calcium precipitation,now falling PH,&dkh

[briang]

I posted about my cal. precip. problem this morning. With several different oppinions given to me,I finally decided to wait on water change till my magnesium test kit arrives, probbably thurs. No LFS has one. Tried the only 3 around. I was content with this being that corals look only minorly stressed. Then I just checked PH. Now it's between 7.8 & 8.0. This morning it was 8.2. I'm affraid to see what it will be after dark. My dkh was 7 this morning now it is 6. My calcium is still 340 but I still have a snow storm in my tank. I'm still worried about doing a water change because if my mag. is low then this may only add more cal. to precip.If I knew for sure my mag was definitly low ,then I think I could add mag. then do water change.But without knowing for sure I think I could cause more trouble. Any thoughts?

 

[plack]

I would do a large water change if you can if your worried it can ONLY do GOOD and cannot make thing worse !!!!!

Your ca is low your alk is low and you have a snow storm? I thought that only happened when there was to much ca or alk or alot of one added at once !!! .

What are you using to bring up the ca and alk I use dry z air its cheap and identical to kent turbo ca and available at wall mart in the sporting goods section and I use baked baking soda 350º F for 2 hours for alk.

When I make new salt water . I buffer it up to 9-11 dkh then check the calcium and bring that up to 420.

I check the tank levels before I change anything if adding addatives to the tank to make adjustments.

But if I am doing a large water change. I test the new salt mix before adding and adjust it to where it should be and warm it to the tank temperature.

I would also lower the water level inside your skimmer after adding any addative to your tank for a short while as it usually pulls in lots of water only!! for a short while ( a few hours)

Here is a neat link to help you know how much to add to get things where you want:

http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/chemcalc.html

 

[DonW]

I posted about my cal. precip. problem this morning. With several different oppinions given to me,I finally decided to wait on water change till my magnesium test kit arrives, probbably thurs. No LFS has one. Tried the only 3 around. I was content with this being that corals look only minorly stressed. Then I just checked PH. Now it's between 7.8 & 8.0. This morning it was 8.2. I'm affraid to see what it will be after dark. My dkh was 7 this morning now it is 6. My calcium is still 340 but I still have a snow storm in my tank. I'm still worried about doing a water change because if my mag. is low then this may only add more cal. to precip.If I knew for sure my mag was definitly low ,then I think I could add mag. then do water change.But without knowing for sure I think I could cause more trouble. Any thoughts?

If your ca is not dropping its NOT going through a snow storm. You had a precip due to a chemical addition.
When you do a water change your going to add everything including Mg. There is no possible way unless you get a bad batch of salt or do it improperly that it will harm yor tank.
Water change is the easiest quickest cure. The Kent liquid reactor is the cause of your problem. Look at you ph and other numbers. Your parameters are not even a candidate for a snow storm.

Don

 

[briang]

I found out the hard way that if the magnesium is down,then no matter how much calcium you add ,in any form, it will not rise .It will only fall out of solution. Something about not enough ions to attatch to. Possibly the snow I see is the crystals that have already fallen out of solution,they are there but I guess not any worse

 

[DonW]

I found out the hard way that if the magnesium is down,then no matter how much calcium you add ,in any form, it will not rise .It will only fall out of solution. Something about not enough ions to attatch to. Possibly the snow I see is the crystals that have already fallen out of solution,they are there but I guess not any worse

Thats why you need to do a water change so that you add ca and mg along with everthing else at the same time this will bring your tank back into balance. You do realize that the salt mix Contains Mg right? The liqud reactor you used is not good to bring a neglected system back into balance. It will storm as you found. The system itself is not snow storming.

Don

 

[briang]

I guess you guys are probably right. I'm making ro-di now.I have 15 gal airrating for a day now.guess I'll add a few more gal. and do change tommorow,unless someones comes up with a real good reason why I shouldn't. Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it, Brian