Seachem Reef Advantage or other alkalinity type buffer. Do you run a reactor right now at all? Ie., kalk or Calcium reactor.. if so, just throttle up slightly.

I'm not using a reactor for Calcium at present. I am dosing manually with liquid when required ( I seem to maintin a Ca of 380-400 whisn is fine for me)

I'm thinking I may just throw some baking soda in the over tonight and start dosing that way, cheaper than store bought additives perhaps.

RBS is what I am using now .....it was more money but it dissolves way better...with in a few minutes its completely gone and looks super clear......and Ive noticed my water in the tank is clearer......and I thought I needed glasses.....lol

Here's a calculator for dosage of different products for increasing alkalinity
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

Here is a table from the calculator showing the effect on PH of various Alkalinity increasing products:

Product........................................... ................Effect on PH
Baking soda.............................................. .......Somewhat lower
Soduim Carbonate Anhyd. (Baked B. Soda)........... Substantially Higher!
Kent's Tech CB Part B Alkalinity...........................Higher
Warner Marine CalxMax Part B Alkalinity................ Moderate Increase
Randy's Recipe 1 Alkalinity Part............................Substantially Higher!
Randy's Recipe 2 Alkalinity Part............................Somewhat lower
Limewater (saturated)....................................... Substantially Higher!
Aq Systems Reef Evo SeaBuffer.......................... Substantially Higher!
Two Little Fisher C-Balance Part B........................Higher
ESV B-Ionic Original Ca Buff Pt 1..........................Substantially Higher!
ESV B-Ionic Bicarbonate Syst Pt 1........................Somewhat lower
Oceans Blend Part 2 of 2 Part Supplement..............Somewhat higher
Seachem Reef Buffer (dry)...................................Substantia lly Higher!
Seachem Reef Builder (dry)................................. Substantially Higher!
Seachem Reef Carbonate (liq)............................. Substantially Higher!
Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium Powder (Also Calcium)...... Minimal
Salifert All in One (Also Calcium)...........................Minimal
Salifert KH + PH Buffer (dry)............................... Higher
__________________

Baking soda is fine but you should mix in some washing soda at a ratio of 3:1 or something like that. For the cost of a powder ($20-30 which lasts me months) I've never bothered with baking soda/washing soda. Well, that, and the fact that the washing soda I've seen here has this sort of lemony zesty scent. I don't know what that is, but I'm not putting it in my tank. You can bake baking soda in the oven though to make your own washing soda. :)

Just mixing my first batch of RBS now. Will do a water change on the weekend at some point.
I'll post my results

J

left over oceans
 

hey Greg

why don't you just cut the OPP with a lesser brand of salt ie: IO. I'm cutting what I have left of my OPP with IO at a rate of 50/50 and this has helped with Ca and Kh. it has brought up my alk and lowered my Ca to reasonable levels. Now i just add Kent buffer for now to steady out the Ca usage of the tank.

cheers

Geoff

sorry...what is RBS?

right now im using Tropic Marin. pretty good from what i can tell. still have a bunch left, but im always open to suggestions :)

RBS: "Reefers Best Salt" - the salt mix made by the company that makes Zeovit products. About $100 for a box

Anyone have some test results from RBS? The usual will do :)