calcium management.

[BLEEZY]

what do you all do for cacium and alkalinity? i have been using calcium hydroxide, about half what it says to and i got it up to 350, then i read a post that scared me from using this. i want it to be super stable like run kalk at night or some super fancy thing that you guys have been using.
should i get a calc reactor? which one? tell me EXACTLY what i need to do and what is the relationship between alk co2 calcium and ph?

[BLEEZY]

ive tried delbeek and sprung(like always) but...(like always) i get too much stuff in my head and they say everything is good and everything is bad for some reason or another.

[BLEEZY]

oooops.... didnt realize until now that i was in the sps forum..(embarrased..)
whatever can i get some input?

[Wiskey]

I make my own 2 part that I used to manually dose daily, but the demand is so high I ended up getting a dosing pump to dose many times per day.

I am not a big fan of CA reactors, so I will likely continue to do this, it works very well, and I just have to make 2 gallons of the sulution every 24 days or so, perty easy.

Whiskey

[whatevva]

You could always change to a salt that's designed for reefs. Reef Crystals or TMPR...

[BLEEZY]

so i dont need some crazy system to balance all the swings i get?

[nujsilec]

Originally Posted by whatevva

You could always change to a salt that's designed for reefs. Reef Crystals or TMPR...

Are you saying that you're not adding any calcium supplement in your tank by using only those "reef salts" mentioned above?

[mg]

Here is a 2 part DIY recipe from Randy Holmes-Farley http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php I personally use a calcium reactor and love not having to add anything everyday. I have a DIY reactor.

[abigtroutt]

Originally Posted by nujsilec

Are you saying that you're not adding any calcium supplement in your tank by using only those "reef salts" mentioned above?

When I changed salts it did make a big difference for me. Less swings and problems. I do add Kalkwasser every day with my auto top off to maintaine the Ca level but the only other supplment I add once a week is Alk buffer.. But I also do 10% to 20% water changes a week and that also keeps up a lot of minerals needed. I use to use Oceanic salts and had problems then changed to Red Sea Coral Pro and had very little problem. A friend of mine that ownes a LFS stated I should change to Reef Crystals because it has more Alk that I need to maintain in my tank. From my experience it has made a big difference.

[Wiskey]

In my tank I use IO salt, and have to dose 110Ml per day of each part of my 2 part, and it's still just frags. I drop 1 Dkh, and like 10PPM of CA per day. I need to supplement.

I got the reefdoser because it will dose smaller amounts 6 times per day to keep my levels more stable, plus I don't have to do anything with it.

so i dont need some crazy system to balance all the swings i get?

You don't need a crazy system, you just need to do something so that every time you test the levels are the same, or have very little vareation. That might mean dosing X ammount of 2 part daily.

BTW, check your mag, that could have something to do with your swings, Mag should be 3xCa, so if CA is 425, Mag=1275.

Whiskey

[skeety]

Originally Posted by BLEEZY

should i get a calc reactor? which one? tell me EXACTLY what i need to do and what is the relationship between alk co2 calcium and ph?

What's your bioload like, exactly?

Are you FULL of SPS's? Or just a few SPS's? LPS's? what kind of corals do you have, and how many? What size tank?

If you only have a few corals, I recommend the dosing as Wiskey suggested. If you have a heavy stoney coral population, you're more than likely going to need a CA reactor, otherwise you're going to go through the 2-part suppliments like crazy! If you have mainly LPS's or softies, you can just get away with setting up a Kalk drip. (easy and cheap). So, as will all question here at TRT...the answer is..."It Depends!" hahaha

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Skeety

So, as will all question here at TRT...the answer is..."It Depends!" hahaha

Ain't that the truth

Skeety is not kidding about going through 2 part like Crazy BTW. I am now dosing 200 ML of each part each day, and I am up to droping 2.2 DKH/Day. I'm glad the DIY 2 part is cheap to make

Whiskey

[cwegescheide]

I use a Ca reactor AND top off with kalk. I think its a good combination actually. The kalk keeps my ph up and I like the phosphate binding properties (supposedly) that the kalk has.

I think a great investment if you have a Ca reactor is what they call a rotameter. Basically its a lab grade instrument to control flow very precisely. It has a glass tube with a ball so you can see exactly how much effluent your putting in. I had a heck of a time keeping my alk/ca stable using the cheapie plastic ball valve that the Geo reactor comes with. Either too high or too low. The rotameter was about 100bux though. Oh another thing that I think is a great investment is a PH controller on the reactor to keep the ph stable in the reactor. If the PH gets too low the alk of the effluent can raise quite a bit and also make it hard to maintain stability. Good luck!