View Single Post
  #20  
Old 08/08/2007, 10:24 AM
Sk8r Sk8r is offline
Team RC Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Spokane WA
Posts: 12,245
This is what I know about supplementation: if you hand-dose, you need to test at the same time every day to try to minimize the swing. I got into serious trouble letting an unstirred 7g ro/di bucket do my alk supplement. Bad idea. That let to, eventually, a buildup that finally got dosed when the bucket ran low: hence the spike.

A kalk reactor, supplying both alk and cal, can contribute to ph problems, but I can say my gallon + a day evaporation rate and small tank size [54g] makes an ideal situation for kalk as THE supplement---so far. Corals can get very hungry, and once the fast-growing montiporas really get started, it may be different, but right now the reactor will hold the 54g steady with only set-up dosing.

Some people run both a calcium reactor AND kalkreactor.

And stability I'm sure is a big item in the benefits. That and precipitation of phosphate via kalk [unproven, meaning I've never found any article with research] but...my tank algae is going away.

Does anybody know whether the ocean has 24 hour cycles in ph, alk, cal? Is there any net effect of dark period and coral absorption cycles re the condition of the water in the immediate surrounds of a reef?
__________________
Sk8r

"Make haste slowly." ---Augustus.

"If anything CAN go wrong, it will, and at the worst possible moment."---St. Murphy.