Calcium/Alk all wrong - I need help

[gdtpgh]

I rec'd my latest test results. It's been about a month of dosing calc chloride and occasionally some buffer recently. Calcium is up as is alkalinity. I still need to fix Magnesium though. About 2 weeks ago it was at its lowest 910. Apparently I need quite a bit of supplement to make an adjustment of the magnitude I need but I did get it moving in the right direction.

All in all though things are looking better in the tank although I am getting a bloom of cyano in spots. I assume it's the high Molybdenum doing that? I still don't believe the Silica reading. My Silicabuster filter is relatively new and TDS meter is showing zero coming out of the RO unit.

I stopped dosing the Kalk and now I started the Bionic two part dosing routine.

Ammonia (NH3-4) Good 0.008
Nitrite (NO2) Good 0.003
Nitrate (NO3) Good 0.6
Phosphate (PO4) Good 0.02
Silica (SiO2-3) High 0.8
Potassium (K) Low 297
Calcium (Ca) High 435
Boron (B) Good 5.8
Molybdenum (Mo) High 0.2
Strontium (Sr) Good 6.6
Magnesium (Mg) Low 963
Iodine (I¯) Good 0.04
Copper (Cu++) Good 0.00
Alkalinity (meq/L) Good 2.88

Any further comments on my results or recommendations on other actions I should be taking? When should I attempt another Acro?

George

 

[ChrisRD]

I've used the Magnesium Chloride from Bulk Reef Supply (formerly Two-Part Solution) a few times with no ill effects.

Once you get your mag tweaked your numbers look good. Try a cheap frag and see how it goes... :wink:

 

[gdtpgh]

It's a good news/bad news update. Here are the results of my latest tests after making an addition of 1 gallon of Randy's Magnesium solution. I'm frustrated. This is like fixing your car door only to have the bumper fall off. I've been at this for months and now for some reason my copper!, boron, molybdenum and iodine level are now high. I know, I need to do water changes but I'm worried it will correct the above items but blow something else back out of proportion. I don't mind maintaining my tank but I can't seem to get things anywhere near right.

In general observation of the tank, the SPS are much much better with full polyp extension. Fish are ok but over the last couple months I've lost 3 firefish and one chromis. I also added a seahorse in my refugium last week and it's gone already. It was eating well too. I am also suffering from diatoms (due to silca level?) and algea outbreaks over a few areas.

I'm open to suggestions....got anything for me to do besides water changes? How big/frequent should they be? Also, how do I make sure the water changes don't screw up my calcium, alkalinity and magnesium levels that took me so long to get where they are?

Ammonia (NH3-4) Good 0.007
Nitrite (NO2) Good 0.005
Nitrate (NO3) Good 1.0
Phosphate (PO4) Good 0.09
Silica (SiO2-3) High 0.8
Potassium (K) Low 260
Calcium (Ca) Good 351*
Boron (B) High 7.0
Molybdenum (Mo) High 0.2
Strontium (Sr) Good 9.8
Magnesium (Mg) Good 1150
Iodine (I¯) High 0.16
Copper (Cu++) High 0.04
Alkalinity (meq/L) Good 3.39

*per the lab this is the amount of free calcium. Total calcium could be 10-20% higher

George

 

[ChrisRD]

I think if you look at some of your numbers that are "low/high" and then look at the study this same lab did on hobby salts you will see some trends (ie. some of those numbers are close to what they were getting with freshly mixed hobby salts)...

I bet if you did detailed lab analysis like this on some of the best reef tanks out there you'd find some wacky trace element numbers (in relation to seawater levels). The major parameters look fine to me. If you're using good source water, a decent salt, and everything looks fine in the tank, I wouldn't be overly concerned. You can drive yourself crazy trying to achieve "perfect" numbers.

To make sure water changes don't take you off course with your major numbers like Ca/Alk/Mg, just test the batch the first time you use it to mix up some water and adjust accordingly. Personally, I don't check again until I run out of salt and move on to the next batch...

Your elevated silica may be a source water issue and could be contributing to the algae situation, but by the looks of your numbers I see nothing that I would attribute to fish deaths.

JMO of course...