Quote:
Originally Posted by straightrazorguy
Thanks for your responses, guys. I guess I didn't make it totally clear: I dose Kalk in specific amounts (3 minutes of saturated solution every hour, i.e. 24 times a day). This keeps up with evaporation this time of year. I keep the kalk solution saturated via an Aquamedic kalk stirrer. Yesterday I dropped the kalk timing to 2min 40 sec avery hour. I have a separate topoff that adds straight RODI water to the sump if the kalk additions don't keep up with evaporation. I guess now that I dropped the kalk times, the ATO will add some water....
Yesterday I also unplugged the Alk doser from the Reefkeeper. I am still dosing the same amount of CaCl2 and the reduced amount of Kalk. I will test again tomorrow. If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks for that article DCW1SFU. I read it many times. What confuses me is the fact that the article says to always add the same amount of Ca and Alk. It specifically says to resist tinkering with the amounts. If I did that, my Alk would be through the roof!...
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Imm not sure what your not understanding , yes you would dose equal parts when things are growing healty.
If you still dosing cackium now the difference between yesterday and today isn't testable , that's why we say dose on Alk number not calcium numbers the day to day testing for calcium can't be relied on as the testing noise is too wide . Alk isn't but if things stop growing (Rtn/stn)) your daily consumption of alkalinity slows thus the dosing amounts.
Regarding the kalk added it's an Alk additive (ca too) so if there's nothing to consume it then it will stay the or will slowly drop as animals use it.
The article say to use fixed amnts as the solutions are weighed that way , corals use Alk and cal at a fixed ratio of 1.4 dkh for every 10ppm of calcium for every 1ppm of mg
An average system uses about 1 dkh a day so testing on calcium consumption can't be done on the same day ( you can't test a 10ppm drop)
How much dkh a day is your system using ?