Do these Alk/Calcium levels seem right??

[GobyMan]

These are my levels/doses the past few days...do these swings seem right??

 

7/24: Alk 8.0 dKH/2.86 meq/L---Calcium 350. (dosed 2.5 ml b-ion)

 

7/25: (dosed 2.5 ml b-ionic)

 

7/26: (dosed 3.5 ml b-ionic)

 

7/27: Alk 7.4 dKH/2.63 meq/L---Calcium 370. (dosed 5.0 ml b-ion)

Changed approx 1 gallon of water w/ fresh made saltwater.

 

7/28: Alk 9.6 dKH/3.42 meq/L---Calcium 380. (dosed 3.0 ml b-ion)

 

 

I'm guessing the Alk went up b/c of the water change. Do I just have an extremely high load from my SPS? It seems the Alk dropped pretty fast before the w/c even though I was dosing with b-ionic.

 

BTW- I am using new Salifert test kits I just got.

 

Any help/advice/comments would be appreciated!!

 

Thanks

[Toyfreek]

up the dosage untill you see a rise daily. Then when you hit your mark lower it to a maintenance level. sounds like your critters are eating it up.

Toy

[Dave ESPI]

Upp the dosages in 5 days to touble, its the best way to match saturation, then dose every other day at 10 mgp/l Its worked Great fer my tanks.

[tyoberg]

There's a good thumbrule at work here:

 

Stuff in your tank uses calcium ion and carbonate (which is essentially alkalinity in a saltwater tank) to make calcium carbonate things--corals, coralline, snails, crustaceons and stuff make shells, skeletons, all out of calcium carbonate. This process is by far the biggest factor in alk / calcium.

 

Because they're all making calcium carbonate, for every 0.5meq/l (1.4dKH) alk they use, they also use 10ppm calcium.

 

B-Ionic, kalkwasser, calcium reactors all add 0.5meq/l (1.4dKH) for every 10ppm calcium--it's the same ratio as it's consumed in. That's why they're called "balanced supplements." They'll keep your alk and calcium in line.

 

Notice also, that for a large change in alk, you will see a small change in calcium. Keep in mind that precision lab titrations are good to 10%--your test kits aren't nearly that good, so there's quite a lot of slop in the numbers we deal in.

 

Your numbers look fine by me! Every tank will have a different rate of consumption, but those ratios should hold up pretty good. FWIW, 25 ml B-Ionic in my 40 gallon tank gives me a 5-10ppm increase--you can scale that to your tank size if you will.

 

Ty

[GobyMan]

Thanks for the info everyone, and Ty, thanks for those calculations. Now, ESV says that you shouldn't go over the 1 ml per 4 gallon dose, I am going WAY over that, has anyone had trouble going over this recommended limit?

[tyoberg]

The page actually says (this may differ from what's on the bottle--I haven't checked):

 

dose may have to be significantly increased over our recommended starting dose [1ml/4 gallons]. Never add more than 1ml. per gallon of each component in a 24 hour period, and never allow pH to rise above 8.45.

 

So, you should be ok. I add 28ml/day to my 37 gallon--about 3x the recommended starting dose.

Ty