My parameters Are these ok?

Nitrates 5


Phosphates 20


Calcium 380


Alk 380


Mag 1280





Are these ok? If not what do I do?

 

What are your goals with your tank...FOWLR or reef tank goals?

 

When I was battling to get my phosphates down, I bought a phosban reactor from BRS. I've never regreted it to this day. And also, what is the ammonia level and ph?

 

Nitrates & phosphates are too high if you are going to have any SPS.

There is no such thing as a 380 alk

Calcium is low for SPS

 

Sorry X alk is almost 8. I put calcium number twice.

 

8 all is low

 

I think 8 or 9 for ALK is ideal. Try to maintain it right there.

 

Everything is low, but appears relatively balanced, a water change may be the best solution to raise to normal levels, then use kalk water or 2 part to maintain calc and alk. (That is what I do, and seems to work well)

You should probably look at additional / improved filtration, or lower feeding to bring nitrate and phosphate down. Do you have any type of algae problem?

 

Agreed. Natural seawater has dkh of 8. If your using a carbon dosing system, biopellets, zeovit or some other ULNS (ultra low nutrient system) you should never have alk above 9 or risk "alk burn." In conventional systems that rely on water changes, refugiums, and GFO primarily then you can keep alk 10-11 for added buffering capacity. Some people even say higher alk makes corals grow faster, and I think it does, but they are more brittle because they're actually forming calcite rather than carbonate. But that's another can of worms.

 

Also, before you go bombing with tons of GFO, use a very small amt to start with and take a month or more to bring your phosphates back down to 0.05ppm. Otherwise you will stress out and probably kill any SPS (if there are any).

 

I have 2 tablespoons of gfo with my carbon right now.

 

Excellent, could probably go ahead and boost that up. If it's been in there for more than 2 weeks you should change it. Throw 3 tblspn in and change it weekly I'd say, and then see where you're at in two weeks.

 

Been in there about a week now. Should I separate the carbon and gfo?