I have a 55 gallon with 230 pc lights. I have had it up and running for 5 years with just fish and an anemone. Recently I decided to put some corals in and see if I could do it. My zoos look to be alright but my Calcium is at 500 and alkalinity is high. The saltwater store said to use a product called C-Balance so I have and the Calcium and alkalinity are not stabilizing so what should I do to get it to stabilize.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
calcium and alkalinity
- Thread starter kaddy522
- Start date
Your CA is pretty high. Usually if the CA is that high, you will not be able to get your Alk to the correct level, but you mentioned that was high. How high is your ALK level?? I would suggest dosing MG, to a level around 1300ppm. MG will help stabilize high CA, and Alk levels. A good starter balance for coral would usually look somthing close to this,Ca 400-450, Alk 6-8(dkh), MG 1300-1400. I have had Alk levels above 9 and ran into problems with coral tissue recession and "burning". Check out http://www.twopartsolution.com for some great deals on bulk chemicals. The website also has a handy calculator that lets you type in your levels, and it will give you the correct amounts to dose to get to your desired levels.
+1
I use B-Ionic two part solution with a LiterMeterIII but if your going to manually dose your system I would recoment a two part starter kit from Bulk Reef Supply. This should get your tank stabalized. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Two-Part- ... _info.html
Try starting out with lower equal doses testing frequently slowly raising it until it gets to recomended levels.
I use B-Ionic two part solution with a LiterMeterIII but if your going to manually dose your system I would recoment a two part starter kit from Bulk Reef Supply. This should get your tank stabalized. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Two-Part- ... _info.html
Try starting out with lower equal doses testing frequently slowly raising it until it gets to recomended levels.
SnowManSnow":2s6o2l9y said:never underestimate the power of water changes to get things in check either :lol:
it seems easy, but it works.
b
Also agree. Just make sure you know the parameters of the water, and the water you are changing it with.
I have been using C-balance in my aquarium because that is what the Saltwater Expert told me to start because my Calcium used to be at 700. Everytime I do a water change my calcium ends up high. But my alkalinity is 5.74. Usually when I get the calcium to where it should be at 450 the Alkalinity stays high.
C-Balance is a 2 part system, one part is CA the other is ALK. If the "saltwater expert" is telling you to use C-balance when you have an already high level of CA it is questionable advice. When you say your alk is 5.7 are you talking dKH or Mg/l. If the later its too high. I like snows suggestion of water changes. I would not add anything else untill I got the water corrected. Of course maidens right about questioning the kits accuracy. Anyhow good luck with you problem. SeaMaiden, did you stop posting on ROI?
Seamaiden is right. I was having some problem before with my Dkh level. It was 16, way too high. Everyone kept telling me that the test kit migh be wrong. Well, to make a long story short, it was. It was reading double the value. The directions failed to tell me that I had to divide by 2. :? I looked into and sure enough, there were recalls on the product due to faulty directions.
I'm drawing a blank, ROI? The answer must be yes! :lol:Ben":2zi3ezl4 said:C-Balance is a 2 part system, one part is CA the other is ALK. If the "saltwater expert" is telling you to use C-balance when you have an already high level of CA it is questionable advice. When you say your alk is 5.7 are you talking dKH or Mg/l. If the later its too high. I like snows suggestion of water changes. I would not add anything else untill I got the water corrected. Of course maidens right about questioning the kits accuracy. Anyhow good luck with you problem. SeaMaiden, did you stop posting on ROI?
Salifert usually makes good kits. But, like I said, if your specimens are telling you one thing (Hey, Kazzy, we're chill, we're kickin', we're diggin'!) but the numbers are telling you another, suspect the numbers first.kaddy522":1arya0be said:I was talking about DKH its at 16 and the test kit is Salifert. Maybe I better check into the kit because the Saltwater place says that its always fine but I got the kit from them. So I will have to check on it. Thank you guys
WOW.
The first thing I will tell you is to slow down.
Measure your ca and alk (do not add anything to your tank right now).
If your cal is above 450 do not add any calcium suppliments. If your calcium is below 450 you can add some, but you need to try and keep your ca around 450 or so. You can use the Reef Chemistry Calculator to help you decide how much to dose at that time.
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html
If your alk is below 7 dkh you need to add buffer, or the alk part of your c-balance to bring it up to the 7-11 range. You can use the same reef chem calculator to do that.
Once both values are in the normal range, you need to figure out how much to dose to keep them in that range. Start out slow. Since it sounds like you do not have a lot of corals in your tank yet, go for 1 week then measure alk, and calcium. Use the calculator to figure out how much of your 2 part alk you need to add, then add the same amount of both bottles. Do this again the second week, you should be adding close to the same amount each week. Then for the next month add this same amount every week of both bottles, then measure ca/alk. If they are lower, increase your dose a little, if they are higher decrease your dose a little. As you add more corals and get more growth you will have to increase the amount that you dose, you might have to go do dosing twice a week to help keep things stable, or even twice a day for a very well growing sps dominated tank.
Be very careful about what your specialist tells you, since it sounds like they might not be as good of a specialist as you think.
Kim
The first thing I will tell you is to slow down.
Measure your ca and alk (do not add anything to your tank right now).
If your cal is above 450 do not add any calcium suppliments. If your calcium is below 450 you can add some, but you need to try and keep your ca around 450 or so. You can use the Reef Chemistry Calculator to help you decide how much to dose at that time.
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html
If your alk is below 7 dkh you need to add buffer, or the alk part of your c-balance to bring it up to the 7-11 range. You can use the same reef chem calculator to do that.
Once both values are in the normal range, you need to figure out how much to dose to keep them in that range. Start out slow. Since it sounds like you do not have a lot of corals in your tank yet, go for 1 week then measure alk, and calcium. Use the calculator to figure out how much of your 2 part alk you need to add, then add the same amount of both bottles. Do this again the second week, you should be adding close to the same amount each week. Then for the next month add this same amount every week of both bottles, then measure ca/alk. If they are lower, increase your dose a little, if they are higher decrease your dose a little. As you add more corals and get more growth you will have to increase the amount that you dose, you might have to go do dosing twice a week to help keep things stable, or even twice a day for a very well growing sps dominated tank.
Be very careful about what your specialist tells you, since it sounds like they might not be as good of a specialist as you think.
Kim
Sponsor Reefs
We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.
Click here to sponsor $10:
