Ca/Alk/Mag Mess . . . How to fix?

[Enigma]

So, I've gotten myself into a terrible mess with Ca/Alk/Mag.

I started dosing Reef Builder a while ago to bring up my Alk. I had brought my Mag up to high levels in an attempt to battle an algae, but that killed four Mexican Turbo snails so I let the mag fall naturally. My calcium had always tested high: around 520 or so.

As it turns out, my calcium test was completely out to lunch. My new test (which has been verified against a known sample) is telling a very different story.

As it stands right now:
Alk: 8
Ca: 300
Mag: 1250

I bring up my ca, and my Alk drops. I bring up my Alk, and my ca drops. I did just dose magnesium. I have no idea what will happen as a result of that.

How, exactly, do I fix this? I have calcium, magnesium, and reef builder. Should I even bother trying to fix this with three separate products, or is there something else I should be using?

Edit: I have read Myka's guide . . . I'm just feeling like I need some specific direction.

[gregzz4]

I tried to raise my Mg recently to eradicate algae and it threw everything out of balance

I ended up mixing, testing and dosing NSW to appropriate levels, and then did WCs to fix the DT

Maybe lots of reefers are able to manipulate their tank params with spot dosing, but I'll never try to put one of the big 3 out of balance ever again

BTW, it probably didn't help me when my salt was mixing over 500 Ca

[gregzz4]

As a side note, if it were me with your readings;
I'd dose Ca @ half the recommended for a couple days, and monitor what happens, until I liked what I see

Your Alk is good, and your Mg is close enough ( you know this )
Just try a gentle attempt to balance the Ca some, but, re-test everything after 12-24 hours before you add another dose

What does your NSW test @ after 24 hours of mixing ???

[Enigma]

Hmm. What ca test are you using? I thought my salt was mixing up crazy high with the API test. It wasn't.

I'm not sure at what point it all went down the toilet.

I agree . . . Messing with one param is a very bad idea! Too bad I had to learn this the hard way.

I've been pretty lax on waterchanges over the last two months, so I don't want to change a huge amount out all at once. I did do five gallons on Thursday.

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

As a side note, if it were me with your readings;
I'd dose Ca @ half the recommended for a couple days, and monitor what happens, until I liked what I see

Your Alk is good, and your Mg is close enough ( you know this )
Just try a gentle attempt to balance the Ca some, but, re-test everything after 12-24 hours before you add another dose

What does your NSW test @ after 24 hours of mixing ???

I haven't tested this new bag of salt, yet.

[Aquattro]

I would do a 50% water change, then adjust Ca up a little, alk will probably be fine, Mg can be adjusted later if needed.

[Enigma]

Ugh. That was not the response I wanted. How about five gallons a day? 55 gallon system.

I'm worried about shocking the livestock.

[FragIt Dan]

If I were to take a guess, the reason why your dKh is dropping when you add Ca is because your inhabitants are finally getting the Ca they need to consume the carbonates. With Ca that low, I pretty much guarantee it is not precipitating out with the dKh, so that suggests your dKh is being consumed along with the Ca as soon as you are adding the Ca. I would increase your Ca and dKh dose until you see your Ca increasing and your dKh steady. Dose one when you wake up, the other when you go to bed. You may be surprised how much of these your tank goes through when it has good levels. I started dosing at 20ml dKh and had it up to 200ml/day before I could get it to stay level above 8.
Dan

[FragIt Dan]

Originally Posted by Enigma

Ugh. That was not the response I wanted. How about five gallons a day? 55 gallon system.

I'm worried about shocking the livestock.

I think you need to balance shocking the livestock with a 50% water change against the stress a 300ppm Ca level is putting on them. I have had my tank almost that low at times and lost corals because of it. +1 on Aquatro's comments... get the Ca up quick.

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by Enigma

Hmm. What ca test are you using? I thought my salt was mixing up crazy high with the API test. It wasn't.

I use Elos for Alk, Ca and Mg
My kits were close to used up, so I bought new ones and got the same readings
Although the new kits have the same expiry dates as the old ones, the new bucket is better - go figure

My IO salt was giving me such wild mixes that I started a post
It has since calmed down with a new bucket ...
Right now I get NSW;
Alk 11
Ca 460
Mg 1400

The last bucket, even though it was rolled for miles, gave me;
Alk 11
Ca 5-520
Mg 11-1250

I even did 2 to 3 tests and got the same wild readings ... what was happening

I agree with Brad, which is where I was going ...
Test your NSW and do some WCs accordingly, but I'd do the WCs after you know what your new salt is testing to and bump anything that's low, then wait a day before using