water chemistry

[dreefer]

I have a 135 reef aquarium with a rather large sump. have had problems maintaining my dkh and calcium at optimal levels . have calcium reactor running , knopf reactor with carib sea media. has been operating for over 4 months. no change in levels. Try adding calcium supplements ie..turbo calc to bring levels up , just seems to precip out and drive down dkh levels cant seem to keep dkh at optimal levels either..... thus affecting my ph which is also not at optimal levels. operation of reactor has my ph evening at 8 and ph morn 7.8. Higher dkh higher ph correct? magnesium levels do not know but am using kent sea salt . phosphate and silicate levels low, all life in aquarium healthy. tank not over loaded not over fed. Not getting maximum calcification or coralline growth.......very perplexing????

[Aquattro]

dreefer, welcome to Canreef. Busy month for new Victoria members!

How old is your tank? Are you using aragonite sand? How old is the sand? Do you have any measureable nitrates? Do you have a lot of calcium consumption (lots of stony corals)?

[Buccaneer]

What exactly are your levels at ? ... Magnesium most definately will affect your ability to raise calcium levels so get a good test kit for that. A few of us with reactors also drip Kalk to keep PH up.

Cheers

[dreefer]

tank is apprx 3 yrs old sand bed is apprx 2yrs old fair amnt of lps and sps but not enough to substantiate the kind of calcium consumption occuring versus the amt of addditives ie kalk ,aragamilk, kent two part ...ect I have tried just about every thing to bring my levels up but have had limited success. havent tested my nitrates for a while, high nitrates will drive down ph levels ...correct?

[dreefer]

calcium 320 ppm alkalinity 6 dkh nitrate ??????? lost my directions for the salifert nitrate test ...anyone?

[Aquattro]

high nitrates will drive down ph levels ...correct?

Correct. It will also consume alkalinity in the form of HNO3 (nitric acid). The tank is old enough for levels to be stable, so I would also recommend check Mg levels. I asked about the sand because new sand can adsorb Ca.

[Aquattro]

lost my directions for the salifert nitrate test ...anyone?

I recall it's 1 scoop of #1, one drop of #2, then 1 scoop of #3. Swirl for 30 seconds and wait three minutes. This is for the high res test. Sorry, in 10ml of tank water.