shawns April 17, 2007 Share April 17, 2007 i've been dosing 2 part buffer/calcium about twice a week for about 3 weeks now. i do use equal parts of both a and b. ive been monitoring my kh and my calcium levels. i use a fishwells kh tester and a salifert calcium tester. anyway, my kh has dropped to 4 dkh and my calcium is over 500ppm. for those or you who dont know, the test topps out at 500. i know that i want my dkh to be between 7-10 and my calcium appox. around 400ppm. this leads me to me to my question. do i just want to use the buffer half of the additive and not use the calcium? i also have powder buffer. maybe i should just use it to get my dkh satisfactory? additional info: i use ro/di water for my changes and i use oceanic salt for now. i know that i dont want to make any hasty judgements or any changes to my water chemistry just the same. thanks in advance for the advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanman April 18, 2007 Share April 18, 2007 i've been dosing 2 part buffer/calcium about twice a week for about 3 weeks now. i do use equal parts of both a and b. ive been monitoring my kh and my calcium levels. i use a fishwells kh tester and a salifert calcium tester. anyway, my kh has dropped to 4 dkh and my calcium is over 500ppm. for those or you who dont know, the test topps out at 500. i know that i want my dkh to be between 7-10 and my calcium appox. around 400ppm. this leads me to me to my question. do i just want to use the buffer half of the additive and not use the calcium? i also have powder buffer. maybe i should just use it to get my dkh satisfactory? additional info: i use ro/di water for my changes and i use oceanic salt for now. i know that i dont want to make any hasty judgements or any changes to my water chemistry just the same. thanks in advance for the advice. How new is this tank? Does it have any calcium-users in it? Also - the Salifert test kind of works backwards... are you saying you add the entire syringe before it turns blue?? Have you tested your ro/di water for ALK before you put it in the tank? I mean - my ALK tends to be low, and I'm working on it - but at least my CA is only around 390 - so I have some room to work. And those test kits... I just got a new one that's supposed to be more accurate than my old one. We shall see. bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rrubberbandman April 18, 2007 Share April 18, 2007 what size tank............... whats your SG....tested by a refractometer? i used IO test kits for calcium and ALk.........found both of them to be off.....CA4 was like 150 points over and alk was like 4 points over what salifert said......now that i have both of them done by salifert things are groovy. Bryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawns April 18, 2007 Author Share April 18, 2007 (edited) the tank had been set up for over a yr at my old house, about 5 months since i moved. i do have some stoneys in the tank, but they are all frags. most likely hardly any usage of the metals, at least not until they get to be growing. the whole system is less then 60g. sg: 1.025 i havent tested the alk in my ro/di water. i was ASSUMING that the water was "dead" and didnt have anything to it. i imagine i could do that, but my reading should be very close to zero, right? anyway, should i harded the water that is in my tank now w/ my buffer? Edited April 18, 2007 by shawns Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rascal April 18, 2007 Share April 18, 2007 (edited) Best article I have ever read for correcting calcium / alkalinity problems, by Randy Holmes-Farley of course: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm. The short answer to your question is yes, you want to keep supplementing Alk and quit dosing Ca until your levels get to where you want them to be. Exactly how you do this could depend on your PH though, since some Alk additives will have more of an effect on PH than others. A couple of general comments to keep in mind: 1) Always make sure your test kits are accurate before making any changes. Count me among those who have learned this the hard way. I now use only Salifert, and always buy the replacement before I run out of the one I am using, so I can check one against the other. If in doubt, take some water into a good LFS and ask them to run a test on it. Testing your make-up water (once you know what the levels should be at a certain SG) is also a good way to double check your test kits. 2) (Almost) always go slow when making changes of this sort. For Alk corrections, personally I would shoot for no more than b/n 1 - 2 dKh per day. Good luck. Edited April 18, 2007 by Rascal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawns April 18, 2007 Author Share April 18, 2007 i dont know if the link in the previous post has been pinned by the mons. if it hasnt, it should be at the very least considered and, imo, placed in the "new to the hobby" forum. it looks at a subject that is heavliy written about scientifically and not too much in a, "what do i do now?" angle. this link it written in such a way that the reader has the opportunity to understand what they need to do to adjust their alk/cal problem, and not just how the marriage of the 2 coexist. i think that it is a valuable article and can be great help to those starting out, or even those of us who got lucky at the begining and need some help now. i might be a little bit of the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 April 18, 2007 Share April 18, 2007 Sounds like you dosed too much CA. Let it drop down to 400 while increasing your ALK. Slowly is key! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawns April 18, 2007 Author Share April 18, 2007 let me get this straight, i want to continue dosing ca? i thought i could keep an eye on it, but only dose alk. i guess that's why im asking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 April 18, 2007 Share April 18, 2007 yes let CA come down on its own and dose ALK portion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rrubberbandman April 18, 2007 Share April 18, 2007 guys, what about a round of water changes ...2 or 3 over the next week??? Bryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawns April 18, 2007 Author Share April 18, 2007 well that might work rubber, but i would have to test my alk and ca levels in my fresh water before i make the change. if my readings on the fresh water are askew, then my efforts are counter productive. another thing to consider is the fact that my test kits maybe giving me funky readings. so even if i do test the water w/ the kits that i have, that maybe wrong too! so my problem maybe 2 or three fold... 1. my fresh water is lousy. 2. the water is my tank is lousy. 3. my test kits are inaccurate. 4. some1 shoot me...there maybe nothing wrong at all<--leads back to #3! all of a sudden i have become very thirsty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 April 18, 2007 Share April 18, 2007 GET ANOTHER READING FROM DIFFERENT TEST KITS AND GO FROM THERE. My salifert test kits have been wrong in the past but on the low side not the high side. I always verifiy my salifert against a API (aquarium pharmacudicals) test if i dont like the numbers. They are cheap. I know F&F carries the ALK but not sure where you can find the CA test kit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawns April 18, 2007 Author Share April 18, 2007 definatly phis! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Undercoverdork April 18, 2007 Share April 18, 2007 http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/reactor.html that should help you balance things out. http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/chemcalc.html oops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiCurtis April 18, 2007 Share April 18, 2007 I just wanted to say thanks for this thread and the link to the great article I just read it and it makes allot of sense.I also was not understanding the importance of the alkalinity.(the marriage of the 2 calcium's)Over the past few months I also had problems with my alk.I was only adding kalk and no alk.so my levels really dropped.also the water I was using....Well water ro/di was very very low in alkalinity .I add alkalinity to my fresh water and get that high first and then add my salt to that water after it gets right.i hope this helps and if anyone wants to set me straight ,please post a response.I'm glad this club and members are so helpful wish I joined a long time ago.I probably would have saved lots of money and a few animals at the same time Curtis guys, what about a round of water changes ...2 or 3 over the next week??? Bryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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