Randy cal and alk balance question...

[booooooyahhhhhh]

I have read your articles and forgive my ignorance but I just don't get it. I am trying to follow and make adjustments to my tanks readings with no avail;


75 gal with 30 gal refugium

mostly lps corals with some sps and softies 7 fish

ph is 7.7 (low)

alk is 7 dkh

salinity is .0026

temp is 79

cal is 750

using oceanic salt mix...

attempted remedy:
I have been adding 2 cap full of b-ionic alk and stopped the use of my calcium reactor... No further additions oc cal done. 40 % water change done a few days ago...

additional info:
I also use calcium cloride... snow melt

question:
what other suggestions should I attempt? and am I doing something wrong?

Randy, thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The Oceanic is at least part of the high calcium problem. You might measure it in your mix. I would not add any calcium at all.

What calcium kit?
How are you measuring pH?

 

[DrBDC]

On the bionic for 105 gallons of water it takes 50 ml just to change the alk from 7 dKh to 8 dKh. Most caps are only 5 or 10 ml so I think that's not going to be much help on raising it and is possibly not even maintaining a daily tank use. My tank will use about 2 dKh per day and I'm a mixed tank. If they are 10 ml caps, they will only raise the dKh from 7.0 to 7.4 for 20 ml.

If you are using oceanic salt, the dKh when I used it for a couple buckets was 7 so the water change is fighting the little bit of alk you are adding and keeping it the same.

The ca when I used it was always 600-650 as well so that would keep that ca up too high as well. That's why I ended up switching salts.

 

[booooooyahhhhhh]

DrBDC
THANKS FOR THE INPUT... WHAT SHOULD I INCRESE MY DOSAGE TO?

Randy Holmes-Farley
CALCIUM TEST KIT IS SALIFERT
PH IS MILWALKII PH ELECTRONIC PROBE

THANKS FOR THE HELP AGAIN.

 

[DrBDC]

Here is a calculator to give you dosing amounts:

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

I personally keep my dKh at 10-11. NSW is about 7. Most will keep it a little higher so that it always stays at or above 7 even with tank usage. 10 is a pretty common number although many will shoot for 12. IO salt which I use mixes up at 11. Your ca will come down with time but each water change with oceanic is going to shoot it back up. I think I'd either have to decrease my water changes (which I wouldn't choose) or switch salts to a brand that is closer to NSW levels. But on salt changes sometimes there are reactions to the differences so don't just jump right in with a new salt if you go that route. Maybe 50/50 the two brands of salt for a bit and watch for negative reactions. I went from oceanic to coralife then to IO. I found the coralife to be high on the ca around 500 give or take and I like to stay about 420. The IO seems to be about 380ish so I just give a little bump with Randy's homemade formula with the ca mix and a little magnesium part and everything works well. It's anecdotal but my tank is the best it's ever been with the IO. Yes I've done other things so it's not a controlled experiment but at least I'm spot on when I test for the big 3. (ca/alk/mag) At least with NSW levels you can start the ca reactor/kalk dripping/etc tuning from a good solid starting level.

As of now you don't need to do any ca obviously. Alk, I have never had a problem giving it a 2-3 dKh bump but some will say increase it 1 or 2 a day. Magnesium, most will say to raise it about 100 per day.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If you are going to dose the alkalinity part of the B-ionic, you might double the dose and se e what that does. If alkalinity is not high enough after a couple of days like that, double it again. Trial and error is the best way to arrive at a dose.

FWIW, I recommend 7-11 dKH for alkalinity, so I don't think you need to add a lot more.

 

[booooooyahhhhhh]

THANKS AGAIN FOR THE INPUT JUST WONDERING WHAT IS Randy's homemade formula? IS THAT THE DOWFLAKE? i ALREADY USE THAT...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It is a two part additive recipe that uses Dowflake and other ingredients:

An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

 

[booooooyahhhhhh]

ok still very concerned... my cal has gone down only 10 ml. on the salifert test kit. alk is reading 7.5-8 dkh... and all this after I am being more aggressive with the b-ionic part... I am adding 100 ml twice a day sloooooooooowly. Monitoring my ph and that is getting a bit better from 7.7 to 7.9-8.0 on the milwalkii digital ph tester.

Randy, should I just continue this regiment for a while of should I increse the dosage? thanks again

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It has only been 2 days. I would not expect calcium to drop more than 10 ppm per day. So it will take a long time. If you raise the alkalinity more by adding more of just the alkalinity part, the drop will be faster. But it is not going to happen overnight. You need to add the equivalent of 42 dKH of alkalinity to the tank before the calcium will drop by 300 ppm.

The only other way to reduce calcium is to do water changes with a normal to low calcium salt mix, like Instant Ocean.

 

[booooooyahhhhhh]

ok thanks for the info Randy...I will keep checking I did not think it would take this long.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You're welcome.

Good luck.

 

[booooooyahhhhhh]

randy,

can corals actually RTN from too much calcium in the water? remember that my cal was 750 and my alkwas 7 dkh...

now its 550 and 8 dkh so its getting better!

thanks again

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I don't know what symptoms happen as calcium increases to levels where problems first appear, but I would not be surprised it at some level, excessive calcium could initiate RTN through stress.

I'm glad things are looking up.