My 180 water parameters and coral growth ?'s

[1000rrstunna]

Hey guys so I'm just about 13 months into reef keeping and I've had very good luck so far with keeping basic parameters in check and doing bi weekly water changes thus far... I've been doing a lot if testing and dosing very small amounts of BRS ca solution and seachem reef builder for alk and a mag supplement every now and then to try to keep it within specs from saliferts recommendations

My ca is consumed less than alk. I dose about 3 oz of BRS ca solution every other day daily and it stays right about 420-400

Dkh on the other hand is about 7.4 -8 and I need to dose one teaspoon 3 grams daily to keep it in the low 8's if I miss a day it's back down to 7.4-7.6 dkh.

What should I try to get these levels to stabilize at and will consumption ever equal out? What do you see optimum growth at ? All the sps corals have polyp extension and everything else zoa and shroom wise and a few lps look good as well. Sps could have more polyp extension but many are growing well in a 50 day old aquarium.... I need a ph test kit because I know dosing large amounts of alk solutions can spike it and trash my sps so I conservatives dose everything

Phosphates are 0 according to a elos test kit but I'm experiencing a slight ammount of alge on rocks and it comes fast on the glass but I think that is due to some light passing by the cracks in wooden blinds.... Algea thrives when high phosphates are present though right???


Is my tank beyond kalkwasser dosing? And if it's not I have a bad ass dosing unit and a 2 gallon container I could dose it with but I'm scared of nuking my system because I'm unsure if how much to add


Levels as of today

P04 -0
Dkh 7.4
Ca 425
Mg 1290

Imput appreciated


Q

 

[SkullV]

To get from 7.4 to 8.2 you would need 3.4oz of BRS Alk in a 180g water volume. My guess is two things are happening, one it seems like you are using more Alk than Cal because you are using different brands of supplements. Two, your new dry rock and sand are sucking up part of it as well. If you are low on either supplement (or both) I would reccomend matching your additives, so BRS 1&2, Seachem Fusion 1&2, B-Ionic 1&2, whatever you like (I like Seachem Reef Fusion for many reasons).

As far as kalk, no, you are not even close to being over the limit for Kalk. I have seen a 180g stocked to the brim with full grown SPS colonies and nothing but Kalk in his top off for dosing. Just keep an eye on your testing and evap rate for the first week or two, and then for a week or so at the beginning of winter and beginning of summer (major humidity changes). Other than that, your normal weekly, bi-weekly, whatever testing will be fine. I have no experience dosing Kalkwasser in anything other than an ATO so maybe someone else can speak to that.

Here is the TOTM 180g I was talking about:
http://www.chicagoreefs.com/index.php?pageid=newschool

 

[1000rrstunna]

Great read skull I have the same dosing pump he's dripping kalk with!! I just need to figure out how to not fry my stuff lol. I'm no chemist my ghetto method is working well so far... I have a few big sps colonies and a clam so I'm sure they are eating most of it up

I have BRS alk solution but it also raises ph and that's what I'm scared of I don't have a probe or test kit to see what it does

 

[Sawdonkey]

I was just reading. Randy Holmes Farley article on this last night. You need to use the individual components, alk and cal, to get both at the right level. Once you do that, you need to used balanced dosing. Balanced dosing includes kalk, two-part, or one of those powders like tropic marin biocalcium. If your dosing is balanced, you will only need to correct the ratios with the individual components one in a blue moon.

I choose to use kalk through my topoff. I've never corrected alk or cal individually. My tank has quite a bit of sps. I have a 25 gallon topoff tank so I can leave town for a week and not have to worry about dosing. Kalk is easy. The key is getting it mixed up to the correct level. You can't really get it too strong, because it just precipitated out and whatever precipitates out gets mixed into the next batch when you add more rodi. You don't even need to clean the reservoir. Once fully saturated kalk isn't strong enough, you can add vinegar to supersaturate it.

There's a good Randy Holmes Farley called "what your grandmother never told you about pickling lime." Google it and check it out.

 

[1000rrstunna]

What should i try and get my numbers up to so that i can start a balanced dosing? Ive also thought of using some kalk in the ato but im afraid of it killing off my ato pump... Thats why i picked up the dosing pump and mixing container and i got it for only 25 $ so that was a sweet deal !! Kalk seems like the easy way to provide enough nutriends for good coral growth ill look at the article... Also how many spoon fulls are you adding to the ato water for your 25 gallon tank....

 

[Sawdonkey]

I run limewater right through my ato pump and when I've gone to clean it, everything is clean inside. No issues with it gumming up. I put in about 8 tablespons per 25 gallons. I'm not too exact about it because I just fully saturate the water and the rest precipitates out to the bottom of the ato container and gets used in the next batch. It is hard to fry your corals with kalk because the water holds a limited amount. The only way you can fry your tank is if your ato were to go crazy and pump in your whole container or if your evaporation changed significantly and you didn't adjust.

This is a great article by RHF.

This is the info you're looking for:

Understanding how to fix imbalances in calcium and alkalinity is an important skill for all reef aquarists. Often aquarists must use methods other than their ordinary supplement method to fix imbalances. For example, if calcium is low (say, 300 ppm) and alkalinity is normal (say, 3 meq/L), no amount of tweaking of limewater or CaCO3/CO2 reactors can solve the problem. Using any balanced method to boost calcium by 120 ppm will boost alkalinity by 6 meq/L (16.8 dKH). Such a large boost in alkalinity will normally result in precipitation of calcium carbonate, and will preclude a useful boost in calcium.

The most important tools for fixing imbalances are an “alkalinity only” supplement (such as grocery store baking soda or a commercial buffer) and a “calcium only” supplement (usually calcium chloride, such as Dowflake, or a commercial calcium supplement). These two types of supplement allow aquarists to boost one and not the other. Please note that despite its confusing label, Tropic Marin Biocalcium is a balanced calcium and alkalinity supplement, so it cannot be used to make substantial corrections to low calcium levels.

The following calculator and articles will help guide aquarists through the process of fixing calcium and alkalinity imbalances in reef aquaria using these types of supplements:

Reef Chemicals Calculator
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm

 

[SkullV]

Gunner's post is spot on. I will say that I had a small hiccup recently when I added my T5s with fans as my evap went up dramatically. So much so that I actually had to go from fully saturated limewater (2tsp/g) when I had my LEDs to only 1tsp/g now.