I also picked up Aquavitro 8.4, in the event Alk crashes (this will raise pH and Alk). According to the Calcificatin bottle, 8.4 can be dosed within minutes of calcification. Curious. I'd like to try it to see what happens, but that is kind of scary.

You guys are all loonie!! Change salt and hope for the best.

lol, I agree! This whole thing is making my head spin :razz:

Hah, I bet it's just pure bicarbonate (baking soda) with no carbonate. This would pH balance it a bit lower and prevent the Ca from precipitating out. I am curious if, when you add it, do you get the typical milky response in the water as when you add the normal Alk supplement? My theory is that you don't. I am guessing you just bought the same as Arm and Hammer from a grocery store, but that's just a guess. Incidentally, that is what I dose for Alk, with a bit of Carbonate to pH balance it a bit the other way.
Dan

My NSW is just over 1 hour old

79F
1.025 Sg
11 Alk
410 Ca

I'll retest it tomorrow before I use it and give another report

I agree now but ...

When I was getting a reading from my tank of 520 Ca I couldn't do a WC when the NSW was nearly the same

Now do you see why I am so into this thread ?

You too huh ?
Imagine how I've felt these last 2 months, nevermind how much money I've wasted on kits :surprise:

Still not right for IO....you're holding that bottle right upside down, right? :)

You say you don't want to spend the extra on a quality salt and rather go cuckoo trying to solve the balance. Well you might think differently when your tank is packed with corals and issues start popping up.. To pay an extra 20,30,40 bucks for a pail of salt is the price of one measly coral. But you risk loosing many more than one with salt problems

IO is fine for fish only tanks but not for reef IMO.

My LFS won't even sell me IO :) In all fairness, I think if you've got a good handle on dosing or (successfully) run a Ca reactor, IO is fine. I couldn't use it without upping values for new water, but lots of people do raise values and do all this mucking around. For me, peace of mind is worth the 6 bucks more a week I pay for my salt..but like you said, for me to replace my SPS collection would cost me 10k, so I'm just not interested in skimping on salt.

Very good points that I am getting clear as a smack to the face now ...
Brad eluded to the same idea earlier
You're gonna make me eat my words, aren't ya ? :smile:

When I was testing IO NSW with higher readings, I thought it would be enough to replenish my DT through WCs
Then these out of whack readings crammed a stick in my spokes ...
I am considering returning the newest unopened bucket of IO I have and getting into something like the IO Reef Crystals

FYI, I hadn't planned on packing so much money into it this quickly so I bought the 'economy' salt
I'll blame tang daddy and Bblinks for getting me into SPS right away :lol:

Don't get me wrong though as we are loving all the color and, so far, I haven't killed anything http://www.420magazine.com/forums/im...ck-on-wood.gif

...

I am holding the bottles totally vertical and making sure I get a solid 'one' drip

As I said earlier, I'll re-test tomorrow before I use it and report whatever readings I find

So much for user technique ...
I'm starting to feel like it's 'loser' technique :surprise:

Yes for those that want or have the skill to play chemist IO will work. I'm with you, I'm not much for mucking at this point in the game

I just had to wrap my head around spending potentially twice as much on salt
I know where this is going as I see I may not have to dose right now, so less cost there, and less time etc
Maybe I'll be able to spend more time gawking the tank instead of the vials :lol:

It'll be a new learning curve for me with new salt ... getting used to the tank's params again

So Shelley ..........

Did we ever help/answer your original question ? :lol:

honestly, here's my take. I always enjoy your posts because they're so OCD. Your setup is nicer now that mine ever was new. My plumbing is "functional", almost :) I've watched you fight with the dry rock algae, the Ca monsters, the alk thief...it's all very entertaining. But really, do you get to sit and watch your tank at all? The stress I've read about the last few days would make me sell my tank. Reminds me of the pH meter episode of 2004...
Try this for 6 months. buy the RBS salt. Mix it to 1.026 and the proper temp, and change 25g every other week. Buy a case of beer or a bottle of your favorite beverage, pull up a chair, and just chill in front of the tank for a while. Enjoy the drink. Let the sounds put you to sleep.
Do not test stuff. Lock your kits away and just enjoy the tank. Add a coral here or there. Watch the snails crawl around. Do.Not.Test. This is supposed to be relaxing....

THAT'S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN LOL (sorry Greg) I agree one billion percent. Let the tank do it's thing and sit back and enjoy...

Thanks guys, and for the acknowledgment Brad that you've been following and remembering all my trials and tribulations :smile:
It's always nice to have some input that tells me to JUST SLOW DOWN and try enjoy it :wink:

I'm going to go with Brad's and jorjef's advice for a different kind of salt
The only thing I will do is test once every new bucket and I will test my tank once in awhile to see that there is some semblance of balance going on :mrgreen:

And you're right about enjoying it ..

I've been spending far too much time messing around and nowhere near enough just staring ...

Just can't help yourself, can you? :razz: I'm serious, leave it alone. I bought my Ca kit on Boxing day. I did a test the next day and the second one the other night just cause you got me curious. It's fine. RBS (or Reef Crystals) has enough in it that regular 30% water changes will top everything off. you don't have the bioload yet to worry about consumption. So test the new bucket or box, fine, you bought a kit, you want to use it, I get that. But if the salt is fine out of the box (assuming you tested it right), then it's fine. Leave it. Don't test, don't add any stoopid additives. Leave it alone.

I agree with everything you've said

You said "Just can't help yourself, can you ?"

It's not a matter of wanting to use the kit just 'cause I have it
I don't want to test anymore. I am officially tired of it :smile:
I think you took what I said a bit wrong
I will only test my tank once in awhile, just to see what is going on and I will test my new bucket once, just to see what I am getting

Maybe this is what you were meaning, 'cause I do have to see what is going on before I ignore it ...

I will test the new kind of salt one time, test my DT to see how it is affecting my params, and then ignore it :wink:

nah, just buggin' ya :) If you want to test, fine. Just don't touch anything after. It's going to take a few water changes to balance out.

And, for the record, I haven't been dosing
I don't like to play with #s

I only dosed Mg for a bit to try to kill some algae, and that went sideways
I have dosed Alk only twice since May as it was below 7

I haven't been dosing to play with #s and will not be dosing anytime soon

Oh, right. That's Shelley. You're the sideways bottle tester. Got it -lol

But all this is applicable to both of you, and anyone else overwhelmed with all the math and the measuring and stuff. Just back it up a bit and relax!!

OMG, I think I just peed a bit :mrgreen:

And another 'for the record' ...
I used to test with the bottles slanted, but I always drink with the bottle facing the stars :drinking:

I used Instant Ocena since 2002 and this year I bought 3 pails of Reef Cystals and its nice not much dosing going on for me and i have a RSM 250 lps and SPS and i barely test. i have a test kit from 2009 its in the box still.
I dont test for PH if its 7.8 or 7.9 then so be it. I drip kalk from my Barr Aquatics Stirrer its always going at a drip rate of 1 drip evey 4-6 seconds that is how much i evaporate. NOT MUCH. however i try to do 15 gallons every week or 10 gal. if I dont i dont sweat it.

Alk i test maybe 1x every 2 months cal ya whatever.:mrgreen:

Once I get everything fixed, and see how the system responds through normal water changes, I may go with a kalk reactor. I have been researching them a bit. But, since I messed things up so badly as a result of having no idea as to what my calcium really was, I'm clueless as to how the levels will behave under "normal" conditions.

Heck no! I just figured out 100% for sure that I really, legitimately, have a calcium problem. :lol:

I don't know what it is.

http://www.aquavitro.com/products/eightfour.html

It appears very vague. A "balanced blend of bicarbonate and carbonate salts."

I haven't used it yet, so I have no idea how it will behave. I'm hoping I don't need it.

If I just paid $11 for baking soda imma gonna be annoyed.