Hello everyone! Recently I have noticed something that I cannot get a straight answer from LFS owners about so I am bringin it to the forums.
I recently realized that I had made a very bad rookie mistake. I hadn't calibrated my refractometer in a long time and I was making salt about 6 pts below what should be, thus making my tank about 1.019 Scary right! Well I fixed that problem immediately after realizing what was going on. During this time my magnesium would plummet during water changes and I found myself adding a gross amount of mag just to get up to 1350. Personally I like to keep my tank at 1400 but not higher than 1450. I also have been experimenting with adding very very small amounts of potassium to my tank after a water change. I have noticed that my cal and mag levels have steadily gone up and are very stable. I know that the salinity screw up may be playing a huge part in this, but can anyone educate me a little on how potassium could affect this as well? I have never had my levels be this stable and by that I mean I would have to test 2 or 3 times a week and dose accordingly and right now when I test, levels have not drastically dropped and I am testing less and less. Here are my stats!
160 Reef/Fish
Cal 440
Mag 1440
Kh 9
Ph 8.2-8.4 (give or take)
Sal - 1.025-1.026
BTW my corals are doing awesome. They did suffer when the salinity was low, but now that I fixed that problem 2 months ago, they are doing great. So I am not sure if it's the salinity or the potassium that's affecting everything positively. Thanks everyone and Happy Reefing!
I recently realized that I had made a very bad rookie mistake. I hadn't calibrated my refractometer in a long time and I was making salt about 6 pts below what should be, thus making my tank about 1.019 Scary right! Well I fixed that problem immediately after realizing what was going on. During this time my magnesium would plummet during water changes and I found myself adding a gross amount of mag just to get up to 1350. Personally I like to keep my tank at 1400 but not higher than 1450. I also have been experimenting with adding very very small amounts of potassium to my tank after a water change. I have noticed that my cal and mag levels have steadily gone up and are very stable. I know that the salinity screw up may be playing a huge part in this, but can anyone educate me a little on how potassium could affect this as well? I have never had my levels be this stable and by that I mean I would have to test 2 or 3 times a week and dose accordingly and right now when I test, levels have not drastically dropped and I am testing less and less. Here are my stats!
160 Reef/Fish
Cal 440
Mag 1440
Kh 9
Ph 8.2-8.4 (give or take)
Sal - 1.025-1.026
BTW my corals are doing awesome. They did suffer when the salinity was low, but now that I fixed that problem 2 months ago, they are doing great. So I am not sure if it's the salinity or the potassium that's affecting everything positively. Thanks everyone and Happy Reefing!