Should I bump up my Mg

[gotfish]

My name is gotfish and I'm an Oceanic salt user. :|

To be honest, I've never had any sort of problems with it. I used it on my 29g for 9 months, but that was just a softy tank and now I'd like to get into SPS/clams and my question on it is my Ca tests around 500 which is normal from everything I've read. I just setup the tank 2 weeks ago and when I first set it up, the Mg tested at 1250, using a salifert test, so I brought that up to around 1350. Is 1350 high enough since the Ca is 500?

The other question, my Alk is around 7 right now. I dosed 50ppm yesterday and tested it again today and it hasn't gone up yet. According to the calculator I use it should have brought it up 1dkh. Is it the imbalance in the Ca and Mg the reason why the Alk isn't reacting?

 

[gotfish]

Lol, after reading this this morning, I don't know what I was thinking as far as the Alk part. I meant ot say 50ml which would bring my Alk up 1 degree, not 50ppm. Anyway, question still stands.

 

[returnofsid]

Mg should be 3X your Ca, though a Ca of 500 is quite a bit higher than needed and of no extra benefit to any tank inhabitants at that level. The imbalance could be effecting Alks ability to rise, or it could have something to do with such a high Ca level. IMO, I'd consider letting your Ca level fall into the 420-430 range and then balance Alk and Mg accordingly

 

[gotfish]

Any ideas on how to do that other then not doing a water change for a month? The Ca level of my fresh mixed is about 500-520 using the Oceanic salt.

The really crappy thing is I just bought a new 200g bucket of the Oceanic salt so I don't wanna just be flushing the money down the drain and switch salts. Is it possible to cut the Oceanic salt with another salt without causing problems?

 

[returnofsid]

WOW, I had no idea that Oceanic was that high in Ca!! I have no idea about mixing salt brands to get a lower Ca. Maybe Boomer will chime in soon with his opinions. LOL I guess you could toss in a bunch of Halimeda to soak up the Ca. That sure wouldn't be a long term solution though. Water changes would just replace the high Ca.