Calcification question.

[10" Red Devil]

Hello,

Was wondering if calcification continues even when the lights or on. Or does it continue in a refugium that is lit 24/7 with chaeto floating in and a few small, small pieces of live rock.

I guess what Im trying to get at is how should I test to see what my Calcium uptake is in a 24 hour period. I thought I had it figured out. Let me explain. I tested in 24 hour period and say that my CA dropped 20ppm. So I am using Randys 2pt recipe one which there is a handy calculator to tell you how many ml you will need to keep the CA at 20ppm every day. http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

So using the Calc I see I would need to add approximately 51ml to keep it from falling to 400 and keep it at 420ppm. So since I have a doser that does a minimum of 1ml per hour I took 48ml of the randys two part which I made from peladow and started the doser in the morning before the lights came on. Anyway a week went by, I tested my CA and my Ca was at 500ppm!!! Why did this happen what am I doing wrong? My Alk stays in balance with my doser except for the occasional weekly drop and then I need to recalculate and up the dosage.

System is a 25 gallon system volume (20 long w/sump) setup.

Lighting is 250 watts halide 14k phoenix held almost 3 feet above the tank (8hour photo period).

Thanks in advance for any illumination on this subject. Corals do not seem ill effected though (all sps except for a few rics and zoos). Actually the corals have never looked better and are showing more color then ever before. However they do seem like they could be growing a little faster.

 

[10" Red Devil]

Anyone at all?

25 views and nobody wants to help me?

Is this too stupid a question? I really want to know.

Thanks.

 

[Mike O'Brien]

Most likely it's discrepency's with the test kit, and discrepency's with the recipe you used. Better would be to get the average drop over a week and you can average out the daily loss. FWIW I would use the alkalinity reading to figure the dosage of a balanced addative. What's the alk at ? if you've been adding equal part's it's probably substantially higher then you would want. A rise in calcium of 20 ppm corresponds to a rise of 1 meq/l of alkalinity.

 

[Amphiprion]

Calcification occurs only in the daylight hours. However, there is a matrix of sorts laid down during the night. That is why some folks think that they calcify at night. Basically, they lay down a matrix in order to calcify over it when the day comes. Think of it as a sort of scaffolding at night, mortared in the day.

 

[10" Red Devil]

The alk is at 2.86meq/l right now. I previously added 7ml per day supplimented with 17ml of R/O water dosed at a rate of 1ml per hour in a 24hour period. This would keep the alk at pretty close to 3.2meq/l. The drop daily was from 3.2 to 3.0meq/l.

I am using up the last of the alk part of b-ionic.

Thanks for your help!