Maintaining Alkalinity

[Baldy]

Hello all,

I have had my 75g running for 4-5 months now, with great success so far! I have 2 true percs that seemed to change colors, and much to my delight ended at a nice black on top fading to orange on the bottom color. As well 1 blue/green chromis (bad experience and ended up losing a few others to a cycle in the Q-tank, ans well as powerheads :( , and the new addition, a one spot foxface that is getting fatter by the day.

the corals are also doing good. 1 colony of emerald palys, a bunch of kenya trees, 1 group of zoas that ive had for a couple months and 2 newly added zoas.

my question is about the best method for maintaining alkalinity. The h2ocean salt im using mixes out to 480ppm calcium and 1400 mg, so with regular 10g per week water changes, i have never had to dose either. but alkalinity is a different story. thus far ive been using seachem reef fusion 2 to raise the kh when it drops below 7-8. from what ive read, the 2 part systems are supposed to be used together though. I have been toying with the idea of trying kalkwasser, but from what ive read that also raises calcium, for which im not in need of.

would it be ok to continue using just the alk dose of a 2 part dosing system, or is there a better way?

[e46er]

shouldnt be a problem
i just use baked baking soda for alk. its cheep
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php
heres a good link on 2 part dosing

when and if you add more corals or SPS your alk and ca will get eaten up quickly

[cwatkins]

^^ Yes very good link. I use the two part (technically 3 part, but the Mg is dosed by hand whereas the other 2 are automated).

Go to Costco and pickup a pack of 6 little boxes of Arm & Hammer.

One box fits nicely on a cookie sheet and then bake it in the oven for a couple hours to bake out the CO2.

Cheap and Easy! And the little boxes measure out almost perfectly for 1 gallon of mix.

P.S. I went down to the local plastics shop and bought food safe 1 gallon containers. If you get one with a spout on it then you can use that to pour into your measuring cup.

[fishytime]

Personally I would not use Arm & Hammer..... I know that there is a ton of people using it without any problems ( myself included until recently) ,but it contains aluminum and perfumes.....

[cwatkins]

Yes, and there's all sorts of differing information out there on it. I think it's because Arm & Hammer uses baking soda that's produced as a byproduct of aluminum processing.

Apparently the health food stores have aluminum free baking soda, if you can find it.

[DeneBanger]

Hello all,

I have had my 75g running for 4-5 months now, with great success so far! I have 2 true percs that seemed to change colors, and much to my delight ended at a nice black on top fading to orange on the bottom color. As well 1 blue/green chromis (bad experience and ended up losing a few others to a cycle in the Q-tank, ans well as powerheads :( , and the new addition, a one spot foxface that is getting fatter by the day.

the corals are also doing good. 1 colony of emerald palys, a bunch of kenya trees, 1 group of zoas that ive had for a couple months and 2 newly added zoas.

my question is about the best method for maintaining alkalinity. The h2ocean salt im using mixes out to 480ppm calcium and 1400 mg, so with regular 10g per week water changes, i have never had to dose either. but alkalinity is a different story. thus far ive been using seachem reef fusion 2 to raise the kh when it drops below 7-8. from what ive read, the 2 part systems are supposed to be used together though. I have been toying with the idea of trying kalkwasser, but from what ive read that also raises calcium, for which im not in need of.

would it be ok to continue using just the alk dose of a 2 part dosing system, or is there a better way?

Let me give you an example to help you understand the relationship between calcium and calcium carbonates (alkalinity) think of a goldfish bowl full of marbles. So for the sake of the illustartion let's say that the gold fish bowl can only hold 500 marbles and no more without spilling them over the top. Now let's say blue marbles represent calcium and white marbles represent calcium carbonates (or your alkalinity level). Now there are 480 blue marbles (you said your calcium was at 480) that only leaves room for 20 white marbles (representing your low alkalinity measurement), in order to raise your alkalinity some of the blue marbles have to be removed so that they can be replaced with white marbles. With a high calcium measurement of 480 my assumption is that you have measured freshly mixed SW, but if you run the water in the tank you will see that after about a week your calcium levels will start to drop, as it does so there is room to start bringing your alkalinity up....but not beforehand. Ideally you want your tank's calcium level to be around 400 so that there is "room" for you to run your alkalinity levels around 8-10 dKh.

So in maintaining your calcium/alakalinity you have to manage this teeter-totter relationship.

Hope this makes sense to you.

[Baldy]

DeneBanger, I actually read the article you got that analogy from just yesterday. and e46er, i will be making use of the baking soda method as soon as this bottle of reef fusion runs out. i might continue dosing with the stuff i have until i run out before tracking down the ingredients, but they will be much more ecinomical. I wasnt sure if my calcium would ever begin to drop. It has been 4-5 months and the difference between what the new salt mixes to and the aquarium had been minimal. It has maintained calcium just doing water changes.

thanks for the help guys. I will no longer be expecting the KH to rise much higher, and will keep an eye on calcium to see when it starts dropping.

[DeneBanger]

DeneBanger, I actually read the article you got that analogy from just yesterday. and e46er, i will be making use of the baking soda method as soon as this bottle of reef fusion runs out. i might continue dosing with the stuff i have until i run out before tracking down the ingredients, but they will be much more ecinomical. I wasnt sure if my calcium would ever begin to drop. It has been 4-5 months and the difference between what the new salt mixes to and the aquarium had been minimal. It has maintained calcium just doing water changes.

thanks for the help guys. I will no longer be expecting the KH to rise much higher, and will keep an eye on calcium to see when it starts dropping.

I wasn't quoting from an article...it is just the way that I have always understood the relationship between the two. If your calcium is maintaining 480 just from doing water changes, then what I would do is hold off on the water changes for a while until you get the calcium level down then slowly bring you alkalinity in....then pick up on your water changes again. (If you have a heavy bioload then watch your nitrates while you are doing this, if they get too far out do smaller water changes).

By doing this you will have established a target set of parameters that you can maintain.

[Baldy]

I have only 2 true percs, 1 chromis and 1 foxface, so bioload is small. As far as nitrates, I have npx bioplastics in a reactor. Its been keeping my nitrates and phosphates at 0. so I think I might try that.

And that is a really good way to explain the relationship between calc and alk. If I knew any other reefers, id definitely use that one :)

[DeneBanger]

I have only 2 true percs, 1 chromis and 1 foxface, so bioload is small. As far as nitrates, I have npx bioplastics in a reactor. Its been keeping my nitrates and phosphates at 0. so I think I might try that.

And that is a really good way to explain the relationship between calc and alk. If I knew any other reefers, id definitely use that one :)

Hang on a minute! Are you intending to add coral? If you have a fish only tank, and don't plan on adding coral...just switch your salt to Instant Ocean and maintain your water changes and don't worry about balancing your calcium/alkalinity levels ....for a fish only it is not so critical.

[daniella3d]

My alkalinity is always low and I never have a problem. It's been like that for 14 months and I have a mixed reef with sps, lps and soft coral. All are healthy and grown fast. My alkalinity drop sometimes around 5, usualy is around 6. sea water is around 6.5.

Here is my tank...as you can see I have quite a mix of coral. I dose for alkalinity and calcium but I keep the alkalinity around 6 anyway. I use the Bulk Reef supply soda ash sodium carbonate as it is pure and I trust it has no additive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Mv2G00XjCh4