I call it natural sea water, same idea. Here is a good link that talks about important parameters to watch.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

i use seachem reef builder but baking SODA will also work

Ok for now Im going to have to go with Baking Soda since I cant run to the fish store right now, but is there a rule of thumb or anything for how much one table spoon effects x amount of gallons of water or anything?

Also, as I raise my Mg and Ca levels as well, I see it effects my Kh, but what other levels are typically effected by trying to raise these three levels?

Ok Im just going to use this thread as a log until I can get my levels in a good range.

So after dosing my tank with 10 capfuls of tailored aquatics magnesium here are my new readings one day later:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - Very low, near 0
pH - 8.3 --> 8.3
Calcium - <400 > 380 --> < 400
Phosphate - 0 - 0.25 --> >.25 < 0.5
Magnesium - 1150 --> 1250
kH - < 110 mg/L CaCo3 --> < 110 mg/L CaCo3
Iron - I didnt test for this but could if needed.

Ok so I am going to dose in some Baking Soda to raise my Kh closer to 130 ppm.

I ran those numbers into the calculator and it said I need to dose in about 5.4 teaspoons of the stuff, but that I shouldnt add it all at once.

How much do you think I should add tonight, keeping note of my other parameters, also keeping in mind that it will effect my pH?

Also, how exactly will it effect my pH? Will it raise it or lower it? How do I readjust it once it does get effected?

In my experience adding lots of baking soda will raise your PH too much.
Just add a bit at a time to get it around 8 or higher. You can bump your magnesium up a bit too 1300-1500 is good.
You want to maintain consistence as that is the most important keep things stable.:wink:

How much baking soda is "a bit" in comparison to a 200G tank? The calculator said I could add 5.4 teaspoons to raise it to 1.3 for instance but it said not to do it all at once. What do you guys suggest?

Also so it will change my pH from 8.3 to higher as in 8.5+? or what? Sorry, Im wet behind the ears... No pun intended... lol

Ok so I just put in 2 teaspoons then for now. I'll see what people say about that and also test again tomorrow.

Results after the Baking Soda Dosing of two teaspoons:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - Very low, near 0
Salinity - Right around 1.028 (I'm going to scoop a bit of SW out and add some RODI to correct this to 1.027 since I hadn't tested it in a while)
pH - 8.3 --> between 8.1 and 8.3 (hard to read)
Calcium - < 400 --> <400
Phosphate - 0 - 0.25 --> >.25 < 0.5
Magnesium -1250 --> 1150
kH - < 110 mg/L CaCo3 --> < 120

So today's test results were somewhat what I expected.

The only one I found funny was my magnesium reading. It dropped 100 ppm in the last 4 days. During that time I only added 2 teaspoons of baking soda to raise my kH. Is that normal?

Perhaps my corals were just dying for some magnesium.

Im going to dose a couple things today now that I kind of understand how all of this works together. I'll try to get my parameters close to in check. Then what Im going to do is leave it for a little while, maybe 3-7 days to see how the levels drop. Then I'll retop them to where I want them. Do a water change, and see how a water change effects my levels. Then I'll know how my tank is changing levels no matter what Im doing to it and then I can work on just keeping them stable by dosing my auto top off reservoir for how much I lose during day to day changes and then I can dose my fresh batches of SW everytime I change my water too.