keeping calcium up

[janakaybravo]

I have a 120 reef. I use bionics. I'm also buffering my evaporation replacement water, 3 gallons a day with Kent superbuffer. My alk runs 12-13. I'm having trouble keeping calcium above 380. I want to run the alk high because I think it's helping the hair algae. But I have a lot of SPS frags.

Anyway, I'm having to use Bionics every day to keep it at the levels now. The corals are growing and seem very healthy. Any suggestions?

Thanks!!

 

[bertoni]

You could consider switching to using lime for the topoff system. That would add both alkalinity and calcium. The B-Ionic should work well, but there's a DIY recipe that might reduce the cost. These articles might be useful:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2004/chem.htm

There's an update for the 2-part recipe if you're willing to order some magnesium chloride.

How much of the buffer are you adding to the topoff?

 

[janakaybravo]

I'm not real precise. About a teaspoon for 2-3 gallons. Is "lime" the same as kalkwasser? Can you get it at an LFS? It would be great to reduce the cost of the Bionics. It's a good chemical, but for a 120, it's getting expensive. I don't think I have the expertise for a calcium reactor. I'm just doing good to keep this up. Thanks.

 

[bertoni]

Lime is the same as kalk, and I (and many others) use pickling lime, which is very inexpensive.

 

[bugged]

use this

http://store.yahoo.com/mrswages/mrswagpiclim.html

 

[Buster4900]

Check you magnesium level. I bet it is low if calcium is hard ti maintain.

 

[DrBDC]

The tank uses a balanced amount of ca and alk. If you are adding bionic that is good. You can save a lot of money by using Randy's homemade formula for that. 10 bucks will get you around 100 bucks or more worth of bionic.

But when you add the superbuffer, you are throwing your balance out of wack by adding only alk. Once your water parameters are where you want them, ALWAYS add a balanced amount of each.

 

[janakaybravo]

Before I started using the Superbuffer I would check my alk. and it would be a 7. Also had lots of nuisance algae. I'm using RO water I make myself that has a very low ph. When I add water for evaporation, it's maybe 3 gallons a day, so I've been buffing that water a little when I add it. I use the bionics also. Now I've got the alk up to where I want, but that's probably why my calcium is down. But I've added a alot of SPS frags lately that are probably sucking up the calcium.

Well, I'll check out the web sites and thanks all for your advice.

 

[DrBDC]

Ignore the pH reading of ro/di water as it's not a real representation of the pH it will contain in your tank. There are no buffers in it and will give you a low or high reading. Even placing a probe in to check can make it swing wildly one way or the other. I would use kalk in it to give it both ca and alk and also help with the balance.

Your corals will suck up 2.8 dKh for every 18-20 ppm of ca but the bionic is already formulated with that in mind as well as Randy's homemade formula and kalk is too.

Here's a great link for saving a bundle of money on your two part:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2004/chem.htm

But before you add two part I highly recommend using kalkwasser in your evaporation replacement. Many times you can get away with just that. I lose about 3-4 gallons a day and at times the kalk will keep up with only a monthly tweak using 2 part. Sometimes it seems the tank goes into a growth phase and I'm doing both like mad though. Here's a couple links on that:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2003/chem.htm

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

And finally here is a calculator you can use to give you the amounts for deciding daily dose amounts as well as one time tweaking amounts:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It should be fairly easy to boost the calcium with a one time shot of calcium chloride or just the calciumm part of B-ionic, and then continue to use the same dose of equal parts that you have been to maintain the alkalinity and the new, higher calcium level.