A little to much algae & Ca and Mg high.

[Irishman360]

First off is the algae. I have a decent size of CUC for my tank but it seems like they can't keep up with the algae that is growing on the sand. I feed my two fish twice a day and mysis shrimp twice a week, my light is on a 12hr cycle as well. Should I get more CUC to control it better?

My last water change was a week ago and I just tested my parameters and my Ca & Mg are still high, Ca = 480, Mg = 1720. I am using Fritz salt, do they tend to run high or is there something else that is going on that I am unaware about?

[Sk8r]

Your algae problem is likely due to high phosphate. Run a GFO reactor (ultimately cheaper than more snails) and after a few months (change the medium monthly until you see improvement start) you should be algae-free. That MG is through the roof. Do some 20% weekly water changes with a different salt mix, and see if you can pull that reading down to 1500.

[rt67ghy]

Are you sure your Mg is that high? No matter what salt you're using no reef salt will have that much Mg (it'd be too expensive). I'd get someone else to test your Mg or try a different test kit. Your reading would make sense if you've been dosing Mg heavily.

[Irishman360]

Your algae problem is likely due to high phosphate. Run a GFO reactor (ultimately cheaper than more snails) and after a few months (change the medium monthly until you see improvement start) you should be algae-free. That MG is through the roof. Do some 20% weekly water changes with a different salt mix, and see if you can pull that reading down to 1500.

My phosphate test read zero on it. However I am going to get another test kit to compare. Does fritz salt usually have high readings for MG and CA?

[Irishman360]

Went to two LFS today to find out some information about the questions I asked. One of the LFS said that Fritz salt mix does tend to have high MG in it, told him what mine ranged at and was surprised by it. He also stated that the MG isn't really going to harm the corals because its a buffer essentially and that I should be worried about it when it goes really off the charts. I did test my salt mix when I got home where I have a pump running on it 24/7 and got the same results. I have been using this mix for about a month now and still no harm to my tank. I have about 20 gallons still left of it mixed and a whole another bucket of salt still. What are your opinions on this and what my LFS said? Am I okay to use the salt still?

I also got another test kit for my phosphate and tested my DT when I got home and still read zero. The second LFS said that since I have so much algae that i wont get a phosphate reading because the algae is sucking it up to fast in order for me to get a good reading. I did get a GFO reactor and have that running now, the LFS did recommend I remove some of the algae that's on the gravel though so I'm not overworking the reactor though. Anyone got any thoughts on this as well?

[CStrickland]

I think the lfs might be getting confused with the balling method salt-free salts that fritz markets. They are just all the other stuff that you buy salt for, without the NaCl. It's basically like dosing 2part, or how people talk about trace minerals. So instead of dosing and doing buffed wcs, you dose the trace minerals as a NaCl free "salt" you buy from fritz, and then add actual salt to the water for water changes. I think. It's one of those things that's juuust complicated enough for me not to bother.
Maybe your lfs was thinking of that when they said Frits salt is high mg
The regular salt they sell isn't. Assuming you are shaking up the salt before you measure.