Tips of the trade..
 

Hey everyone ,

Im in seach of some " tips of the trade " Ive gotten my system up and running and I have a balanced system, however; I'm failing to be able to raise my Calcium levels above 340-380 and I cant seem to bring my Alk and KH into check. My question is does anyone have any advice for me ? Im running a bare bottom system which was est. about a month ago (I know its not matured yet) and Im taking it slow prior to any additions of my acros from my other system but I have yet to deal with a system this large and find that its giving me a run for my money...

In overview Nitrates, Nitrties, Phospates are 0, Amonia is less then .025 Ph is 8.2 Salinity is 1.024- 1.026, system has about 2-300 pounds of base rock with some coraline growth started. All perameters were tested with salferit kits. Over all volume is between the 650-700 gallon mark currently. Supplimental A and B have been added constantly and kalk has been established with supplimental use of stabalizer for pH and Alk with no sucess and supplimental trace elements.

Thanks for any advice and for taking the time to stop in and read the tread.

Charles,
The CaptiveReefer-

get a 2-part dosing pump for your 2-part Ca/Alk additive.

If you still have ammonia in your tank you don't need to worry about alk and calc yet.
Wait till nitrite and ammonia is 0 then read up on this link.

[url]http://web.archive.org/web/20021127040526/http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm[/url]

good thought Pitstop-

It completely slipped my mind to try one, do you think that would be enough though to raise/ drop things into check?

Ya im at 0 all around basicly because the amonia in salferit kits dont read 0 so presuming all is 0, but thanks for the link Ill do a bit more reading.

have you checked your magnesium levels?

hmm.. no I should do that perhaps, need a new kit too.. okay another thng to consider.. Thanks

just a thought. i had the same problem as you did, couldnt get calcium higher than 340ppm, found out magnesium levels were too low and then just made my own batch of magnesium from Randy's Two-part solution

Another thing to consider is your salinity. You say between 1.024 and 1.026. Calcium of 340-380 at 1.024 would be 380-420 at 1.026. How are you checking your salinity? Hydrometer, refractometer? Is it recently calibrated? Magnesium is another good thing to test. You will have difficulty keeping your alk stable if Magnesium is low.

nietzsche -

where do you get the 2 part?


SPStoner-

Im using a refractometer, perhaps I should double check with my hydrometer from the old days but the salinity has been constant.

My question now is if my Mag is low how do I increase that so I can balance my Alk and KH and increase my Calcium? I just tested again (2 time this am) My KH is at 9.0 , Alk is at 3.20 everything else reads 0 and calcium is 300 with a salinity of 1.025 a pH of 8.2 and a temp of right around 76 +/-

On a side note I have been using Tropic Marin Salt if anyone thinks that might make a difference??

[url]http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php[/url]

how to make it if you want someone to show you: 7th video on this website [url]http://www.reefvideos.com/[/url] the one that says dowflake

[url]http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Calcium,-Alkalinity-&-Magnesium-Calcium-Chloride/c1_2/index.html[/url]

[url]http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Calcium,-Alkalinity-&-Magnesium-Magnesium/c1_4/index.html[/url]

youll have to see for yourself if its cost effective or maybe go about a different way. for me it works great since its just a 28, this stuff should last me a long time

great ! thanks alot hopefully i can get this fixed!