Use different salt on a fairly new tank?

I've had my tank for about a bit over a month and all the parameters are good but for some reason I have to dose some Kent Liquid Calcium. I have to add a bit of calcium every other day. Also should I use a different salt other than instant ocean?

* Ammonia - 0ppm
* Nitrite - 0ppm
* Nitrate - 0ppm
* pH - 8.2
* Hardness - 10dKH
* Calcium - 270ppm
* Phosphate - 0ppm





If you want to see more pictures and a better write-up of everything I have:
http://rashedtalukder.com/index.php...er&catid=34:my-projects-and-hobbies&Itemid=56

I seem to have to dose my tank now with calcium or else my corals are not happy and it dips below 350ppm. I do water changes every week but I would like to start doing it every other week since everything else seems to be fine other than the calcium. I just hope my tank doesn't crash or something at this point. Any suggestions would be helpful.

BTW, it is so hard to get good pictures of a tank. I am using a older point and shoot and it never seems to come out that great. My pictures are heavily compressed also btw, so I can save some loading time for everyone.

 

IO is primarily intended for FO and FOWLR tanks. It is always going to be low on calcium. If you want to stay with that company, both Reef Crystals and Kent Marine salt are IO with added Calcium and Magnesium.

 

I use Red Sea Salt -- When I started both my tanks I dosed twice the calcium and Purple up that the directions said for the first week. This got my levels up and kept them stable.. Just my 2 cents.

 

IO is a well balanced salt. You have to add calcium to make up water because it is low in calcium, but you will find every salt has its problems. For example I also use red sea coral pro whenever my LFS is out of IO. With red sea it has high calcium the the KH is too low, so I have to use something to raise the ALK.

I think if you were to bump up your level of calcium in your tank to 420, your tank will do better at maintaining that level. It's a balance between KH and calcium, if they are out of balance, the higher one will drive the lower one to even lower. If you bump your calcium up to 420 that is a pretty good balance for 11KH. Then you should find yourself dosing equal parts of calcium and alk, eventually they will get a little unbalanced again and you will have to add a bit more of one then the other.

I see you tested on 25th December, it said 400 Calcium and 8.5 kh. Did you dose anything to bring up your kh to 11? It's possible you added a bit too much and some of it precipitated (I think that's the right word) and "used" up your calcium. 130ppm calcium "usage" in less than 4 days with your tank, without any Stonies, and not a lot of coralline growing is much more than normal, but like I said most important thing is a balanced relationship between cal and alk.

How did I write this much and forget to mention MAG.... wow... You also need to test your MAG, it is important to keeping the relationship with cal and alk stable. A good number to shoot for is about 1350ppm.

 

Someone on another forum has been speaking highly of oceanic salt and said he hasn't had to dose anything. I did add some buffer to increase the KH but that might be why my calcium went down so much. Once I run out of IO (going to be soon) I will probably try the Oceanic and report back. I just think it's kind of weird how much the salts vary. I just want my tank to do well. I get a lot of enjoyment from just coming home and sitting in front of it for a while and relaxing.

I heard from two sources that there is really no good way to measure Mg. Any recommendations on test kits that specifically target Mg?

Also any specific calcium that you would recommend? I have been using Kent's Liquid Concentrated Calcium.

 

In my personal experience, i have tried EVERY salt known to man. Tried RC, very good but always low in Mg, had a hard time keeping my levels up to par, Red Sea Coral Pro.... don't even get me started with that one, VERY inconsistent with calcium and Mg levels, as you get down towards the bottom of the bucket you can get calcium levels of up to 500 ppm!!! Ive been using D-D's H2Ocean and every time i do a water change my params are 99% spot on with what their site says for 35ppt. If anyone is getting low with their salt i would HIGHLY reccommend it!!

 

NanoReefer have you tried the H2Ocean Magnesium Pro PLUS Salt ?

Thats all i use now, its perfect. Eversince i started using this it has been so much easier to balance my pH.

Parameters when mixed to a S.G: of 1.025 @ 25°C = 35.5 ppt

Parameters Level Range Units
pH 8.3 8.2-8.4
dKH 9.3 8.7-9.8
Calcium (Ca2+) 440 430-460 mg/l
Magnesium (Mg2+) 1340 1300-1380 mg/l
Chloride (Cl-) 19550 19960-20130 mg/l
Potassium (K+) 410 380-420 mg/l

 

If IO is so low in calcium for everyone, I still wonder why I have a high calcium issue...?

 

whoops, ya that's the one i use, forgot about the actual name... i didn't think they made a regular salt, i thought it was just the Mg pro plus...?

how much are you dosing?