Need help.

[jaylensdad06]

I posted earlier about checking my test kits...well I had my water tested while I was at coral corral re supplying. My test kits r right...the help I need is besides water changes how should I go about lowering my cal and upping my alk. My mag is at 1500 and cal is over 600. But icant get my Alk over 5.5. If I manually dose alk to try to get it up all it does is precipitate out.I have done 2 water changes with reef crystals cuz it has higher alk. Granted it was only 10 gal water changes a piece. But it's about all I can do right now. I turned off my cal doser and tried to get my Alk up but it doesn't seem to wanna budge. But precipitates out.. any suggestions would be helpfull.

 

[Specfishin]

I had an alk issue being low. First I'll point out a couple things i personally learned and didn't know.
1. I was using phosphate rx a phosphate reducer/binder. Apparently I was informed it can lower alk. I didnt know that.
2. I was dosing part1 and 2 within a couple minutes of each other. Guess this didnt help me any from what ive been told.
Okay so I started dosing baking soda mix to raise my alk"unbaked" got it up to9.5 from 6-7 range. My alk consumption was pretty high, I'd be broke if I had to keep using 2 part. So I made the switch. My calcium stabilized at 450 and dose as needed.

So result was, I wasnt dosing enough in first place, wc did little, Po3 Rx was robbing me and when I did use 2 part I didnt utilize it "properly". Time+ baking soda= back on track. Thats my story and I'm sticking with it lol. Take what ya want from my mishaps and positives. Maybe exp reefers can help ya out better. Good luck!

 

[cardiffgiant]

5.5 dKh is very low. What test kit?

How big is your system? What is your water change routine? Do you test new water and make adjustments before a water change? How do you dose 2 part (timing, amount, method, etc)? What 2 part recipe? Do you use kalk?

Without knowing more, I'm tempted to say that you could do water changes with regular instant ocean, and just dose alkalinity.

 

[Fragaddiction]

I'd say large water changes when you're that far off, get closer to parameters of the salt mix you prefer. What brand two part? How many actual gallons & have you calculated your tanks demand?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

 

[robthorn]

Not that this is a fix but you could try a different and more complete buffer with all alkalinity components included not just one. Not sure if it could help but it works for me and might be worth a shot.
Call Emmett if you are interested in that. It might cost you $6.

Not sure if you want a third opinion with testing but if you wanted to drop some water by I would surely be glad to test it again for you.

Are you using a doser yet? Smaller doses over a 24 hour period may get you where you need to be.

I would not do any knee jerk changes if your corals look decent still. Bring it up slowly. Maybe .2dkh a day if you test like that or 1 or 2 ppm. Rapid changes of alkalinity are normally more damaging than being outside of your desired range.

I have come home from vacation to 5.5 or 5.6 with no losses until I started bringing it up too fast.

 

[jaylensdad06]

I absolutly appreciate all comments thank u...I don't do many water changes like I should....but I do dose and use the while RED SEA line....Cal Alk mag.....nopox...reef energy A n B.... and 4 part coral colors....it was recommended to me not to do water changes when following the red sea program....unless I am just getting rid of detritis.

 

[jaylensdad06]

I have a 4 head doser. With 2 mils a day nopox...I was dosing 3 mills cal n alk..bit aparently my cal consumption is not equal to my alk...so right now my cal doser is off.and dosing 6 mils a day alk....I don't have my mag on the doser yet....but when I get everything back to normal I'm gonna put it on my doser....I manually dose 10 mils each reef energy twice a week right before the moon lights come on...and a half mill each of the coral colors everyday but sunday. My current perameters after my 2 water changes r
Cal over 500
Alk 6
Mag 1450....so almost down where I want it.
Nitrates steady at 10
Undetectable po4. Atleast with my salifert..and coral corrals test the other day. I know there is po4 in my tank cuz my cheato grows good...but no algea in my tank...except small patches on cyano everyone in a while.

 

[jaylensdad06]

Sorry and salinity .025

 

[jaylensdad06]

Test kits r red sea cal alk n mag..salifert no3 and po4. The only thing that's not doin Awsome in my tank was my acans....they aren't dying but they r not puffed up like they usually were....and the only time I thought I had a problem was my frog spawn wasn't opening up...so that's when I tested and found everything out of wack.....must have been slowly goin out of wack for a while...but everything seems to be doin fine except my growth slowed a little I believe.....

 

[robthorn]

I test alk at least 5 times a week. When your tank is doing well it will be on the move and you will be constantly making minor adjustments. If your goal is to stay fairly steady at least. Steady alk will do more for your tank than all that magic you are pouring in. Steady alk plus the magic and you should have a crazy tank. Then again if you don't have a bunch of acros you don't need most of the stuff you are dosing. Especially since your nutrients are so high. My opinion only.

It does seem like your alk has come up some. The more your tank is doing good the more you will have to dose.
For the record I dose what is calculated to he the most balanced system I have ever laid eyes on and I dose 305 ml of buffer , 147 of Cal and somewhere around 105ml of mag a day. More things effect alk than coral building. I try to get this acrossed to.peopl all the time and all I hear back is it has to be balanced. Yes it does but it is your tank that needs to be balanced. Not the ml's you put it. Test each element and adjust accordingly. Forget what the bottle says.

 

[Safir]

You need to get calcium and may back in line or your all will continue to precipitate. Test your freshly mixed water before a water change, it is likely high as well.
I would perform some changes with a non-reef salt mix that has lower levels of calcium.
I was under the impression you were not supposed to use reef energy and color programs at the same time, I do not know if that may contribute to your imbalance or not.