2 part help

[bighead]

I put up a post last week about my alk dropping I finally got it up where I need to be immthimking I just can't keep up with kalk water anymore I need to start doing an2 part my question is it seems that my alk drops way faster than my cal I am looking at Randy's DIY 2 part and reccomends dosing the alk and cal together won't that raise my cal too much or would I be fine just raising my alk and not worrying about my cal

 

[Ron Reefman]

Ca and alk have levels that are stable. If one is high and the other low the high one will drop. What are the levels you have and what levels do you want? I'll try and find the chart.

In the meantime, read this:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry

 

[bighead]

My cal is 430-4540 rite where I want it
Alk is 7.8 Where I want it

 

[Ron Reefman]

My cal is 430-4540 rite where I want it
Alk is 7.8 Where I want it

4540 is a pretty high Ca level. Just teasing. I assume you mean 440 or 450?

Another good read about the relationship:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/

 

[bighead]

I read both articles again I have read them both in the past a few times when ever I finish reading most articles about alk/cal/mag relationships I get more confused and have even more questions I am going to start using Randy's 2 part recipe 1 as he sugests and keep an eye on my levels over the next couple of weeks
From reading all these article the relationship between alk and cal Should drop at a rate which is equal between the to but only my alk drops and that is why confuses me the most

 

[hkgar]

From Randy's article:

" In a less drastic scenario, let's say that calcium carbonate is formed from tank water starting with an alkalinity of 3 meq/L and that it is allowed to drop to 2 meq/L. How much has the calcium declined? It is surprising for many people to learn that the calcium would only drop by 20 ppm".

A drop of 2 meq/L is 5.6 dKh. It takes significant drop of Akk to really see much change in Calcium.

If you are going to be dosing Randys 2 part you might want to consider a couple dosing pumps. As an option to dosing you might consider a calcium reactor. If you are growing SPS corals you will probably need one sooner of later. Here is a chart for what is required to increase alk, ca and mag. When calculating your systems gallons don;t forget to allow for displacement from sand and rocks.
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Volume calculator
http://reef.diesyst.com/volcalc/volcalc.html

When you gett to these links, go to the home page. Lot's of other helpful tools.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I use Randy's recipe II and a medical grade dosing pump that doses 2 things at once and both at the same rate. I dose 200 to 300ml per day and the pump spreads it out evenly over 24 hours. So I get each line doing a drip into the sump every 30 or 45 second. Over a 2 or 3 month period my alk or Ca may get a little out of line and I'll manually dose to get back to where I want to be. But for the most part my Ca and alk stay pretty stable.

Test a lot when you start and be conservative in your volumes. Better to dose less and have to add more than to dose too much and have a problem. Good luck.