What should all my parameters be? Well… Alk…Calc…Mag. … trying to figure out some coral issues
[quote=“CKI, post:1, topic:6748”]
What should all my parameters be? Well… Alk…Calc…Mag. … trying to figure out some coral issues[/quote]
Here’s a good article:
Good point Jim. I always try to emulate the ocean waters as close to it as possible.
Ok so I have been reading those articles and have some basic questions. First let mrstart with I have 180g dt and 300-400g total water volume. Up until reacently I haven’t had any problems or issues with anything in my tank.a few weeks ago I had a full colony (sps) die off,stn bad and I saved a few pieces. So I did some looking ad found that stn/Rtn is commonly caused by low or high alk/ca/mag. So after doing some testing I found my ca was 380(not that bad) alk was 6.7,(again not horriBle but low).my
#1How often should these be tested?
#2 what are the feelings on baking soda instead of an alk additive?
Those are my starter questions for the moment. I know everybody’s tank will vary so I would like to hear how you maintain your alk/ca/mag
That ? will answer some of my concerns. My alk is showing 8.6 using a Salifert kit … been checking daily to see if i am having Alk swings. Today i go to test, and the number have rubbed off the syringe so i cant test nothing. All i want to do is be able to grow SPS! However, my Calc is reading 500 … dunno if that has anything to do with it or not
500 is high,if I’m not mistaken you don’t have very many sps?
I have ZERO sps … But i sure want em!
Jason with your massive total water volume. In my opinion since you do have little bit of acros and LPS I believe maybe every two weeks should be sufficient. When was the last time you even check the water parameter? Do you believe that your tank uses a lot of calcium, alk and mag? How are you currently adding the supplements?
I use Arm & Hammer brand baking soda for my alk. I bake it in the oven at 300°F for one hour to drive off water and carbon dioxide. Overheating is not a problem, either with higher temperatures or longer times. Dissolve the residual solid in enough water to make 1 gallon total. This dissolution may require a fair amount of mixing. Warming it speeds dissolution. This solution will contain about 1,900 meq/L of alkalinity (5,300 dKH).
Also, you can follow the Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System from Randy Farley.
I prefer Randy’s recipe too, but I have a hard time getting my head wrapped around the fact that using a chemical designed to melt snow in your driveway and road surface is going to be pure enough consistently to be used in my tank. So, I buy my Calcium Chloride, from BRS. There’s nothing wrong with baking the baking soda to make the soda ash yourself, and I have done it, but I’m a little lazy, and since I have to buy the Ca from BRS, I just add the soda ash too.
Once you have the chemicals, take 2 cups of the soda ash and mix it in a gallon of RO/DI water. Next take 2 1/2 cups of the calcium chloride and mix it in a gallon of RO/DI water. Use the calculator I’ve linked below, fill in the blanks with your systems info, use Randy’t recipe #1, from the drop down menu, to get your dose. Use the solutions to get your param’s where you want them, i.e. Ca @ 420, Alk @ 8, etc. Once there test them for a few days to determine your load, and do the math to determine your daily use, once again using the calculator, and start dosing with equal parts of the Ca and Alk. If you’re using a “reef” type of salt mix, i.e. Reef Crystal, and do regular WC’s, it’s unlikely you will need to dose any Mg.