looking for a simple synopsis of the choices in maintaining reef chemistry

[debbythefowler]

Boomer,

I'm not a chemist, just your ordinary reef-type looking to understand the pros and cons of the following 'standard' choices for keeping my Alk, CA, MG, Ph in good standing. Currently I'm using a doser on a 180gallon Display with 4 gallon sump.

I am dosing ESV CA, ALK, MG, and using Aquavitro Balance to keep my Ph from falling. The problem with this approach is the expense. The Aquavitro keeps my Ph at around 8.2ish but is really costly....so....I want to consider the Calcium Reactor and or Kalkwasser. I think i understand correctly that I will still need to dose MG, but that either Calc Reactor or Kalkwasser (?) will cover the CA, Alk appropriately.

Where can you suggest I get a tutorial on the two choices - consumable and comprehensible by a mortal like myself!?

THank you - community feel free to chime in.

Also, I don't know if it matters, but I have a companion Parrot and I have no idea what happens with CO2 if there is a problem, but I will never do anything to endanger my bird.

 

[Boomer]

Debby

You do not need that Aquavirto Balance. That is more of a specialty sup. it is mostly Sodium hydroxide with a small amount of Potassium hydroxide. Kalkwasser will do more for you

Kalk is Calcium hydroxide. You are getting two things from it, the Calcium and the hydroxide. The hydroxide is a buffer and pulls CO2 out, thus raising the pH and Alk. You have no reason to add Sodium and little to add Potassium. So, you get 3 very good things from Kalk: Calcium, CO2 neutralizer and Buffer, with no bad things. With Balance, you get 2 very good things: Buffer and CO2 neutralizer, one not so needed, Potassium and one that is 100 % useless, Sodium.

So, what is Hydroxide ? It is OH, one Hydrogen attached to one Oxygen

The OH combines with the CO2.

OH + CO2 ----> or equals HCO3, a buffer that raises Alk. Most buffers that you sup are by far mostly HCO3, Bicarbonate, which is what you find in Baking Soda, Sodium bicarbonate.

When ever CO2 leaves the water, no matter how, the pH goes up. When ever CO2 enters the water the pH does down, not matter what. You can fix the pH from going down by adding the Kalk, as it removes the CO2.


You shoud shoot for Kalk in a drip and see how it works. I doubt you need a Calcium reactor yet.

There should be no CO2 issues with the parrot. Lots of people have them or other birds.

 

[arnaldolex]

i use baking soda for my alk and pedalow for my calcium and Epsom salt for my magnesium you can go on google type in reef chemistry calculator pick traditional type I how many gallons of water you have where your level is what you wanna use and where u want it at and it will tell you exactly how much to dose I've been doing it over 14 years this way and works well and cheap

 

[debbythefowler]

So....I could move to Kalwasser using one of those stirring containers and dose it, slowly while lowering to 0 the CA and ALK i'm dosing....correct???

 

[Reefinny]

Yes - I have a kalk stirrer with a dosing pump- I have it set to run a few minutes an hour. Pulls from my RO container. I used to have it set to my top off but had an issue once when my old skimmer ran wet and dumped out 20 gallons of water. I like the fail safe of having it as a stand alone.

 

[debbythefowler]

I'm thinking that I'd use two channels on my 8 channel dosing pump. One for the kalk into the sump and the other to refill the kalk stirrer - from the 40 gallon ato reservoir.

? make sense?

 

[Reefinny]

Yeah but you only need one. I have a line from my ro water that goes into my kalk stirrer. Then I have a line that goes from my kalk stirrer to my pump and into the tank. This way when I drip into my sump as if pumps it tops of the kalk stirrer at the same time. What kind of dosing pump do you have. I had a bubble magnus that could not draw it so I went with a stand alone that had more power. I recently upgraded to a GHL Profilux but still have been using the stand alone.

 

[Reefinny]

This is the pump I use for it. Went with it for the head height. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/milwaukee-mp810-dosing-pump.html#tab-full-details