Advantages to higher alk and cal

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platax88

Active member
As some of you may notice i have another thread going about raising my alk form 8dkh to 9.5 and my cal from 400 to 425.

Can anyone briefly describe the benefits of higher alk and cal before i make the move? Also, what can i expect to experience at the new target range?

Thanks!
 
I doubt you'll notice anything different at all, but because of the alkalinity boost there may be a small increase in the calcification (growth) of certain hard corals, assuming everything else is unchanged.
 
If you keep your parameters between the recommended ranges:
alk: 7-11 dkH & calcium: 380 - 450 ppm, I don't believe you will notice any real benefits. Possibly if you are having problems with high levels of CO2 in your home, you may notice a slightly higher pH. There is some research that indicates that as the alkalinity levels increase, their is an increase in coral calcium deposition (growth). I don't think there will be much increase from my experience at that increase. Other's may argue that you will be just wasting your money if you increase calcium above 380 ppm.
:)
 
ha, no kidding. So nothing with color or PE. My growth is actually pretty decent now.

Randy what levels are you running, if you dont mind me asking?
 
HighlandReefer -- what levels you running? I may leave things as they are. If it ain't broke dont fix it right?

I do run low ph though .. ~7.8 -- ~8.2
 
I have problems with high levels of CO2 in my home which results in low pH levels. Therefore I have kept my dkH level at around 11, which results in a little higher pH wiht my kalk dosing in the top-off. If you are not having these problems, then I would just bump up the alk to at least 7dkh, which is close to NSL. :)
 
Thanks Cliff, my alk is at 8 dkh now. Any danger in running as high as 11? I guess a balanced cal at that range would be 450- 475?
 
I have run my alk level up to 15 dkH with no problems to see if I could get an increase in coral growth. The problem with raising it above 12 dkH is that you will be making a lot of sand out of your calcium & also deposits on your glass and equipment. It also takes a lot of baking soda to keep your tank above 12. So, I would keep it below 12 dkH from my experience.
 
When you ask about the balanced calcium, I would have to defer to Randy. I have been meaning to ask him what is the significance of maintaining a balanced level of alk with calcium. Right now, I have not been concerned about it.
 
The word balanced is a relative term and doesn't really mean much for our purposes.

Higher calcium really doesn't do any harm, it just does not get used.

Like Randy said, higher alk may cause a small increase of growth in certain corals. The Germans in the 80's used to run their tanks between 15 and 18 dkh with great results.

No reason for that today. I think you should run your tank on whatever looks best within the recommended range. Some people like the way their tank looks at 7 dkh and some people like it at 12 dkh.

Your eyes are the best test kit. Do not be afraid to experiment between the recommended ranges. :)
 
I don't test very often, nor do I really try hard to fix the alkalinity or calcium at a particular level. Calcium is typically in the mid 400's, and alkalinity varies a bit with the weather as it is based on limewater dosing to replace evaporation. I recently discovered my alkalinity was a lot lower than my very old Salifert kit was indicating. It was actually close to NSW when i thought it was higher, so I've upped my lime in my limewater, and I expect it is probably in the 3-4 meq/L range (8-11 dKH).
 
gotcha... so how important do you think stability is in sps world?

I hear that alk/ca levels should maintain rock solid to be successful.
 
I do not think that calcium levels are very important in terms of stability, as long as they are over about 360 ppm, as that makes it no longer limiting to growth, and so I doubt the exact values matter.

Some folks do claim that sudden spikes in alkalinity have caused them trouble, but the spikes might be associated with other phenomena that are the actual cause. It is hard to say, but being careful with instantaneous alkalinity spikes if you have an SPS heavy tank might be prudent.
 
Before I added the Ca reactor, my Ca, and Alk were in the range 390~425, and 3.1~3.3 respectively. Now they seem stable at 435~440 and 3.31 for the last 3 months ( I checked 1/per month).
I 've been dosing lime from day 1, recently reduce to 1tsp/gallon and seems to stable with that range. So I'm curious, am I in the hi-range? good, bad? Thanks.
 
Yes it is meg/L. My SPS seems not to grow, or very slow even the one people say growing like weed, (my shroom does). Is that because my pH swing to much, 8.05 to 8.3 between day and night?
 
There are a thousand and one things that could limit hard coral growth: lighting, nitrates, phosphates, water flow, etc., etc. I'm sure the experts will pipe in, but that doesn't sound like a really bad PH swing to me. That's right around the range my PH varies from night to day.
 
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