excellent coral grouth

[Horace]

Originally posted by MammothReefer

Alk - Unknown but I believe if I had ALK issus my Ph would be off.

DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alk is the single most important thing to test, while PH is the least important thing. You MUST test for alk. If your alk is not between 7.0 - 10.0 your growth will suffer greatly, if not cause coral death all togeather. You should be testing Alk a min of weekly to ensure its still at your target. You should pick a number between 7.0 - 10.0 dkh and stick with it. Try not to let it get +- 1.0dkh from that target, which is why its probably best to pick a number inbetween like 8.0 - 9.0.

BTW, 400w XM20k put off a TON of PAR. More so than many 250w 10k which put of more than enough par for anything out there. I run the XM20k and growth is great...my buddy uses them exclusivly on his 240g and his growth was unreal.

Just to give you an idea... I have a dual 6" chamber CaRx on my 75g (rated for like 500g) and Ive gone through 6" of media in my first chamber in less than 6" months, thats a hell of a lot of media for a 75g.

[MammothReefer]

Hmm, but correct me if i'm wrong here, if my alk was out of sync w/my Calcium wouldn't my PH be low? I thought having a good ph (8.3) was a sign of having balanced Calcium and Alkalinity? No? But ya something is wrong I've had the same media in my calcium reactor for years, and my tank calcium is always +400. When I check my effluent ph it's around 6.5 or so, so it does melt away but I need so little of it, it goes so slow because nothing is really pulling calcium out of my water,(that or my weekly water changes keep calcium in check).. I figured though with a 12"+ calm and a few smaller ones I would be sucking down calcium like no tomorrow..

Thanks Horace, I'll give it a test and see what I come up it, I hope it's something as simple as me just overlooking that.

[conorwynne]

I would say that alk is fine, since you do weekly changes, but we absolutely cannot rule it out.

It is far more important to test alk than calc.
I only ever test calc and alk to be honest, my other kits are only used if I suspect something is up.

You can have good calc, and good PH yet have bad alk. This will cause havoc for your SPS. There are some excleent (but heavy going) articles on reefkeeping magazine (a while ago now)

Later
Conor.

[MJAnderson]

Originally posted by Tennsquire
Sacrificing a virgin goat gives much better growth IMO....

Do you know how hard it is to find a virgin these days? Try 2 goats instead.

[GSMguy]

Horace when mentioning CA uptake, and comparing your tank to a 500g you should remember you have more coral in your tank than most people do in their 500g LOL

[MammothReefer]

lets continue in this topic , I shouldn't have posted and hijacked this thread.
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1206143

[Horace]

Originally posted by GSMguy
Horace when mentioning CA uptake, and comparing your tank to a 500g you should remember you have more coral in your tank than most people do in their 500g LOL

While this is true, it simply cannot be ignored that measuring your alk is extremely important. Simply doing water changes to keep your alk up just will NOT cut it unless you have a super low demand for alk/ca. I dont care how much water you have, over time your alk will drop. Also, we are assuming that the salt your using to change is perfectly balanced wth alk/ca. If your using WCs to maintain alk/ca, you had better be damn sure your ca/kh are properly balanced or your tank is goign to get out of whack in a hurry.

[jaefei]

TW, 400w XM20k put off a TON of PAR. More so than many 250w 10k which put of more than enough par for anything out there. I run the XM20k and growth is great...my buddy uses them exclusivly on his 240g and his growth was unreal.

what ballast do you using now to firing that?

[Horace]

Originally posted by jaefei
what ballast do you using now to firing that?

M59, Sanjay says they put out 128 PAR. Measured par in my tank inside lumenarc reflectors is about 1600 PAR peak at 8" away from the bulb.

[scuba connor]

i just orderd 2 10k 175watt XM bulbs and a Salifert Calcium Test Kit and a Salifert Alk Test Kit .

good ?