Alk spike after CA reactor addition

[fatoldsun]

So hopefully someone can reassure me. Not sure how concerned I should be. I recently (2 weeks ago) added a minical calcium reactor. I took an AquaMedic Kalk reactor off line when I added the CA Rx. Water seemed a little cloudy tonight. Last time it was cloudy like that a couple snails were gettin it on so I did a round of tests just in case and I found that the Alk has spiked.
Alk was 13.332 dkh (with Hanna checker)
CA: 410
Mg: 1300
pH 8.4 with test, 7.9 using the probe from my Milwaukee controller
Nitrate: 0.0
Phosphate: 0.0

So, how concerning is 13+dkh?

 

[Jcurry@wesketch]

might want to test again, with an Alk of 13 I would expect the calcium to be lower than 410.

 

[fatoldsun]

I double checked it with my Red Sea reef kit (used fro Ca and Mg anyway) and that was higher. Like 13.7, so I think the number's close. Also I've been tracking calcium for several days b/c of the Ca Rx addition and that's been consistently at 410. Even with the Kalk I struggled to keep it over 380 and my dkh ran closer to 7 then but Kalk will only maintain.

 

[mnat]

Water change to bring it down in the meantime. Acceptable alk range is 7-12 so it is high but if you bring it back down slowly you should be ok. Looks like you need to fine tune your Cal reactor.

 

[ultracorals]

+1
if your reactor is getting too much co2 your media could be melting too quickly giving you the cloudiness high alk and high calcium readings.

tone it down a bit...

Water change to bring it down in the meantime. Acceptable alk range is 7-12 so it is high but if you bring it back down slowly you should be ok. Looks like you need to fine tune your Cal reactor.

 

[fatoldsun]

Seems to be the consensus - I posted on RC and Randy Holmes-Farley suggested the same thing. I shut of the CO2 this AM and I will re-test tonight. The water seemed to have cleared up this morning so maybe it was another snail event that I didn't happen to catch in the act - maybe some other anomaly. Point is, everything but the Alk seemed ok and the Alk as of 7 AM this morning was unchanged (13.3 dkh) but the water was clear. Also, the Ca was only 410 which I didn't think was particularly high, so I would be surprised in the cloudiness was calcium carbonate – Also, I thought if the CO2 was too heavy, my pH would be more out of whack. I calibrated the probe from the Milwaukee controller when I set up the reactor so I believe that to be fairly accurate. Of course it was vastly different from the nutrafin test which showed 8.6 (probe/controller showed 7.9) so I’m not sure which to believe. Bottom line – I shut off the CO2 and by tonight a new batch of 15g of ASW should be ready and I will change that in so about 12-15% PWC. I’ll test Alk before and an hour or so after the change – maybe also the NSW to see where that shakes out. Thanks for all the suggestions. So much for the minical being set it and forget it....

 

[ultracorals]

how did you make out...

 

[fatoldsun]

how did you make out...

Still keeping an eye on things. I did a water change and CO2 is still off and dkh was 10.9. My NSW is 6.6 and that's AquaVitro Salinity. I guess my CO2 was way too high - gonna have to tinker with the bubble counter. A day or two and I'll put the CO2 back on, cut it in half and try again. Everything's on hold until I get more reagent for the Hanna... Thanks for asking

 

[ultracorals]

keep an eye on your calcium it may spike now that your alk is coming down..

 

[fatoldsun]

keep an eye on your calcium it may spike now that your alk is coming down..

thanks - I'll check tonight when I see where the dkh is... Is there any downside to higher calcuim other than it percipitating out and wasting some of the media in the reactor?

 

[ultracorals]

it sounds to me that you caught it in time before any major problems came up. make slow adjustments.. I'm sure somewhere on here their is a calculator for making them. precip can land all over your corals and burn them out. I've seen tanks completely crash due to that kind of event. always start your reactor with a slow -low bubble count to be sure it is working properly. you can always dial it up. once you find your calcium uptake levels you will be good to go..hope it helps

 

[fatoldsun]

Alk is down to (steady at) 10.7. Ca is steady at 410-415 so I started the CO2 last night. VERY slow - 20 bubbles per minute on the counter. My regulator isn't like a $300 regulator so it's a little difficult to get the kind of confidence I'd like but it will have to be good enough. now lets see how this goes- maybe I just don't need CO2 - just means I need more coral to amp up demand.
anyway, I need to get back to focus on my light build b/c I need that before I can really add anything and hope to be successful....