Dosing - can't find the right levels.

[Maverick00]

Originally Posted by fishytime

the calcium checker has been in stores for a few weeks

really? i havent seen it here yet, Ill have to pick one up!

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by Maverick00

really? i havent seen it here yet, Ill have to pick one up!

try Red Coral Online

[Myka]

Originally Posted by fishytime

try Red Coral Online

Shameless self-promotion.

[mark]

for the Ca tester some negative threads here and other forums about ease of use (lack of) and non-repeatability.

[doch]

Originally Posted by mark

for the Ca tester some negative threads here and other forums about ease of use (lack of) and non-repeatability.

Yeah, I'm not 100% sold on this one.... err... well.. I guess I am since I bought one... lol. I do trust my elos Ca, so I'll go home and test with both and see what's up. The Phosphate and Alk ones seem great!

[Tracey2]

Sailfert is good for mag, I would definitely replace your elos if its going up wihtout adding. I like the alk & phosphate hanna but am not loving the calcium and feel I have to double check it with my sailfert, disappointing to have to have 2 test kits. I find if I focus on alk and keeping it steady everything else falls into place, unless calcium is really high making it difficult to maintain alk, I test alk, calculate dose and just dose calcium equally.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by doch

The main one that concerns me though is the Mg... if I'm not dosing Mg, and the levels are going up... WTF!? How do I get it down to 1350 if that's the case? Something is not right. I don't trust the Mg test kit. What is a good brand of Mg test kit?

If your inhabitants are too concerned about it, I don't think you should be either. Honestly, I think there is some testing or kit discrepancies. It takes a TON of Mg to go from 1300-1900 Mg. To give you an idea I use about 1 cup of Mg mix to go up by 100 ppm on my 90 gallon tank.

I have had no issues using Salifert for Mg (I use Elos for Cal and Alk). I haven't used the Elos kit for Mg.

You didn't say which salt you're using. Have you done any water changes in the time that you have been messing with the dosing?

[doch]

UN-#$%&ing-believable.

Come home today and run a test.

Mg... same as yesterday... this to me is positive believe it or not.
Ca... Hanna Checker says 486, Elos says somewhere between 250 and 300. Judging from the comments here, I'm going to side with the Elos, and give dirty looks to the Hanna.
Alk. F. FFFFFFF. I can't believe it. Tested yesterday... ~5dKh, added a little alk raiser.... 14.8. WTF!?!?!? I'm running 250 gallons of water... I added approximately 2 heaping spoons worth of this stuff along with the normal daily dose. Seriously?
Dosing pump for the Alk is off... I'll test again tomorrow... hopefully it comes down.

BTW... I also ran out of the Hagen KH test fluid, so I can't comment on the difference between the 2. Last i checked though, they were very close to the same. What's with the Hanna Ca Checker? They sure seem to have pooped the bed on this one... 200 ppm off of the Elos? Wow.

[Myka]

So right now the only doser running is the calcium? I would just leave it like that and alkalinity and Mg will sort itself out.

Boost your calcium up to 450 ppm (over 24 hours)...this will lower the alkalinity a bit. I have had alkalinity up to 19 dKH before it started to irritate corals.

Did you have dosers before the move?

[doch]

Originally Posted by Myka

So right now the only doser running is the calcium? I would just leave it like that and alkalinity and Mg will sort itself out.

Boost your calcium up to 450 ppm (over 24 hours)...this will lower the alkalinity a bit. I have had alkalinity up to 19 dKH before it started to irritate corals.

Did you have dosers before the move?

Yeah, I did. That's the thing... it went so smoothly the first time around. I set them up, guessed at 20 mL/day, tested the next week, adjusted to 25mL/day, and it was perfect. Done.

I'll add a little Ca and try again tomorrow. Thanks