Not sure what you are describing here. Plants usually do not have an effect on general hardness, I would say. Also increases in magnesium and salinity are not directly related to no plants being used. (Or am I missing something here?)

To get proper water values in general, you should do regular and appropriate water changes, and apply chemicals in your dosing pump. Take care though, as dosing chemicals usually has indirect effects next to the intended effects.

Thanks for your reply. This is a fantastic game. You should be proud.

Does using rocks raise GH, and does the type of rock make a difference? I see that dosing can reduce GH while raising salinity. But if I'm able to fix the GH is it likely to improve Mg, Ca, and salinity. Those are my problem parameters. I think I'll restart the tank without the rocks and see what happens. I've got a heavily planted tank that runs beautifully after some trial and error.

Umm...... I was using saltwater. Let's try again shall we?

Originally posted by Astrood:

Umm...... I was using saltwater. Let's try again shall we?

Yes, great idea! :-) By the way: do you know the "Interplay" tab next to the individual charts? There you can see what parameters/concepts/things are impacting other parameters and to what amount they do.

Sorry, me again. Somehow I'm changing my water from fresh to salt after a couple of weeks. What the heck?

You might be adding heaps of chemicals -- most of them increase salinity a bit (via Ca and Mg). If Ca and Mg are not consumed, salinity increases more and more over time. Here changing water regularly might help.