FishWife October 31, 2007 October 31, 2007 Hi, We've got our tank up and running and need to establish a maintenance routine. We've read about making two-part CA at home and know there are also ready made products on the market. Assuming that a CA reactor is pretty far into our future, can you please answer some basic questions? We did our first CA test last night and got 350 ppm. This is, I understand, about 100ppm low. We have not hard corals, and clean up inverts, one clownfish, and one BTA in our tank currently. We plan to add one fish or coral per month because of budget and wisdom issues, but may get some free frags at the Nov. meeting ( ) so want to ready the tank. 1. What products to use? 2. WHERE to dose? Refugium? Intake compartment of sump? 3. How often do most people with 160 total gallons and just a few corals find they need to dose? 4. Any information that I don't know enough to ask???
jnguyen4007 October 31, 2007 October 31, 2007 It's important that you also measure your alkalinity as well and not just the calcium. The trick is to get your calcium and alk in balance with each other. As your tank matures and more corals are added, you will then need to monitor your magnesium level because low magnesium can throw your calcium and and alk out of whack as well.
jamal October 31, 2007 October 31, 2007 Hi, We've got our tank up and running and need to establish a maintenance routine. We've read about making two-part CA at home and know there are also ready made products on the market. Assuming that a CA reactor is pretty far into our future, can you please answer some basic questions? We did our first CA test last night and got 350 ppm. This is, I understand, about 100ppm low. We have not hard corals, and clean up inverts, one clownfish, and one BTA in our tank currently. We plan to add one fish or coral per month because of budget and wisdom issues, but may get some free frags at the Nov. meeting ( ) so want to ready the tank. 1. What products to use? 2. WHERE to dose? Refugium? Intake compartment of sump? 3. How often do most people with 160 total gallons and just a few corals find they need to dose? 4. Any information that I don't know enough to ask??? i use calcium chloride from dowflake though purity has recently become an issue. tetra has a calcium chloride product. dose in a high flow area but away from power heads and heat sources. well my water volume is about 220 gal and it is a medium stock but i run kalk and i dose calcium and alk in a 2 part recipe. but i would say you can start with a 1/4 cup of both and see where your levels are. also make sure you check alk more often as it fluctuates more often then calcium.
dbartco October 31, 2007 October 31, 2007 Get you alk stable as well. 350 isn't really that low. many in the club run in that 350-380 range as well. Goal is to provide stability where they get happy, and gro. I have some stonies in a tank where I never dose. Water changes replenishes what is needed. Not fast growing, but not unhappy.
gastone October 31, 2007 October 31, 2007 (edited) http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=102605 There's a bunch. Randy Holmes Farley is an unbelievable hobbyist resource, almost on par with Chip... not quite though. Maybe start here???: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php If you figure any of it out, let me know. I'm just a lowly math teacher and chemistry ain't my thing (neither is language and/or grammar). Edited October 31, 2007 by gastone
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