dKh

[Haulin Oates]

So I just ran a full test with my new red sea test kits ( my old chems were expired and I didn't trust the results) so now that I have trustworthy results, I'm happy to report that for the first time in my reefing career my phosphates are at .01 and my nitrates are almost undetectable!
With the kalk stirrer mishaps, my other chemistry had unfortunately been swinging pretty bad. Now that I have reliable data, and have decided to stick to 2 part for the time being, I need to know what to do and was hoping I could get some insite as to a starting point with my water volume:
Water volume = 400 total gallons
Calcium = (greater than) 500ppm
Alkalinity = 1.9 meq/L or 5.3 dKh
Magnesium = 1400ppm

I need a good starting point to raise dKh.
I'm using baked baking soda dissolved in ro water. I used the Randy Holmes recipe. It appears I need to dose alk for a while to bring my chemistry back into place, but im not sure how much our for how long... any suggestions?

 

[FishTV]

Jack, BRS has a reef calculator that should get you pretty close to how much extra to add per day. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator Are you using dosing pumps for your two part? If your recipe ( know nothing about the Randy Holmes recipe ) is close to regular soda ash, the calculator should guide to how much total solution you need to add, then just figure out how many days you want to take to bring it up. I did a quick calculation just to get you to 8 dKh, and its going to be substantial for your system. I would try to do it over a couple week span, but I think you can do it faster just cant remember how fast.

 

[FishTV]

From BRS site "Do not increase alkalinity levels more than 0.5meq/lt or 1.4 dKH per day."

 

[Haulin Oates]

Jack, BRS has a reef calculator that should get you pretty close to how much extra to add per day. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator Are you using dosing pumps for your two part? If your recipe ( know nothing about the Randy Holmes recipe ) is close to regular soda ash, the calculator should guide to how much total solution you need to add, then just figure out how many days you want to take to bring it up. I did a quick calculation just to get you to 8 dKh, and its going to be substantial for your system. I would try to do it over a couple week span, but I think you can do it faster just cant remember how fast.

Yeah that's where I was at. I just didn't know how much to add per day. I'm going to dose by hand cause I'm really not trusting my reef keeper, and I don't have dosing pumps yet I just added 200ml to the track and im waiting to see if it has any impact on my pH. I might test again and see if it impacted my alk any.

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

I'd concentrate on the alk and your ph should follow. Best of luck man.

 

[Haulin Oates]

I'd concentrate on the alk and your ph should follow. Best of luck man.

Thank you!

 

[zombie]

Dose enough to raise alk by no more than 0.5 dkH per day in at least 2 doses (the more doses the better). I woyud expect it to actually raise by about 80% of what it "should" due to precipitatiob from the high Ca. keep an eye on mag as you should see a bit of precipitation of both calcium and mag since you are adding only dkH. Like the dr said, your pH will follow your dkH, so dont worry about that right now.

Btw, you can do a high range Ca test with the red sea by using 2.5 ml of tabk water with 2.5 ml of rodi. Multiply the concentration that it gives you by 2 for the actual concentration.

 

[Haulin Oates]

Btw, you can do a high range Ca test with the red sea by using 2.5 ml of tabk water with 2.5 ml of rodi. Multiply the concentration that it gives you by 2 for the actual concentration.

I did not know that! Thank you!

 

[zombie]

I did not know that! Thank you!

no problem. that trick also works on any other test that reads in a linear scale like ppm for just about any test kit on the market.

 

[Aaron]

+1 on the BRS calculator. Very easy to accurately control your levels with it.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator