Ideas needed for keeping plating Monti

[Tammy3770]

Originally posted by finneganswake
Because, frankly, I don't trust a test kit that only says "high" or "normal." The odds that these values are actually staying as stable as you need them to be--my alkalinity doesn't vary by more than .2 from week to week, and I can usually keep it spot on--is pretty unlikely without some kind of supplementation, as this would imply that your stonies are taking nothing out of the system.

when talking about calcium and coral growth you must take in consideration alkalinity and magnesium too,
the 3 work together if one is off then your corals cannot use the other two.

[finneganswake]

Originally posted by Tammy3770
when talking about calcium and coral growth you must take in consideration alkalinity and magnesium too,
the 3 work together if one is off then your corals cannot use the other two.

It's not really that they can't use the others, just that it's not as efficient. That being said, I'm always pimping magnesium testing and supplementation as it's the one variable that is almost always low when people break down and test it. I'm still amazed that a magnesium test kit isn't considered just as necessary as calcium and alkalinity.

[Tammy3770]

plus if your mg is low you will get the teeter-totter effect with your CA and ALK try to raise one the other will fall.
I'm shocked too about the negligence of MG.
Why waist your time fighting your ca and alk levels if you have no idea about MG?