ToeCutter's Reef Chemistry Visual Aid

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Oh man! Thanks, Boomer! I bookmarked that page - what a great help it will be.
 
Ok question time. LOL Alright my alk is 6.23 meq/l by salifert, my CA is 420 ppm by salifert. Toecutters chart says my balanced alk at 420 CA should be 3.0 meq/l or my balanced CA at 6.2 meq/l should be 484 ppm. My brain is telling me to raise the calcium level of my tank with my seachem dry calcium powder, to closer to 480. I have no clue how to lower alk other than water changes. My mg is at 1470 by salifert and ph is 8.3 by salifert.
Now keeping in mind for me the marbles concept Mojo presented in another post (100 marbles only so many can be white and so many blue representing ca and alk) As I bring this system closer to balance is barely over balance the point where I get to see a snowstorm of Cal.Carbonate in my tank?
My monti, and bali slimer, and blue ridge coral are all visibally growing and all other hard corals are growing well. Should I monkey with my system? I have heard at higher than seawater CA levels the coral has to work harder to make a skeleton. Is this true? I will read whatever you direct me too and try to apply any knowledge you share. I want to thank you all for being here for me. Steve
 
anybody know the answer?
I know what I think is the answer but sometimes my best thinking goes horribly awray. Steve
 
I would personally wait for the alk to drop a little. I'm sitting at 3.14 and 420, which is pretty close to balanced. You can just let the alk drop I believe, and still supplement Ca. Somebody correct me if I am wrong, please. :eek:
 
You know Charlie that is probley best. I mean if everything is growing it does not need to be messed with. LOL. I would love to hear from Colin or Boomer or one of the other Chemistry Gurus on here. Thanks Charlie they will probley give the same advice you did. Steve
 
Steve

Yes your alk is really high and yes your are correct in the way to raise the Ca , with Calcium Chloride, if that is what seachem dry calcium powder is. What is the SeaChem name of it ? Approaching a Ca of 500 (485) and an alk 6.2, with a pH of 8.3.......... that high is not a good thing. You may end up with a "snow storm" in your tank. It is best to do what Charlie already suggested and just let it go down........ and DO NOT add ANY Alk sups. If on the other hand, for the sake of argument, the Ca was only 350, then adding the Calcium Chloride would bring the Ca up and the Alk down.

No, as usually, when I post, you have your reading assignment :D

Solving Calcium and Alkalinity Problems
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm
 
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Sound good. The plan is water change tomorrow morning and see where we end up from there. I will post results. Thanks again for all you guys do. Steve
 
wrightme43 said:
You know Charlie that is probley best. I mean if everything is growing it does not need to be messed with. LOL. I would love to hear from Colin or Boomer or one of the other Chemistry Gurus on here. Thanks Charlie they will probley give the same advice you did. Steve
Click to expand...

Sorry Steve, I just returned from a camping trip.

I agree with Boomer. Ca and Alk will drop over time as we all know. The thing to do in my opinion is to slowly add Ca via CaCl2 or some Ca part of a two part to keep it around 420. Just every other week or so, depending on Ca demand, top off your Ca to 420. By not adding any alk, it will slowly drop over time until it is in balance with Ca. At that point start doing balanced additions again. Of course if your Ca does get up to 450 or so, it is not a big deal. You may see a little precipitation, but I would even bet that this wouldn't happen until over 500 or so.

Sincerely...Collin
 
Thank you guys very much, Alright 25 gallon change today with IO salt at
salinity 1.026
temp 78.4 F
CA 420
ALK 5.37 meq/l
MG 1680 I dont know why I dont add mg, and I tested twice just to check the same both times
PH 8.3
NA 10PPM
NI 0.00PPM
AM 0.00PPM
PHOS 0.1PPM
OK Boomer and Colin this puts me smack in the middle of zone ONE on your referenced chart to solve CA and ALK problems. The instructions are the hardest ones for me to follow. LOL (just jokeing) DO NOTHING leave the system alone let it balance back out at a lower level. Then start to add a balanced supplement again. I am trying RowaKalk for the first time, I had been using Kent. I will begin to dose Kalkwasser again as soon as I get to the point I need it. I will then post the results for you all.
Now onto my next question
LOL
I will be able, if I test every other day, and divide the results by two, be able to get a very good idea of my CA/ALK use for this tank. Is that right? Is there a better way? Any advice you have will be read and put into use. Thanks again you guys. Steve
 
Oh yeah in addition, I am very confused about how the MG went up from 1470 to 1680. I did add a large piece of kelp from the asian grocery. My tangs, angels, urchin, snails, and hermits love it. As far as I can remember that is the only change, salt is a new bag of IO, water is rodi testing 0.00 tds, I use newlife spectrum, and marine supreme frozen, and cyclopezze. Any answers or places to look and check would be appreciated as well. Steve
 
wrightme43 said:
Oh yeah in addition, I am very confused about how the MG went up from 1470 to 1680. I did add a large piece of kelp from the asian grocery. My tangs, angels, urchin, snails, and hermits love it. As far as I can remember that is the only change, salt is a new bag of IO, water is rodi testing 0.00 tds, I use newlife spectrum, and marine supreme frozen, and cyclopezze. Any answers or places to look and check would be appreciated as well. Steve
Click to expand...


If you are not supplementing with Mg, I wouldn't worry about it. Do you keep a log of your params? If not, I would advise you to jot them down in a notebook evertime you measure with the date. You will notice some fluctuations. Any single reading is not very meaningful. It is only when you see a trend that action is warranted for most things, excepting Kalk, in my opinion. The slope of such a line between additions will give you the usage rate.

Regarding your question regarding Ca demand. I would suggest moving the points out in time. Measure twice a week and record the Ca, Alk and date for two weeks or a month depending on your demand and then you can use excel to derive the Ca and alk demand. If you don't know how to do it, ask me when you get the data and I will show you. Basically you plot the points and then use a linear regression to get the slope of the line. It is very easy. Your suggested way will work but will not be very accurate. The parameters jump around some and so just doing two points in 3 days will likely not give you a very realistic number. 8 points over a month on the other hand will give you a much better picture.

Best Regards...Collin
 
Are you using Oceanic salt for the water changes? If so, and you mix it at 1.025-1.026 (where most keep their reef salinity) then you will be increasing the Mg and Ca with every change. Oceanic is designed to be mixed at a lower salinity.
 
Thanks Colin, and Reed. I use IO salt. I will normally test every friday or saturday night. I had alot of stuff to do this weekend so I didnt test untill sunday. Mg is and has been normally around 1240-1250 since the tank has been set up. Doing some reading elsewhere I hear that as long as it doesnt get up to like 3000-4000 it is pretty much self correcting and not too big of a deal. And since it will supposedly lower ALK, it is probley a good thing anyway. I have started a test results log, and I have and use excell for other stuff, easy transfer. Thanks for the help and idea you guys. Steve
 
Steve are you using a new mag kit since you tested around 1250? I had a Salifert kit that was showing a reading about 150 above what it was, mine shot up like yours so I went and bought a new kit and my Mag tested okay, so I borrowed another one and it showed the same as the 2nd kit so I threw the first one out.
 
No I think I had read on here someone else was describing that as well. Might of been you. LOL Its the same kit. I had just done a water change of 25 gallons. It had been arerated and for 2 days. I normally buy salt in 200 gallon bulk packs and I had got this bag of 50gal from petco because LFS was out of stock. I will pm you why, it is off topic on this thread. Thanks for the help. Steve
 
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