I have always been sort of a "small time" hobbiest. I just moved up from a 55 to a 75 and am taking a more serious approach to maintenance and the health of my inhabitants. So, I got all I need to set up an automated 2 part calcium alkalinity supplement system and last night I did some tests to try to figure out where to start and how much I need to adjust my levels before automating. My results were a little puzzling though. I hope someone can help. My calcium level was 415 and my alkalinity was 14.7 I really am not a chemistry guy, but I know that the alk reading is very high. What does this mean? Do I need to do something to try to adjust it or will it come down if I just add some calcium without the alkalinity part of the supplement? Help me out here. I am not sure of all of my other parameters, but I am going to do more testing tonight.
-
Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.
Chemistry question - Alkalinity
- Thread starter emanaresi
- Start date
Your alk will come down naturally, and adding Ca should help that along. DON'T do anything dramatic. This will only become a crisis if you make it into one. Just keep a tight eye on everything else (mag, ph, etc) while the alk falls. If you've been dosing without testing then what you're seeing isn't that surprising.
yeah, I am topping off with rodi, tds is 0. I have a dual stage deionizer and it does a real nice job. I do water changes with coralife salt. However, as Phyl mentioned, I had been periodically dosing b-ionic without testing, it is possible I just got out of ballance. what else could raise alk? I am going to test my next batch of salt water before doing a water change too.
Hello there,
Use as directed for now ONLY for PART A. Check your water every 4 days and see if your DKH comes down. Once you get to 12 test your Mg and Ca. If they are correct continue to use part a until you get to 10-11 and then check your Mg and Ca again. Once they are where they should be at 10-11 DKH, start doing normal of both parts automatically and check every 4 days until you are comfortable they are in balance. I would also dose strontium and Molybdewhatever once every 4 days to promote healthy coral growth. Beats Kalkin!
Use as directed for now ONLY for PART A. Check your water every 4 days and see if your DKH comes down. Once you get to 12 test your Mg and Ca. If they are correct continue to use part a until you get to 10-11 and then check your Mg and Ca again. Once they are where they should be at 10-11 DKH, start doing normal of both parts automatically and check every 4 days until you are comfortable they are in balance. I would also dose strontium and Molybdewhatever once every 4 days to promote healthy coral growth. Beats Kalkin!
I would measure CA and Alk today and tomorrow to get an idea of your daily consumption before I would resume part Amynd said:
When things are starting to level off, I agree with testing the MG. 1275-1300 is a good level.
Again, test for a few days to determine your average daily dose.
Make sure you are testing for whatever you add. Chances are if you can't spell an element, your routine water changes are enough to replenish it.
And don't discount Kalkwasser. Right now I'm maintaining my LPS tank by topping off with Kalk, 10% weekly water changes and an monthly MG adjustment. The topoff is automated and the reduction in fussing is priceless! ;D
Priceless.. lol
Chances are if you can't spell an element, your routine water changes are enough to replenish it.
I just did not feel like spelling it out.. heh.. However, I don't really agree on the replenish part.
If you start your tank and add 100% of the salt you need and then two weeks goes by or whatever your water change schedule is and you decided to do a 25% water change, who is to say that you did not use 75% of your resources. Thus, only replenishing 25% of the water will not get you through the next two weeks worth of resources. You would be 50% short. You are going to have to dose somewhere in there to bring your tank back to the percentage that the corals and whatever else need to thrive. Yes, they might live, but they are certainly not doing all they can with the limited amounts of what they need available. Right????
I did find that funny.. lol "Chances are if you can't spell an element, your routine water changes are enough to replenish it." Good one!
Chances are if you can't spell an element, your routine water changes are enough to replenish it.
I just did not feel like spelling it out.. heh.. However, I don't really agree on the replenish part.
If you start your tank and add 100% of the salt you need and then two weeks goes by or whatever your water change schedule is and you decided to do a 25% water change, who is to say that you did not use 75% of your resources. Thus, only replenishing 25% of the water will not get you through the next two weeks worth of resources. You would be 50% short. You are going to have to dose somewhere in there to bring your tank back to the percentage that the corals and whatever else need to thrive. Yes, they might live, but they are certainly not doing all they can with the limited amounts of what they need available. Right????
I did find that funny.. lol "Chances are if you can't spell an element, your routine water changes are enough to replenish it." Good one!
mynd said:
I'll just add that most people will never need to dose strontium unless you use Oceanic or Crystal Sea salts as they are low in the mix and only provide half the amount of this as other salts. I myself would not dose it unless you test for it first. You can get strontium test kits. Molybdenum is not usually a problem in reef tanks although it is usually lower then NSW in almost every salt mix. But there still seems to be enough. This is one of the trace elements that there isn't a lot known about "proper amounts". No specific amount seems to be needed as long as some is there in the water. So if you do any kind of water changes you'll have this one covered.
Carlo
mynd said:
Well lots of research/experiments by numerious universities, labs and experts in the field. Most elements are truly "trace" elements. If you never did a water change and only replace salt water due to the skimmer you should still have enough of "most" elements. There really are only a few elements that get depleted quickly. There are elements in NSW that may never even be needed by anything in our tanks. We don't really fully know the use of many of the trace elements but the levels are easily monitored over extended time to note the depletion rate (if any).
Alkalinity needs to be boosted via a carbonate or bi-carbonate addition and of course calcium needs to be added on most systems with corals.
Off the top of my head probably the only other elements that need to get tested for and maybe dosed are Magnesium, Strontium, Iodine & Iron (especially if you grow macros). Other then those replacement water due to skimmer extract is probably enough. Now if you do say a 10% monthly water change or more you surely will have all the minors covered.
Carlo
mynd said:
Glad you appreciated the humor, and Carlo summarized the point I was making very nicely; most of the elements in NSW are trace elements. I have only needed to measure CA,MG, Alk and occasionally Iodine, as I do not keep too many demanding species of coral.
If my corals are thriving, I stick to the CA, MG, and Alk. I test other elements if I feel things could be better and I suspect another element may be a limiting factor. If things look "cranky" (where's kathainbowen?) I'll test nitrates, and if the cranky corals are softies, I test Iodine. I have yet to feel the need to test strontium, but I only keep a very few SPS corals and my LPS haven't given me a reason to suspect that calcification is a problem for them.
Sometimes I feel reefers fall to much in love with the chemistry and technology of reefing and at some point reefing becomes more of a burden than a pleasure. Then we wind up losing happy reefers.
I like to keep things as simple as possible. That is why Captain Jack and I had a spare 2 hours to grab a book and sit in front of the tanks last night!
I concur. Simplicity is best. I do my water changes, change my filterfloss and rinse my phosguard. I currently do dose Seachem Marine Buffer ( 1/4 tsp to 8 ounces of water ) to bring my PH up from 8.1. However, I think even this will end soon. The reason I am using CB part A is to add calcium to the water and bring down the DKH a couple points. Currently being at 12 I want to bring it down to 10. Dosing 2ml every 2 days is slowly bringing it down but keeping the tank magnesium and Ca stable. Once I get where I want to be I will stop everything and base my dosing on visual or test results accordingly.
mynd said:
So what's the problem with 8.1? I realize it's at the lower end of the preferred range, but it works. Stability is more important than an ideal range.
I got caught in the same loop of adjustments to try to raise my ph from a usual 8.05. It was more work than it was worth, and the corals are as happy or happier since I've learned to rely on a regular kalk topoff routine and water changes. And since I've stopped dosing 2part and maxed the amount of kalk mix per gallon, my ph runs between 8.15 and 8.2.
Also consider piping outside air to you skimmer. CO2 builds up in our well insulated homes and causes a drop in ph.
Just so you know.. and I can't imagine you have not seen it. If you have not seen it yet you should cause it is a miracle of nature.. LMAO.. just playing.. However, I have a nano ( 12 gallon AP ) see link in signature. I do not have a skimmer, no do I use kalk, nor do I want to. using cb is the best thing that ever happened to nanos. Simplicity at its best.
blange3 said:I like to keep things as simple as possible. That is why Captain Jack and I had a spare 2 hours to grab a book and sit in front of the tanks last night!
I'm glad you enjoyed your drink last night. I on the other hand "shared" a beer with my tanks last night. I cracked open a cold Samuel Adams and went out to check the skimmer on the outdoor "pond". Leaned over to make an adjustment and went to take a drink only to realize I just poured the whole bottle in the pond/my system.
Hope the fish enjoyed it!
Carlo