Can't keep alk up. Need advice.

All 3 levels have to be in range for the coral to utilize it. Alk is used the quickest out of the 3. When you experience low alk like you are your experiencing an ionic imbalance. Get your mag up to 1400-1420 and things will stable out. Dose alk until you get it where you want and then dose accordingly to keep all 3 levels in balance. I use aquavitro since it's designed to dose all 3 within 15 minutes of eachother, others require waiting a day or cloudy water. Since your alk is low dose that it night to help with ph swings.

 

I just checked my parameters. Mag 1530, Ca 450, Alk 8. I want my Alk higher than this so i would only dose Alk to raise it? or do I need to dose Alk and Ca?

 

Isn't nsw 1300-1350 mag?

 

Just alkalinity

 

There's nothing natural about out tanks so personally I would throw "natural" salt water params out the window. The red sea has a SG 1.031 but that doesn't mean I'm gonna keep my tank at that salt gravity because I have a purple tang. The main thing we're trying to do is maintain a balance in our system and different bioload and how many corals are in a tank have an impact on the params. My reef tank requires dosing alk daily to maintain a 9-10 dkh due to how many corals I have and what they use in the water. I keep my mag at 1400-1420, Cal at 450-460.

 

Gotchya, gonna bring my mag up a lil and dose more alk and see how it goes.

 

Sounds like a plan. Remember these levels need to rise slowly so be patient. Once you get your params where you want then you can keep track and actually see what your corals are using and dose accordingly.