Should I wait ... or should I play with chemistry?

[Proteus]

I'd like to know what you have for fish. What's your setup. Amount of flow. Canister or sump what makes you think fish are not all that happy. Got coral or nems

[subman]

your alk is low for sure I would bring that up. Once the alk and CA are in balance the corals will take off

[11purewater]

why are you using ozone?

[Seriak]

Your Alk is fine. What is your Mg at?

[jon in alberta]

Originally Posted by Seriak

Your Alk is fine. What is your Mg at?

good call. I was wondering if I needed to by that test kit. I have good salt (with sufficient Mg) and do water changes about every 3 weeks. further, i have Mg dosing solution but don't plan to tie it to an automatic doser like the Ca and Alk.

[Seriak]

Originally Posted by jon in alberta

good call. I was wondering if I needed to by that test kit. I have good salt (with sufficient Mg) and do water changes about every 3 weeks. further, i have Mg dosing solution but don't plan to tie it to an automatic doser like the Ca and Alk.

I recently started having some RTN and STN on some of my SPS and my readings for Mg were in the 1100 range, but I also had a low Alk (5.5dkh). As soon as I corrected these my corals recovered and really started to take off. I did weekly water changes (Reef crystals), but it was not enough to get the extra Mg boost I needed. I am switching to H20 salt to hopefully alleviate my Mg problem without having to dose.

This is why I asked about your Mg.

[jon in alberta]

Originally Posted by Seriak

I recently started having some RTN and STN on some ...

I'm still kinda new: what is RTN and STN?

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by Seriak

I did weekly water changes (Reef crystals), but it was not enough to get the extra Mg boost I needed.

Strangely enough when i used RC on my 97 and 404 I rarely ever used any of my Mg chems. It was always at 1400 but I was never sure how lol.

[jon in alberta]

Originally Posted by subman

your alk is low for sure I would bring that up. Once the alk and CA are in balance the corals will take off

ok, thanks - alk up to what constitutes balanced?

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by jon in alberta

ok, thanks - alk up to what constitutes balanced?

Check out this article by Randy Holmes-Farley. It will explain everything. You'll know what balanced is after this.

As for Alk... there's no right answer, but rather an acceptable range. I would actually consider yours perfectly balanced. No need to worry. Once the corals start to take off you see your levels drop and that'll be the time to fire up the dosers.

I consider your pH a touch on the low side, but not problematic. A better skimmer will probably boost this up a bit with better aeration.

How many corals do you have? What kind of corals? What kind of lighting? How often and how much of water changes are you doing? (the water changes might be replenishing your levels, hence no need to dose).