Odds are, your SPS and LPS are growing in your tank and your ca/mg demand is higher than it used to be. You could dose calcium/magnesium/alk in higher amounts if you wanted or just increase the levels in your waterchange water. Odds are you might need to look at a calcium reactor or automatic doser to supplement calcium as eventually it will be difficult to keep up with dosing. There are several vendors on this board that sell calcium chloride, magnesium chloride/sulfate and sodium bicarbonate to keep your parameters in check, you might want to go that route.

What salt are you using?

[Marlin65]

I had some cloves die on me as well as star polyps most people say those are a pest, but I can't keep them alive. Sometimes things just die. If everything else is good I would not worry to much.

[newreefer_59]

but changed to a box of Meersaltz (on a LFS recommendation) and have just started using Instant Ocean when the Meersaltz ran out. Maybe part of the problem was the change in salts?

[Leah]

Hey you!

That could very well be part of it.

[newreefer_59]

I will stick with Instant Ocean going forward (really no choice as I bought 3 pails of the stuff....lol)

Anyway, so should I just keep dosing Mag and Calcium as I have been, or is something more radical in order?

[fishytime]

If you suddenly changed salts that could be the problem......I always recommend to customers that you start mixing the different salts together when there is roughly half a bucket of the original salt left, if you can.....this will lesson the potential for a shock to the system......

IO is low in all of the big three (Ca Mg and DKH).....a better choice would have been "reef crystals" by IO.....it has elevated levels of the "big three"....like Christy said, your levels arent that bad, so a minor adjustment in how much you dose should help bump those levels up......

[newreefer_59]

Based on the results I was getting (versus the applicable safe ranges) I was thinking there could something really wrong. Will monitor going forward.

[Leah]

Opps!

[Leah]

Len

I am still waiting for an e mail from you! :wink: