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Neomarine salt parameters


crawdads57

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I didn't want to hijack the other thread going right now about salts. I have a question for those of you using Neomarine. I saw a few of you on that thread. What is with the parameters? I am 75% through a 50gal mix bag and have consistently got the following tests at 24 hours after mixing with a powerhead / heating with a little heater, Ca: 370 / Alk 2.3meq / Mag: 1170. These are way below the stated parameters. I use 135g per gallon, mixing 3 gallons at a time. I have to top off with about 3 cups more water to get it to 35ppt (1.025+ a little on a 75* refractometer). I'm pretty sure my refractometer is calibrated correctly. First of all, are you getting the proper salinity at the stated 134.5grams per gallon?

 

So I've been adding the following to my mix after I check it at 24 hours: 3mL BW Reef Code B / 20mL BW Magnesion / 7.5mL Reef Code A. In that order, that's just my habit i guess. That consistently gets me to Ca: 430 / Alk: 2.95meq / Mg: 1320, which is where I would like to be. This is after I water it back down a little to get back to 1.025-1.026 again. The 20mL of Magnesion bumps the measured salinity up quite a bit. I probably add another 1.5 cups of RODI after the supplements.

 

I use the salifert tests for Alk and Mg and the Red Sea test for Ca.

 

What am I doing wrong? I have another 50gal mix bag waiting unopened, thinking about mixing my next batch out of that just to see.

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Doing this small tank I figured I would change water twice weekly and use this as my primary route of supplementation. So while I have been able to keep my tank at a very consistent set of levels, it has only been because I spike this water every time I make my weekly batch.

 

I used reef crystals a long time ago, that was back when I wouldn't have even considered buying a test kit - and I never kept anything beyond ugly brown colony polyps. Then when I got back in to this I took a recommedation to use DD H2Ocean - it didn't do it for me, so switched to Neomarine a couple months ago, and here I am...

 

Only other supplement I use is Korallin S-plus, which is just a throw back to what I used to use for iodine to get inverts molting - it works for me and I dose it at half the recommended level and skip one week monthly.

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My Mag stays stable at 1310-1320. My Alk will fall off to 2.8meq and my Ca doesn't dip far below 420. I rarely dose some alk directly to the tank, like if it tests down towards 2.7meq. If it does test that low I'll retest Alk first and then usually I only need 3-4mL Alk in the system to get it back to 2.95. I trust my salifert Alk test, but who really knows with all of this. Big picture is that I'm not keeping any SPS, and only a few LPS. I'm sure the major consumer of Alk / Ca is my coralline algae. People have told me that I shouldn't even worry about it, that these levels are trivial to my soft corals / gorgonians and inverts, but I would rather keep it in check for the sake of getting into some SPS someday.

 

Kat, your tanks are just totally rad. What and how do you dose? Since you're using Neomarine, I would really love to know. My tank is only 4 months old. I'm upgrading my sump next week, which will increase my volume about 2 gallons to a total of 17-18 gallons. I'm also adding a frag tank to my home office, and plan to change 0.25 gal daily. It will be approximately 8 gallons with an eventual total of 10.5 if I add a sump to it. I would also probably do a slightly larger weekly change on it too.

 

I'm about set to move to another salt if I test this next bag and its not closer to the stated levels. I don't mind adjusting it a little, but having to add 20mL Magnesion to 3 gals isn;t going to work for me long term given my method.

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Thanks. I dose 2 part with dosers 24/7. My magnesium has always been low but I squirt in some magnesion almost every day without measuring. My levels are no where near "recommended" levels. And I don't mean to say this to confuse you since the hobby is new - but I have found that stability and balance is far more important than the ideal level of whichever parameter you are measuring.

 

What does that mean? If you run high phosphate and nitrate - there is nothing wrong with that as long as they are both in balance. IF one is too high compared to the other you will see signs of it. Same with Alk and Calcium and magnesium. They can all be on the lower range, or the higher range. When they are out of range of each other, is when you can experience problems.

 

I don't check my new mix, maybe I should. But I check my tank parameters maybe once a month and adjust my dosers accordingly.

Again, don't take this as a prescription for lazy reefkeeping, I just learnt that a balanced system will look happy, my tank tells me when something is off and I work to investigate and correct. When I find issues I test often. I also don't do frequent water changes except when there is a nutrient over load. But whenever I do change water i gravel vac the substrate. (be careful attempting this, only a little at each water change).

 

HTH

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