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#1
05/22/2004, 12:57 AM
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low alk question
i have a 180g sps/lps tank. im running a ca reactor and im topping off with lime water. my ca is at 530 but my alk is at kh/dkh 6.1 2.17meq/l my ph goes up during the day and drops at night.
im wondering what i can do to keep the ph more stable, and raise the alk up. i was wondering why i couldnt hook up a kalk reactor up to my tank by taping off of the presure of the return pump just like the ca reactors are hooked up, and driping it back to the sump?instead of using fresh ro/di water and toping it off with a float valve? would i need to top off with lime water too? my monti's are growing like weeds but my acros dont look very happy. i think the montis are using up alot of alk and starving the rest of the tank of alk. i didnt take cemestry 101 so im kind of dumb on this subject. i have had alot of people send me links to sites that talk about alk/ca being ballanced. but they only talk about topping off the tank with a kalk reactor or lime water top off when using a ca reactor.
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a wise man once told me.... " there is no right way to build a reef tank but there is alot of wrong ways to build a reef tank". |
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#2
05/22/2004, 12:11 PM
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was wondering why i couldnt hook up a kalk reactor up to my tank by taping off of the presure of the return pump just like the ca reactors are hooked up
By kalk reactor you mean limewater? You cannot mix seawater with solid lime in a reactor. You'll get a chemical disaster as magneisum hydroxide and carbonate and calcium carbonate precipitate inside of it. The low alkalinity suggests to me that the two methods that you are using are not keeping up with the demand of the aquarium (for both calcium and alkalinity), and you may need to dose something else too (like a two part additive) or get more out of the reactor and/or limewater. Since clacium is on the high side, you can do a one time correction to the alkalinity by adding baking soda, but eventually you'll need to be adding both calcium and alkalinity to keep things up. This article may help get more from the CaCO3/CO2 reactor: Simon Huntington's CaCO3/CO2 reactor article http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-0...ture/index.htm This one will help in adding baking soda to boost alkalinity relative to calcium: Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm
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Randy Holmes-Farley |
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