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Cannot get calc and alk right in this tank!


printerdown01

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printerdown01

Hey all,

 

I will spare you all the long story and just get to the short of it...

 

Do you all balance your alk and calc levels?? I.e. come close to the "balance ratios." My tank is currently sitting at a calc level of 415ppm and an Alk of 9.0dkH.

 

In theory in order to be balanced the Alk should be around 10.4 (according to http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html) and 7.0dkH (according to http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rhf/feature/ ). First of all how is there such a huge difference in "balanced" according to these sources!?!? Secondly, I have had a HORRIFIC time trying to keep alk and calc up in this tank. I have only had issues in one other tank and it was full of SPS frags and thus was really choking things down... this tank has VERY little that could even be using calcium or alk. Every time I add two part I am stunned to get my next readings... Sometimes as predicted over a couple of days of adding it goes up... other times after a couple of days of adding it has fallen significantly...

 

I thought my test kits were wrong (RedSea) so I reordered reagents... Still having same issues. Sorta lost as to how to proceed. Would you all just keep adding balanced 2 part until the levels were where I wanted them??? If I add it in an unbalanced fashion it seems to create WAY more problems with erratic numbers.

 

 

 

 

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You probably know this but stable alk is more important than the absolute number. Also magnesium can affect Ca and Alk. Are you measuring that too? Any sign of precipitation?

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Nano sapiens

Just checking, but I would assume that you are adding the two parts at different time intervals since adding both together at the same time can cause precipitation.

 

If you don't have a lot of calcifying organisms in the tank, then 2-part or Kalkwasser should both work since they are both balanced in respect to Ca and Alk.

 

As mentioned, Alk is by far the most important to keep stable. Ca can swing a bit as long as it doesn't fall out of the typical range. Having said that, I do make some effort to occasionally adjust my Ca to keep the ratio somewhat steady. Right now, my Alk is 8.2 dKh and my Ca is 420ppm, which is just about right, but a few days ago Ca was 450 with the same Alk level No big deal for the corals.

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First, you will drive yourself crazy trying to hit some magic number regards any parameter. Alk 10.4? Our test kits are not that accurate. The key is stability. Do you have trouble keeping your Alk stable? That is way more important than hitting some number off of a internet calculator.

 

As long as Alk is between 7 and 11 and you keep it there, you are golden. Ca between 380-450 variable. Mg 1250-1350 variable.

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Alk is the most important of the big three to keep track of but you never mentioned your magnesium number? The only time I was driven crazy by my alk was when my mag was extremely low. On my last tank I was lazy on my water changes and didn't check my mag levels for a while. Being stupid I continued to dose alk and wonder why no matter what I did I could never get it to rise. Finally my caveman brain realized I should test for mag....and low and behold it had dropped below 1100!

 

Long story short get a mag test and see if its low.

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