Getting color in my lr?

[Travis]

My tank has been running six months now with 65lb of lr. I started the tank with 55lg of base rock and I added some live rock to start the cycle. My question is why isnt the rock I added six months ago have any color on it? It has a pale green from algae I am guessing. Should there be reds and purples showing? What am I missing?

[trent51593]

What are your alk,cal,and mag. lvls?

[Travis]

I use ro/di water. The water perameters are perfect. I never thought I would need test kits for alk, cal and mag. Is there a kit I can buy for this instead of 3 differ test kits?

So these levels will effect the color in my tank? Will these I am guessing low levels hurt my anemone? He seems healthy.

Thanks

[Travis]

I have a ph test kit. I also have a gh and kh freshwater test kit from aquarium pharmaceuticals. Is this what your referring to?

[Stingray]

thats one of them,Alkalinity, but calcium & magnesium is something else

[trent51593]

Yea your calcium & magnesium play a role in giveing you coraline algea. If your parameters are in check then you will start to see your rock come to life. I use Salifert test kit for my Mag., I will eventually be buying all Salifert as I feel they are pretty accurate. But I am not expert on all of this, you will have to wait to see if Tangster or Otty chime in to see what they have to say.

[Iraf]

i know calcium plays a huge role in coraline growth, the rest I'm not sure on, also some say you can scrape a small amount of coraline off a peice of liverock and kind of smash it in the tank to release spores into the water, they'll attach themselves to the rock and start to grow, never tried it though

[trent51593]

Originally Posted by Iraf

i know calcium plays a huge role in coraline growth, the rest I'm not sure on, also some say you can scrape a small amount of coraline off a peice of liverock and kind of smash it in the tank to release spores into the water, they'll attach themselves to the rock and start to grow, never tried it though

Magnesium aslo plays a role, it keeps your alk and calc. in check with each other. Its keeps them stable instead of all over the place. If you are having a hard time keeping either Alk or Calc. in stable check your mag its probably low. I am going through this now, I am currently dosing my tank with Epsom salt to raise my mag.

[R34dawn]

People talk about epson salt as a magnesium source but I think that only raises salinity in the water, im also going through the same thing and my CA is outrageous 560ppm, there for i know my mg. is low dkh 13º and the ph 8.2 to 8.4, I added epson salt and haven't seen any significant change or any change at all do to my CA readings i think that be worthed to
just get some mg. buffer like reef advantege mg. or tech-m

>))))*>

[trent51593]

Originally Posted by R34dawn

People talk about epson salt as a magnesium source but I think that only raises salinity in the water, im also going through the same thing and my CA is outrageous 560ppm, there for i know my mg. is low dkh 13º and the ph 8.2 to 8.4, I added epson salt and haven't seen any significant change or any change at all do to my CA readings i think that be worthed to
just get some mg. buffer like reef advantege mg. or tech-m

>))))*>

If you read the back of the epsom salt it says (i think) magnesium sulfate 100%. I put 2 cups of it in 1 gal. of RODI water and mixed it very well. Then i took 2 cups of water out of it and added it to the tank. In 2 hours i checked it again and it raised my Mag. 200 ppm which is to much, do not go over 100 ppm in a 24 hr period. Tangster uses it ask him about it.