Cal + Alk HELP..!!

[Barebottomcorals_Ed]

Ran test today....first thing was p.h was a little high..8.6...everthing else's look great. Nit,Nir,Am, phos,..sal -.025..Calicum is low340 -350 (2 tests) Alk way high 11.5 -11.8.

 

 

Dosing B-Ionic every three days. Last dose Saturday, and i do weekly 25gl water changes. Only other supplements i use is Iodine from bright-well.

 

What can i do to fix this mess..???

 

Any help would be great ! Thanks

[Origami]

First, where in your light cycle did you take your pH measurement? Second, are you testing your magnesium levels? I'm venturing a guess that it may be low and that you're precipitating out calcium carbonate with the high pH and high alk levels. (are you getting scale building up on your heaters and submersible pumps?) If you have sufficient magnesium (1300 ppm plus), I'd work on boosting your calcium (no more than 25 ppm per day) to about 430. Then just let your alk level drift down to around 10. Hold back on dosing alk until you're down where you want to be. (This assumes that you want to be at around 430 calcium and 10 alk, you may have different targets.) If you don't have sufficient magnesium, get that straight first, because magnesium helps keep calcium and bicarbonates supersaturated (stay in solution) in your water. Low magnesium, in effect, promotes calcium carbonate precipitation.

[Barebottomcorals_Ed]

First, where in your light cycle did you take your pH measurement? Second, are you testing your magnesium levels? I'm venturing a guess that it may be low and that you're precipitating out calcium carbonate with the high pH and high alk levels. (are you getting scale building up on your heaters and submersible pumps?) If you have sufficient magnesium (1300 ppm plus), I'd work on boosting your calcium (no more than 25 ppm per day) to about 430. Then just let your alk level drift down to around 10. Hold back on dosing alk until you're down where you want to be. (This assumes that you want to be at around 430 calcium and 10 alk, you may have different targets.) If you don't have sufficient magnesium, get that straight first, because magnesium helps keep calcium and bicarbonates supersaturated (stay in solution) in your water. Low magnesium, in effect, promotes calcium carbonate precipitation.

 

 

light build up on heaters, looks like salt!

 

need to get a magnesium test! have no idea what they are!

 

Will added calcium bring my alk down..??

 

should i just dose calcium additive only from the 2 part b-ionic compound.?

[Origami]

Adding calcium could bring your alk down via precipitation. I wouldn't do that, though. I don't think there's a need to. Alk should fall naturally simply because your corals, and other calcium carbonate producers, will consume the alkalinity. You're alkalinity, by the way, is not really high enough to cause alarm. Some people run their tanks with that and even higher levels. The concern that I have is that your calcium is rather low and, in order for your organisms to be able to use it, you're probably at or below the lowest recommended level of calcium. Therefore, I recommend bringing it up slowly and letting your alkalinity decrease naturally until balance is reestablished.

 

(By the way, get that magnesium test kit and get the measurement. You're probably in no danger with your parameters where they are - though your pH is a bit high (by comparison, my tank runs at around pH 8.4) . You're primarily out of balance.

Edited April 7, 2009 by Origami2547

[Barebottomcorals_Ed]

thanks alot! getting test kit tomorrow, will update. Thanks for the help