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Alk swings?


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  1. #11
    MizTanks - Reefkeeper
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    No my ca=440~Mag-1440~alk=5.5 and Ph=8.4 Something has to be amiss. What's causing it to drop, I need to know so I can correct it.
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  2. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by MizTanks View Post
    No my ca=440~Mag-1440~alk=5.5 and Ph=8.4 Something has to be amiss. What's causing it to drop, I need to know so I can correct it.
    If you have many hard corals in your tank, then your alk and calc will deplete quicker. But I can't tell exactly what happened to your tank. What kind of salt do you use. Ever tested your freshly made saltwater? Salt varies a lot in alk, calc and mag in different brands. Doing a water change should also help to raise your alk level.

  3. #13
    slapshot - Reefkeeper CR Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by MizTanks View Post
    No my ca=440~Mag-1440~alk=5.5 and Ph=8.4 Something has to be amiss. What's causing it to drop, I need to know so I can correct it.
    Just dose more. probably higher utilization by your animals or just a bad batch of salt. Probably growth of your corals. Nothing to worry about you just need to dose more.

  4. #14
    MizTanks - Reefkeeper
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    As of last night I've started dosing alk only at 13ml. I'll do this daily while testing daily also. Will def make a note to self to check new batch of make up water. Now I'm curious
    Thanks for your help guys
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  5. #15
    binford4000 - Reefkeeper
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    it sounds like your system is useing more then the bottles recomend doase.BRS's,RC and I believe even CR(shoot Jim a PM to find out) has doaseing calculators to help you get where you want the alk to be at.If all your doing is that small amount of Ca it probably wouldn't hurt to keep adding it.My concern when adding more of one is what will it do to the other.Both doaseing parts are a form of calcium. The brs pumps can be controled by most controlers as slapshot pointed out or you can use a seperate controler they sell for around 75 bucks if memory serves me correctly.

  6. #16
    CR Member
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    Miz,
    one common mistake is most people think you have to add both the Ca and Alk in equal parts.... you dont. if your Ca is staying stable at 440 every reading, then you are adding the correct amount of that product. if your alk is dropping you are not adding enough of that product. you will need to increase your alk to 8 to help keep your Ph stable. Remeber that you should not increase the value more than 1.0dKH a day. here is a link to help...
    Reef Chemistry Calculator

    also make certain that you are testing the same time every day, then add supplements right after testing. this will give you more consistent readings.
    hope this helps.


    by the way, are you adding any suppliments like Vitamin C, Vinegar, sugar?
    [imglink]http://www.rowelab.com/AquaController/sig.php?n=flynnstone[/imglink]
    Likes Tom Toro, MizTanks, slapshot liked this post

  7. #17
    MizTanks - Reefkeeper
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    Quote Originally Posted by Flynnstone View Post
    Miz,
    one common mistake is most people think you have to add both the Ca and Alk in equal parts.... you dont. if your Ca is staying stable at 440 every reading, then you are adding the correct amount of that product. if your alk is dropping you are not adding enough of that product. you will need to increase your alk to 8 to help keep your Ph stable. Remeber that you should not increase the value more than 1.0dKH a day. here is a link to help...
    Reef Chemistry Calculator

    also make certain that you are testing the same time every day, then add supplements right after testing. this will give you more consistent readings.
    hope this helps.


    by the way, are you adding any suppliments like Vitamin C, Vinegar, sugar?
    Thank you so much Flynnstone Could you help me read this chart? How much alk should I be adding daily according to this chart? 'Reef Chemistry Calculator FV'
    There's nothing like being a Reefer! www.upmmas.com

  8. #18
    CR Member
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    Jamie,
    the chart is cleared when i open it. it will reset itself and wont store the info.
    [imglink]http://www.rowelab.com/AquaController/sig.php?n=flynnstone[/imglink]

  9. #19
    CR Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by Flynnstone View Post
    Jamie,
    the chart is cleared when i open it. it will reset itself and wont store the info.
    Jamie,
    on a 20gallon system, that needs the alk raised, using the ESV B-Ionic part 1, you would need 38ml or 7.7 tsp. daily until you reach your target alk ( i recomend 8 DKh) this will raise the alk 1 DKh daily. once you have reached that number, the daily additions will depend on how much your coral consume in a day.
    one thing to watch out for. i have seen this product( and similar ones) form hard balls of product inside the container that it comes in, if this happens, the product is useless.
    [imglink]http://www.rowelab.com/AquaController/sig.php?n=flynnstone[/imglink]
    Likes MizTanks liked this post

  10. #20
    MizTanks - Reefkeeper
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    No wonder it wasn't raising. I was only dosing 15ml a day. As of today I'm raising to 38ml daily. I've got no clumping in the bottles and I shake em well before each use.

    Update: WTH? I dosed 38ml and not only did it raise the alk but it shot it up to 9 from 6.4. What the **** am I doing wrong here. I know it says not to dose all at once but without a dosing pump how else am I supposed to do it?
    Then I tested my ca and it's so freaking low it's not reading on the chart!

    Granted I was doing something else dumb. I've been sucking out flat worms and replacing the water removed with just ro/di water. Then add my top off water to that and it's a wonder I'm getting the readings I am, right? UGH!!!

    So what I'm going to do is....tomorrow I'll do a 5g water change then I'll do another 5g change on Wednesday. I gotta get these parameters leveled out. It's driving me nuts!!
    Last edited by MizTanks; 01-22-2012 at 04:07 PM.
    There's nothing like being a Reefer! www.upmmas.com

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