Reef Builder

[Rcpilot]

I dose mine while it's in the mixing bucket. I get my pH up to 8.4 and my Alk up to about 4.0--4.2. My calcium is always about 420--430 and I'm now dosing magnesium up to 1250-1300 in the bucket too.

I keep my tank at those same levels. The mixing bucket has a heater too, and a powerhead. When I change water, nothing in the tank even notices. Same water going in as the water I drained out. Just the new water has more trace elements in it.

It's not that hard to do. I keep water mixed up all the time. I use it on Sundays and immediately replace it. It sit all week in the mixing bucket and I work it over to have all the chemistry good by Wednesday or Thursday. Then it just sits there and mellows until Sunday. Water changes take me about 15 minutes.

[fatman]

Leave it as is. Unless you have a large amount of coral or extreme amountsof corraline algae you need no higher calcium than that provided with standard mixed water. The alkalinity is at the bottom end but still more than adequate as long as you do regular partial water changes. If not doing water regular water changes your alkalinity will start dropping slowly, and your pH will start dropping if your alkalinity drops to much, this would happen as your nutrients increase. It would be a slow process and noticeable with routine testing of pH and or alkalinity. It is safest to sit with factory mix reults as long as they fall with normal parameters and your mix does fall within normal parameters.
I am not here to fight wars or battles Rcpilot but I do get worked up too much in debate. I am sorry for my extremes and I have no problem with a truce. Seems like it is easy for me to get in Chemistry debates as it is not a field of study by many people, and I tend to think more people shouldunderstand it than are experienced in it. I do not really want to have chemistry debate with Biffer, however. That would likely be quite challenging in some areas.