cant keep up with kalk alone
- Thread starter High Plains Reefer
- Start date
Too much kalk can keep your PH high. Too much at once can cause a tank crash.
Options:
You could blow fans across the tank to evap more water - this will cause your heater to run more, though, and could risk adding too much kalk at once.
You could move to 2 part doing. You could also look into a Calcium Reactor. Both have pros and cons.
You could also just dose baking soda by hand a few times a week to help out the alk.
Options:
You could blow fans across the tank to evap more water - this will cause your heater to run more, though, and could risk adding too much kalk at once.
You could move to 2 part doing. You could also look into a Calcium Reactor. Both have pros and cons.
You could also just dose baking soda by hand a few times a week to help out the alk.
Re: cant keep up with kalk alone
I dose 120 ml 8x a day of alk kalk and calcium. Even if you cut it by a 1/3 I am guessing you need to bump up your sodium bicarbonate. Kalk maintains your levels it dose not raise them and should not be used to raise them. BRS has a nice little videos on using kalk
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I dose 120 ml 8x a day of alk kalk and calcium. Even if you cut it by a 1/3 I am guessing you need to bump up your sodium bicarbonate. Kalk maintains your levels it dose not raise them and should not be used to raise them. BRS has a nice little videos on using kalk
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Re: cant keep up with kalk alone
They are but they might come back in once you get your alk issue solved. Might have to dose ca with your alk but try to just solve one problem. With big systems you can chase a lot go slow dont try to change all at once or make big changes you will just chase your tail
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They are but they might come back in once you get your alk issue solved. Might have to dose ca with your alk but try to just solve one problem. With big systems you can chase a lot go slow dont try to change all at once or make big changes you will just chase your tail
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Test your big 3 (Alk, Ca, Mg)...then check out this article:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry
It was a HUGE help in wrapping my head around correcting my levels when I first started dosing my tank, and I haven't had any issues getting things in line since then. If you're having trouble keeping your Alk in range, my guess would be that your Mg is too low and you're getting precipitation somewhere. I wouldn't try doing anything else until you test all 3 levels and see where you're at.
HTH
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry
It was a HUGE help in wrapping my head around correcting my levels when I first started dosing my tank, and I haven't had any issues getting things in line since then. If you're having trouble keeping your Alk in range, my guess would be that your Mg is too low and you're getting precipitation somewhere. I wouldn't try doing anything else until you test all 3 levels and see where you're at.
HTH
Check your PH test kit - if you are really swinging 2.0, then your tank could crash any second. Since it hasn't, it could be the kit. Do you have PH pen, or meter? PH is on a Logarithmic scale and each .1 is twice as potent as the number before - 8.0 is 10x as basic as 7.0... and 9.0 is 100x more basic than 7.0. If you are swinging 2.0, then we are talking 100x.
If you have a super high, or want to have a super high, calcium consuming bio load, then look into a different supplementation method. I cannot evaporate enough water to add in enough saturated kalk, or 2 part, into my SPS systems - I imagine that the clams alone use more than what i can add.
Even though they are all tied together, they don't always get used in balance. In systems that I have had that are heavy with clams, they use the calcium up faster than the alk, so about once a month I have to use some calcium chloride to bump from 360-380 up to about 420-440 again. In my case, I am melting coral skeletons. Maybe if I was melting clam shells, it would get used in the same balance that it is being melted.
There is tons to read on this, but here are the basics.... if either calcium or alk is way too high, the other will be lower. They will somewhat naturally balance if you have a stable/good amount of magnesium. If you add them with a balanced method (kalk, or Calcium Reactor), then it is hard for them to get too out of whack too quickly if your mag is good. If you add independently (manual or with 2 part), then you need to check more often and have some good fail-safes. The ocean mostly supplies calcium and alk from the substrate where bacteria produces acid to lower the PH and causes the aragonite matter below the surface to dissolve - this is the same as in a calcium reactor, but it uses depth, pressure and bacteria to lower PH instead of CO2 from a welding shop.
Check these out:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rhf/feature/
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/2/chemistry
If you have a super high, or want to have a super high, calcium consuming bio load, then look into a different supplementation method. I cannot evaporate enough water to add in enough saturated kalk, or 2 part, into my SPS systems - I imagine that the clams alone use more than what i can add.
Even though they are all tied together, they don't always get used in balance. In systems that I have had that are heavy with clams, they use the calcium up faster than the alk, so about once a month I have to use some calcium chloride to bump from 360-380 up to about 420-440 again. In my case, I am melting coral skeletons. Maybe if I was melting clam shells, it would get used in the same balance that it is being melted.
There is tons to read on this, but here are the basics.... if either calcium or alk is way too high, the other will be lower. They will somewhat naturally balance if you have a stable/good amount of magnesium. If you add them with a balanced method (kalk, or Calcium Reactor), then it is hard for them to get too out of whack too quickly if your mag is good. If you add independently (manual or with 2 part), then you need to check more often and have some good fail-safes. The ocean mostly supplies calcium and alk from the substrate where bacteria produces acid to lower the PH and causes the aragonite matter below the surface to dissolve - this is the same as in a calcium reactor, but it uses depth, pressure and bacteria to lower PH instead of CO2 from a welding shop.
Check these out:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rhf/feature/
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/2/chemistry