Alk will not go up.
- Thread starter J.guokas
- Start date
Just curious what salt are you using? And how often are you doing water changes? The only reason I ask is the parameters you are describing is what I had when I was using kent and doing 20% weekly water changes. I had a hard time keeping my alk up using kent even with dosing. Not saying kent is a bad salt or anything obviously it works well for allot of people. However this was the main reason I stopped using it.
Agree, If your CA is 500+, you could stop dosing CA until you get it to read on your test kit, and see if it has an affect on your Alk. I have a similar problem, except I dose with Kalkwasser, have to constantly dose Alk to keep it in line. I'm actually going to take the kalk stirrer offline this weekend, and only dose Alk to try to get it back into check. Will update you if I get any positive results.
I had issues with Kent, but this was years ago. I bought a 5g bucket of the stuff and gave it away after only a handful of water changes.
I ended up using Reef Crystals and dosing with a Seachem powdered product (reef bufer?) . This worked for me, and my tanks always had a good amount of LPS, so daily usage/absorption definitely was noticable.
I ended up using Reef Crystals and dosing with a Seachem powdered product (reef bufer?) . This worked for me, and my tanks always had a good amount of LPS, so daily usage/absorption definitely was noticable.
My bad, my statement was in regards to livestock, http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/10/chemistry
" Bingman12 pointed out in a previous article that at elevated concentrations (>8,000 ppm), magnesium has been used as an aid in shucking oysters, helping to force the oyster open,12-14 and also as an anesthetic for them.12 Consequently, magnesium does have potentially negative biological effects at significantly elevated concentrations."
In regards to your statement, I believe you are incorrect as well,
" The main thing happening in normal seawater is likely the impact of magnesium (though phosphate and organics may play an important role in some aquaria).24 This is the point that magnesium gets onto the growing surface of the crystal, essentially poisoning it for further precipitation of calcium carbonate. Since magnesium can reduce the likelihood or extent of calcium carbonate precipitation in this fashion, it thus acts to make it easier to maintain high levels of calcium and alkalinity."
Both of these exerts taken from http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/10/chemistry, RHF.
Sent from my tablet using a rock and chisel
" Bingman12 pointed out in a previous article that at elevated concentrations (>8,000 ppm), magnesium has been used as an aid in shucking oysters, helping to force the oyster open,12-14 and also as an anesthetic for them.12 Consequently, magnesium does have potentially negative biological effects at significantly elevated concentrations."
In regards to your statement, I believe you are incorrect as well,
" The main thing happening in normal seawater is likely the impact of magnesium (though phosphate and organics may play an important role in some aquaria).24 This is the point that magnesium gets onto the growing surface of the crystal, essentially poisoning it for further precipitation of calcium carbonate. Since magnesium can reduce the likelihood or extent of calcium carbonate precipitation in this fashion, it thus acts to make it easier to maintain high levels of calcium and alkalinity."
Both of these exerts taken from http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/10/chemistry, RHF.
Sent from my tablet using a rock and chisel
Magnesium is the fulcrum point that calcium and alkalinity are balanced on either side of.
In cases with high calcium and low alkalinity, the fulcrum is most often offset towards calcium which helps to create that imbalance. In order to balance out the teeter totter of carbs/bi-carbs, you will be best off adding weight to the alkalinity side while taking weight off of the calcium side. As the weight comes off the calcium side, the fulcrum will also naturally shift towards the opposite allowing your alkalinity to get a boost towards the safe range.
Conversely, adding magnesium to a tank with high calcium and low alkalinity will move the fulcrum towards calcium increasing the saturation point and increasing the proportions in which buffer must be added to counter balance the carb/bi-carb ratio.
When moving calcium and alkalinity either up or down together, it can be helpful to move the fulcrum with them, but when you are attempting to re-balance the carb/bi-carb ratio, moving the fulcrum will create less predictable results.
In cases with high calcium and low alkalinity, the fulcrum is most often offset towards calcium which helps to create that imbalance. In order to balance out the teeter totter of carbs/bi-carbs, you will be best off adding weight to the alkalinity side while taking weight off of the calcium side. As the weight comes off the calcium side, the fulcrum will also naturally shift towards the opposite allowing your alkalinity to get a boost towards the safe range.
Conversely, adding magnesium to a tank with high calcium and low alkalinity will move the fulcrum towards calcium increasing the saturation point and increasing the proportions in which buffer must be added to counter balance the carb/bi-carb ratio.
When moving calcium and alkalinity either up or down together, it can be helpful to move the fulcrum with them, but when you are attempting to re-balance the carb/bi-carb ratio, moving the fulcrum will create less predictable results.