sps dying

[jc]

o.k. last night I dosed some tropic marine bio-calcium and this morning the alk is 2.75 meq/l and calcium is 420 ppm. Greenmako, I checked the bottle of alca-balance and I understood that it lowers the alk. Is that correct?

[jc]

I won it at the meeting along with a bottle of bio-calcium. I think they are a 2 part solution.

[matt]

Use baking soda and the reef chemistry calculator: (this is the same as Bryan's link)
http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejdieck1/chem_calc3.html

You should use the salifert alk test kit. When your alk is in a good range (8-12dkh) you can dose some calcium chloride to get your Ca level around 400-420. (Use the salifert Ca test kit) Then you can get going on a balanced dosing scheme like b-ionic or Randy's two part recipe.

If you go to reefcentral, then the reef chemistry forum, then find the sticky with the links to Randy's articles, you'll find great, no BS info on how to manage the Ca and Alk levels of your tank.

[jc]

My birds nest is gone now too. I think my calcium reactor has dropped my ph. I have been neglecting to mix kalk with my topoff water. I have been preoccupied with school work.

[matt]

If you're running a calcium reactor, and your alk is 2.0 meq/l, that means your reactor is not working. It's probably not adjusted right; it's an involved process to get a reactor dialed in correctly.

One more time, use baking soda to raise your alk, some CaCl to raise your calcium, then re post if you want and we can figure out your reactor problem. If you think your ph is low, do this:

1st, make sure your alk is at sufficient level by adding the baking soda. The baking soda won't appreciably lower your ph, even if someone else says that it will. (Maybe .05 units)

2nd, make sure you have an accurate way of testing ph, which means a quality probe and some calibration fluid. Unless you have those two things, you really don't know what your ph is. You're going to need that stuff to even begin to adjust your reactor, so it's worth getting. A handheld probe like the milwaukee that calibrates at 7.0 and 10.0 is perfect, and it's less than $50.

3rd, set up a dripper and start dripping kalkwasser as some or all of your evaporated water. Almost every low ph issue in reef tanks can be solved by dripping KW.

It's definitely the time of year to be preoccupied with school!

[jc]

Alk is the right level now. I have a Milwaukee ph controller on my reactor. I just started using KW with my osmolator again. I still need a better ph test kit for the tank.

[JimD]

If youre dripping kalk, a reliable Ph monitor is an absolute must! I suggest Pinpoint and make sure its calabrated correctly.

[jc]

I'm not dripping the kalk. I'm am adding 2 teaspoons per gallon of r/o water to my reservoir. From what I understand that is the point that the kalk is saturated in the water. Then I use the reservoir as topoff for my osmolator. I use about 5 gallons every week or so.

[matt]

That's basically the same as dripping, meaning you're adding small amounts at a time. What you're doing with KW is fine, except for the fact that running KW through the osmolator pump will supposedly shorten it's life span and voids the warranty. Those pumps are only $20 or so, so lots of people do it and just plan on replacing the pump more often. Two teaspoons of kalk/gallon is saturation. For a long time, there was an assumption that leaving the KW open to the air resulted in it losing strength quickly as the KW interacted with air. It is true that KW in an open container will drop in ph quickly, but Randy Holmes-Farley wrote an article demonstrating that since the KW does not lose conductivity, it must be remaining full strength, and consequently delivering the same amount of calcium and hydroxide ions to your tank. The hydroxide ions combine with dissolved CO2 in the tank water producing carbonate ions.

There still is some controversy regarding the ph effects of KW from a reactor vs an open container. KW exiting a reactor has a ph of 12.2-12.4, if the reactor is working correctly. I have verified this with my own KW reactor. If you were to measure the ph of the KW in your reservoire several days after adding the kalk powder, you would find that the ph will have dropped substantially. I'm not sure how this affects overall tank ph, as the tank ph is based entirely on the level of dissolved CO2 in the water.

[jc]

I just got a ph pen today and the reading is 8.1. So far I have not lost anymore corals, but the ones I did where my favorites and the ones I've had the longest. Bummer.