I seem to continually be using ALK faster than CAl

[110galreef]

I use BRS recepie 1. I know it's not my salt as I have been going with only 4 week ~ 12% WC's.

May want to get to a salt that is similiar to your ALK that you are trying to maintain so it doesn't change much when you do you WC's.

I will keep you posted.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The salt mix will tend to drive the calcium level in aquaria using balanced dosing, whether that is a CaCO3/CO2 reactor, limewater, or a two part.

Equal doses of a two part to maintain alkalinity will generally maintain calcium approximately where it is, and many salt mixes have excess calcium to begin with. . If you underdose both parts slightly, alk will decline and calcium may still stay above natural levels due to the salt mix

 

[110galreef]

Update for those following

Update for those following

tested Sat, so about 4 days later.

Original: 1-9-12 tests after correcting numbers from 2 days prior.
Dosing 95ml/day each CAL & ALK
ALK: 9.0-salifert
CAL: 420-salifert

1-14-12
Alk was 8.6-salifert
CAL was 405-salifert


The CAL seemed lower than normal from the 420 I was expecting, but may have just been off a tad due to testing error. So i didn't touch anyhthing just to see how it continues as nothing was too far out of whack to worry.

I will test again tonight or tomorrow and again like Thurs to see how all is going.

 

[mos90]

looks like 100/100 might be the answer.. maybe even 105/105.

 

[110galreef]

Haha...that was my original plan, but went with 95 so as not to over shoot!

Next few days will tell,

 

[mos90]

are u doing any kalk in ato?

 

[110galreef]

No kalk, just straight RO/DI

 

[goodtimes2]

Did you check to make sure your dosing pumps are dosing the amount they are dialed into. Many of the dosing pumps have as high as a 10 % error of actual ML dispurse then what you dialed to disperse between each dosing pump. The good news is that they dose this amount consitently each time . You can check by actually collecting the amount of Calc and Alk over a few days to remeasure it and check your accuracy.

 

[110galreef]

I havent checked as of late, but last time i checked they were accurate.
I will double check today.

 

[110galreef]

Checked dosers and they are putting out correct amounts.

So tested last night ALK 8.0 & CAL 400 (10th day)...so it appears that the 95ml of each is not enuf, but at least they are both going down. I added 50ml of each to the tank spread out yesterday and now set the dosers both to 105ml.

Bottom line it looks like things are moving correctly and now will have to see if 105 or more like 115ml's of each is need to keep it more stable.

Thanks all for the help and input.

 

[mos90]

another option is leave it the way it is and do a light mix of kalk in top off water. unless your ph is high already. the nice thing is kalk is very cheap.

on my 125. i use saturated kalk in top off and use my calcium reactor to make adjustments to alk. (the kalk wont keep up with demand, but its close).

 

[110galreef]

I considered Kalk....but pH is typically 8.1-8.3 daily swing. So the extra pH isn't a big deal here and not having the Kalk is just one less thing to mess with and have to clean and deal with.

I think I have finally got my balance in check.

 

[psteeleb]

Hey 110
I don't recall how old your system is but I've found that new systems or systems that introduce new dry rock can be unstable for several months to a year. By unstable I refer to trying to keep or maintain a balanced dosing of 2 part. I can only speculate that rock (and sands) that are not balanced to natural seawater may suck up (or release) alkalinity while trying to reach a point of pH stability with the rest of the system. As an example this may be due to rock being out of the ocean for an extended period of time that may have made the rock more acidic.

 

[110galreef]

tank has been wet now for about 15mos...good point.

 

[bertoni]

New dry rock shouldn't be an issue, except for artificial live rock (concrete) that is still leaching into the tank.

 

[brad65ford]

Sorry it's an old thread but I'm in the same boat as the poster. I did not know you are supposed to dose equal amount which makes sense

My question is when do you dose both parts? At the same time or an hour apart from each other ?

 

[mos90]

i stagger mine 10 minutes. they dont have to equal. but normally it will be close. on my frag tank i dose 22ml of alk and 25ml of cal per day.

 

[mandarinfanatic]

are you using gfo or gfh? they tend to pull kh out of water

sent from my galaxy s3

 

[bertoni]

I dosed my two-part solutions at the same time, but I was dosing into a large volume of water (the display tank). Dosing into a sump can require more care.