Your opinions on my tests.

[bagoegg]

I have an AP24 with about 23 pds lr, 20 pds LS, HOB Aquaclear fuge with chaeto. It has been set up almost 2 months. I have 1 GSP, 1 zoa, 1 xenia, 1 plate, and 1 colony polyp. 1 cleaner shrimp, 10 cerith, 5 nassarius, 2 nerite, 1 astrea, and 6 dwarf zebra hermits. My tank didnt have a cycle. I used rock from a established tank. I also do not add anything to the tank as far as chemicals go. Just running chemi pure elite. So there's that info....here are the results from my tests today. The red are from Seachem tests the rest are API.

 

Iodine - 0.055

Total Alk - 2.5 meq/L

Borate Alk - .2 meq/L

Magnesium - 1000ppm

Calcium - 400-425

KH - 8

Phosphate - 0

NO3 - 0

PH - 8.4

Amm - 0

Copper - 0

NO2 - 0

 

So according to the books with the tests my alk and mag are what natural seawater is but not the recommended levels for an aquarium. I just did a w/c on Sat. Everything is thriving. My zoas/gsp/yellow polyp are spreading like weeds. We just got the plate and xenia this weekend and they are open and seem to be ok. My shrimp has molted twice in a little over 2 weeks and eats like a pig!!! Everything seems to be doing very well. Should I be worried about trying to bring up the alk and magnesium? If so, how do I do this? The books in the test kits say to add all kinds of chemicals. Please let me know. Thanks in advance.

[EtOH_is_good]

i like your KH because that is my target. Mg needs a boost. what salt mix are you using? when did you last do a water change?

[bagoegg]

I am using Oceanic salt and did a water change on Sat.

[JustReef]

Your mag is a litle low. I think natural sea water is 1280ppm. Do you have any stony corals in your tank besides the plate? You only listed soft corals. If that's all you have then I wouldn't worry about low Mg very much. If you plan on adding LPS or SPS then you might want to raise it up by adding Epsom salts.

 

I had a simlar issue with Oceanic Salt. Shake the container before you use it. I think all the Mg sinks to the bottom. I did that and my Mg went up to 1300 after a few water changes.

[bagoegg]

Yeah just the plate is the only stony. I think we are set on the corals we have. Unless somethings dies, the only other thing we might get is another zoa to fill a empty spot. Maybe a clam in a few months. Thanks for the tip on shaking it up. I will try that this weekend.