Should I...

If you ever start getting SPS, you will need to start testing calcium alkalinity and magnesium. Once you see these levels start to drop, its time to upgrade to reef salt. You may want to change salts beforehand, because SPS can be finicky to changes. Once the reef salt can't keep up with it, then its time to start dosing. Its much easier to change salts then to dose. I did weekly 25% wc's for a long time to avoid it. Now I have a dosing pump so its much easier.

 

Thanks. Just got a new bucket of salt a couple weeks ago, maybe I'll switch once it is gone. What are good levels to maintain for corals. Just did my first test for calcium and magnesium here are the results.

Salinity = 1.024
Alk = 7.6
Phosphate = 0
Calcium = 375
Magnesium = 1160

 

I use red sea coral pro for the elevated levels of mag,cal even though I have mostly soft corals.It has increased corailine growth without any dosing which is what I like about it.If you find you want mostly stony corals then you'll need to do more testing of mag,cal,and alk and may need to dose.

 

May I ask what type of corals you plan on keeping? I mean since you don't have any SPS, you can probably get away with those levels. My tank is mostly SPS, with some LPS and zoas, and I try to keep my levels Ca-450 Mg-1400 Alk-9.

For future reference, if you do plan on dosing in the future, I can tell you that the first thing you would want to do is dose Mg. Your mag is what is limiting your Ca (aka if you increase your Mg, you will see your calcium go up too... In simple terms, corals use the calcium and alkalinity. However, these two compounds want to bind in the water, before the coral uses them. This is not ideal. The presence of magnesium prevents them from binding until the coral uses them. You want set your Mg at approximately 3.1 your target Ca value. In your case, it is almost exactly 3.1x. For example, I want my Ca to be 450 ppm. 450 x 3.1 is about 1400 ppm.

 

I have not really decided yet as to which corals I want. I do know that I want a mixed reef setup. Any suggestions for a beginner?

 

I've never had to switch from one salt to another but if i had to do it i think i would start mixing my old salt with new salt to diminish the stress on the fish. kind of like when you switch dog food... Any reasons this would be a bad idea guys? Again though, if you are only going to be keeping softies; probably not much point in switching. I'd only switch if you were going to move to LPS or especially SPS.

 

You may be better off just doing small water changes with the new water over a week or so. Similar to when you acclimate a new fish..

 

That was my thought as well. Once I do decide to switch, I was going to use the new salt for my weekly 10% water changes. So in theory it would take about two and a half months to completely changeover my system.

 

You should have no problems with a 10% change.If you continue with the weekly water changes you should also not need to dose anything unless you become heavily stocked on stony corals or clams.