DIY two-part trouble

Maeda · #1 11/30/2007, 11:23 PM

I'm using DIY two part (recipe 1), and i'm having some trouble....

Can I make the calcium portion of the recipe say, double strength?

Every week I boost my levels up from
340+ calcium
12 dkh
1300 magnesium

by dosing equal parts of Calcium and Alk solution.

After I adjust it and after a couple weeks go by my calcium falls down back to roughly 340 again, and everything else stays about the same...

Maybe my salt is low in calcium and waterchanges are dropping the calcium substantially? (I do a weekly wc with Instant Ocean)

Previous to going DIY, I was using seachem reef complete and reef builder and I just dosed accord to what I needed. I usually dosed around 30ml of calcium and about 10ml of alk.

What am I doing wrong with the DIY?

Should my tank be eating this much calcium? o.O

Quick Tank Info
~40g loaded with sps and 2 crocea clams.

oct2274 · #2 11/30/2007, 11:40 PM

Instant ocean is low in calcium and when you do the water change it is lowering the level of calcium. If you want to stay with the IO but more reef mixture use ReefCrystals salt

bertoni · #3 12/01/2007, 06:24 PM

I agree that the water changes might be the problem. I dose my Instant Ocean up to 400 ppm Ca and 1300 ppm Mg before doing changes.

NanoReefWanabe · #4 12/01/2007, 11:18 PM

i use the calcium from the 1 first recipe and the alk from the second recipe...i am pretty sure the recipe 1 is double recipe 2 in proportions...my tank seems to be..actually better with the higher calcuim dose and the UNbaked baking soda..i dont know if it is recommended or not by it seems to be working for me...my calcium stays at 440ish and my alk is consistant at 11-11.5 i have been keeping my Mag between 1400-1500...

are you dosing daily or just once and then leaving it?

i dose about 40ml daily...if i leave it for a couple days my calcuim drops to about 360-80ish...and my alk goes down to about 10-10.5, i only add the mag portion once a week..sometimes once every two weeks...depends what ELOS tells me to do..

i would suspect WC's and infrequent dosing are your declining factors..

Maeda · #5 12/02/2007, 03:17 PM

I'm dosing twice daily.

I'll try recipe 2. That sounds like what I need.

MarkGP · #6 12/02/2007, 08:40 PM

Just dose your water change water with calcium to get it to tank levels.

NanoReefWanabe · #7 12/02/2007, 11:42 PM

yeah i always boost my WC water to slightly elevated levels before adding to the tank as well...basically have my WC water at alk of 12 calcium of 450ish and mag of 1400