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sneeyatch
04/30/2006, 05:23 PM
first off - this is a 75 gallon mixed reef with softies, lps, sps and anemones that has been doing quite well for a while.

water params as of (noon) today are as follows:

temp - 79º
ph - 8.2
sg - 1.025
ca - 430 ppm
alk - 7 dkh
po4 - 0
trates - <10

there is no sump / fuge. i use a prizm skimmer which isn't the best thing, but it does pull nicely. i run an eheim 2026 canister with no bio media, but run phosban and black diamond carbon in socks. there are also 3 maxi-jet 1200's for additional water movement. lighting is by (4) t5's (nova extreme) bulbs / fixture is only 2 months old.

i perform ±20% weekly water changes and use seachem's new reef formula salt. i test the new water, and all readings are very good. i drip kalk at night (seachem's reef kalk), and i've starting supplimenting with seachem's reef complete and reef carbonate to compensate for element consumptions.

now for the issues...

cyano has been popping up within the last couple of weeks, and my powder blue has come down with ich. corals are growing extremely well, and all other fish and inverts appear fine. no deaths recently, and if something does die, i pull it immediately.

of course after 3 weeks at the lfs, and an additional 3 weeks of quarantine with no signs of anything, the powder blue just happens to get it after being in the display for right over a week.

i am suspecting the lower alk reading, and i've been reading about baking soda, but haven't started anything with that yet. i can't find the mixing ratio of baking soda to water, or the application rate. i've heard some people say to just "dump" it in there, but i'll never just "dump" anything into the tank.

maybe there's something else i'm not looking at, or looking at something differently. if someone could point me in the right direction, i would really appreciate it.

Randy Holmes-Farley
04/30/2006, 07:34 PM
The alkalinity is not causing the ich, if that is the concern. 7 dKH almost exactly matches natural seawater.


That said, baking soda is a fine way to boost alkalinity. Dissolve it in fresh water and add to a high flow area. This calculator shows how much:

Reef Chemicals Calculator
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html


This article may also help:

Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

sneeyatch
04/30/2006, 07:43 PM
thanks randy - i've been reading those

i don't have to worry about mixong "x" amount of baking soda to "x" gallons of water like kalk?

what about mixing baking soda with buffered ro water? i always add marine buffer to my fresh water...

thanks for the help

Randy Holmes-Farley
04/30/2006, 07:54 PM
I would not add buffer to RO water, unless the purpose is only to boost tank alkalinity. The pH of RO water never is a cause of low tank pH. But you can dissolve all the baking soda in RO water (buffered or not) that you want (up to about 1 cup baking soda per gallon). If you want it to raise pH a bit, bake the dry baking soda fist (300 deg F, 1 h in an oven)

This article discusses the pH of RO/DI water:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/rhf/index.php#8