Ca/Alk/Mag Mess . . . How to fix?

[gregzz4]

I tried to raise my Mg recently to eradicate algae and it threw everything out of balance

I ended up mixing, testing and dosing NSW to appropriate levels, and then did WCs to fix the DT

Maybe lots of reefers are able to manipulate their tank params with spot dosing, but I'll never try to put one of the big 3 out of balance ever again

BTW, it probably didn't help me when my salt was mixing over 500 Ca

[gregzz4]

As a side note, if it were me with your readings;
I'd dose Ca @ half the recommended for a couple days, and monitor what happens, until I liked what I see

Your Alk is good, and your Mg is close enough ( you know this )
Just try a gentle attempt to balance the Ca some, but, re-test everything after 12-24 hours before you add another dose

What does your NSW test @ after 24 hours of mixing ???

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

As a side note, if it were me with your readings;
I'd dose Ca @ half the recommended for a couple days, and monitor what happens, until I liked what I see

Your Alk is good, and your Mg is close enough ( you know this )
Just try a gentle attempt to balance the Ca some, but, re-test everything after 12-24 hours before you add another dose

What does your NSW test @ after 24 hours of mixing ???

I haven't tested this new bag of salt, yet.

[Enigma]

Hmm. What ca test are you using? I thought my salt was mixing up crazy high with the API test. It wasn't.

I'm not sure at what point it all went down the toilet.

I agree . . . Messing with one param is a very bad idea! Too bad I had to learn this the hard way.

I've been pretty lax on waterchanges over the last two months, so I don't want to change a huge amount out all at once. I did do five gallons on Thursday.

[Aquattro]

I would do a 50% water change, then adjust Ca up a little, alk will probably be fine, Mg can be adjusted later if needed.

[Enigma]

Ugh. That was not the response I wanted. How about five gallons a day? 55 gallon system.

I'm worried about shocking the livestock.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Enigma

I'm worried about shocking the livestock.

How? Clean water?

Typical water isn't going to have levels much higher than you have now, and you can then fine tune.

[MKLKT]

Originally Posted by Enigma

Ugh. That was not the response I wanted. How about five gallons a day? 55 gallon system.

I'm worried about shocking the livestock.

If you did 5 gallon changes separately you'd be getting diminished returns over just doing 50%.

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by MKLKT

If you did 5 gallon changes separately you'd be getting diminished returns over just doing 50%.

I have rheumatoid arthritis. Even working with 5 gallons of water is painful. I'll take the diminished returns over agony.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by Enigma

Hmm. What ca test are you using? I thought my salt was mixing up crazy high with the API test. It wasn't.

I use Elos for Alk, Ca and Mg
My kits were close to used up, so I bought new ones and got the same readings
Although the new kits have the same expiry dates as the old ones, the new bucket is better - go figure

My IO salt was giving me such wild mixes that I started a post
It has since calmed down with a new bucket ...
Right now I get NSW;
Alk 11
Ca 460
Mg 1400

The last bucket, even though it was rolled for miles, gave me;
Alk 11
Ca 5-520
Mg 11-1250

I even did 2 to 3 tests and got the same wild readings ... what was happening

I agree with Brad, which is where I was going ...
Test your NSW and do some WCs accordingly, but I'd do the WCs after you know what your new salt is testing to and bump anything that's low, then wait a day before using