Tested my water last night

[bkvreef]

Here's my levels that I got from testing my water last night.

Calcium                    480
kh (alkalinity)    dkH    8
                      ppm   143.2

Phosphate                 0
Nitrate                      5 ppm
Magnesium                1000ppm

Whats your thoughts.
I feed a variety of food daily.
Very rarely do I intorduce any additives (Iodine capful)
Change 15 gal. maybe once a month (Less than 10% of the 240g total volume)
Have mainly mushrooms but also bubble coral, several brains, frog spawn.

Any suggestions?

[lazylivin]

Mag is low, try and target 1300-1500. Alk is okay but keep on eye on it since it is at the low end of the spectrum. Calcium is at highend of the spectrum so if you are dosing, dose a little less, if you are not dosing dont worry about it. Reducing Nitrates through larger or more frequent water changes would be good as well.
Good Luck

[bkvreef]

So a follow up question:
How do I raise the magnesium and the alk without throwing off the rest.

Any home made ideas (baking soda, etc) would be nice!

[MSUJenn]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

[bkvreef]

I skimmed through the article Thanks!
Will read it more thoroughly later.

If I raise my alk. with the baking soda it looks like that will also raise my calcium.  Since my calcium is already at 480 will this be bad?

What about iodine?  I have xenia growing in my sump presently and I plan on moving it up to the display but I read that it is suggested to dose iodine as xenia needs/thrives with it.

[cyberwollf]

I used Epsom salt to raise my mag from 1200 to 1300 and baked baking soda to raise my alk from 6 to 8.  Just take it slow.  There are several good reefkeeping article on the chemistry and interaction between the 3

[ohioreef]

Using baking soda to raise your alk shouldn't raise your Ca.

[MechanicalEngineer]

I use a combination of Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) and magnesium chloride to raise my magnesium.