Another calcium and maint question

[wrassie86]

Hi Randy
I started using your formula for calcium with prestone driveway heat.and i stopped do doing large monthly water changes as of now i have my skimmer taking about a gallon aday and i replace this with oceanic salt mix.so about 30 gallons a month on a 125g change and sump cleaning about another 5-10g change

Now my question is i was having problems maintaining calcium, most of my SPS are about 2-3 inch and there is about 32 corals i do have a top off of about 2g aday of kalk and im adding about 10 ounces of the homemade calcium mix aday dripped in.my alk stays around 3.5meg and right now my calcium is 375 i'm shooting for 400 but even at 10 ounces every day, it's not going up very fast also this is 10 onunce aday for the last week.does this sound like to much to you? or normal, just seems like alot between the kalk,oceanic and the daily gallon water change.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How much of the alkalinity part are you adding?

Which recipe (1 or 2) for the 10 ounces of the calcium part per day?

What calcium kit?

[wrassie86]

I really have not had to add any of the alk part,the kalk top off seems to keep it in line.but if do need to adjust i either use baking soda or baked baking soda depending on ph and its normally 8.3
The recipe i used for the calcium was #1 dissoving 2-1/2 cups of the prestone in di water.

I'm using 2 calcium kits one is aquarium pharmaceuticals test kit and mesures high but consistant

And the other is seatest by Aquarium systems (instant ocean) this one i trust as i have tested beside a salifert and got the same readings.
anyway here are my readings as of the this morning lights are still off

PH 8.2
Alk 3.5 fastest test kit
A/P test calcium test kit 460
Seatest calcium test 410

Looks like i reached my goal with the 10 ounces added yesterday,
Almost seems like i would have to add 5 ounces aday to maintain it?

The A/P test always seems to be 50 parts diference from any other test kit i use including seachem and salifert.but there cheap and simple to use for fast testing.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Calcium really cannot be consumed without the alkalinity part being added. In the short run, calcium may start a tad low and slowly rise, but over time, one cannot need to add calcium and not alkalinity (unless you are doing water changes with a low calcium salt mix).

You might check this article:

When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm

[wrassie86]

Right,this all started about a month and 1/2 ago when i added a 15g kalk tank for top off. it puts in about 3 g aday.at first alk and calcium levels were great. then my alk stayed good from kalk i assume, but the calcium kept falling off.It does'nt look like i have much precip as my heaters and pumps stay fairly clean.

Is it fairly possible that the kalkwasser top off is holding the alk stable but not the calcium causing the extra addition to keep them balanced?.kinda the way it seems.

Anyway at this point the tank is fairly balanced.first time in awile.
So at this point i should see the levels start to fall together right?

Oh by the way that is a very good artical i think i might read it a 3 rd time

:D

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That can only come by testing error, or water changes with low clacium salt (assuming that there is no other source of alkalinity, such as buffer additions).

[B]Is it fairly possible that the kalkwasser top off is holding the alk stable but not the calcium causing the extra addition to keep them balanced?.kinda the way it seems.

No, that isn't possible (assuming it is really calcium hydroxide). What exactly is it?

[wrassie86]

I'm useing "mrs wages" pickling lime.the tank that i keep my top water in has about 1inch of lime on the bottom for 15g and a ph 12.5
oh i will add that last week tuesday i added 3 tsp of the baked baking soda as my alk was at 3 meg and wanted 3.5 or so.