Testing water

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Sharkbait-huhaha

Ok, not going to lie. I had that "What if" pondering all yesterday and this morning. So after 202 days of not checking my Alk, I borrowed a friends to check it out.

This is what I got:
reading in ml 0.52, KH value in dKH 7.3
I did a 10% WC yesterday morning, and about 2 weeks off from a 30% WC.

And you guys are all right, it all took but 2 minutes to achieve this test.

Awesome!

Honestly though, with your tank full of LPS you're walking a fine line at 7.3 dKH. That's approaching the danger zone IME.

As mentioned, softie and LPS tanks can often be maintained through waterchanges provided you're using a salt mix with elevated parameters such as Reef Crystals. If you're using IO you will usually end up being quite low in Ca since alk is elevated, but Ca is not. This is why choosing a salt mix can be quite important!

For your tank Shark bait, you can probably maintain your tank simply by adding a small dose of alk between waterchanges and then (possibly) adding some calcium to the freshly mixed saltwater to help boost Ca (if it is indeed low).

As mentioned, coralline algae can suck up a significant amount of Ca and alk to the point where it needs to be replenished to keep the corals happy. The corals aren't using up much themselves, but they will suffer when the coralline sucks it all out and they're left with peanuts!