reef chemistry

[fishkeeprian]

Hi what do you use to maintain alk?

I have a sumpless tank i have an ato what can i use in there etc. and adding alk to the ato will that keep it stable?

[Elricsfate]

Kalkwasser

[fishkeeprian]

Originally Posted by Elricsfate

Kalkwasser

i thought that contained water and there was a beeter product.

[nereefpat]

limewater (kalkwasser for you Germans) will increase alkalinity and Ca. It's CaOH.

Baking soda or baked baking soda will increase only alkalinity.

Both should be mixed in to a solution, and can be used in a ATO.

[fishkeeprian]

Originally Posted by nereefpat

limewater (kalkwasser for you Germans) will increase alkalinity and Ca. It's CaOH.

Baking soda or baked baking soda will increase only alkalinity.

Both should be mixed in to a solution, and can be used in a ATO.

My Mag and calcium seem to stay stable but the alk falls from 8.3 to 7.7 weekly.

if i add alk to the ato will this over dose my tank if its not getting used as fast as my ato is topping off?

[nereefpat]

That isn't much of a drop. 0.6 weekly drop of alk would probably only produce a drop of about 4ppm Ca over the same amount of time, which could be lost in the noise of our test kits.

46L tank? According to the online reef calculator I use, it only takes about 0.8 grams or 0.1 teaspoons of baking soda to increase alk 0.6 dkh in that volume. You could dissolve that much baking soda in a week's worth of topoff water, for example. Or probably do it all in a couple of doses, since the change is fairly small.

[fishkeeprian]

Originally Posted by nereefpat

That isn't much of a drop. 0.6 weekly drop of alk would probably only produce a drop of about 4ppm Ca over the same amount of time, which could be lost in the noise of our test kits.

46L tank? According to the online reef calculator I use, it only takes about 0.8 grams or 0.1 teaspoons of baking soda to increase alk 0.6 dkh in that volume. You could dissolve that much baking soda in a week's worth of topoff water, for example. Or probably do it all in a couple of doses, since the change is fairly small.

I have had a different tank since then, i worked out the volume of water to be approx 58 liters thats taking into account rock,sand extra.

Im assuming this small of a change will not impact my corals, and i could probably just hand dose, to make it up when it drops?

Or my weekly water change would make up the difference?

[bertoni]

With a drop that small, a weekly water change with a high-alkalinity product might be enough. Dosing once or twice a week by hand probably is easier. That's a very low consumption rate, so you have a lot of options.

[fishkeeprian]

Originally Posted by bertoni

With a drop that small, a weekly water change with a high-alkalinity product might be enough. Dosing once or twice a week by hand probably is easier. That's a very low consumption rate, so you have a lot of options.

I use red sea pro and i usually get an alk reading of 11dkh. Say if my alk is 8.3 which is my target i do my waterchange withe the alk at 11 because of the high alk it upsets some of my corals, but it does eventually drop by its self is this normal.

[bertoni]

That all sounds normal to me. How badly do the corals react?

[fishkeeprian]

Originally Posted by bertoni

That all sounds normal to me. How badly do the corals react?

.Not to bad I would say my RBTAs react the worse and will expell a bit after water change. how far does it shoot alk up if you add 11 to 8.3?

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by fishkeeprian

.Not to bad I would say my RBTAs react the worse and will expell a bit after water change. how far does it shoot alk up if you add 11 to 8.3?

Hi Ian,

It all depends on the water volume in your system and the amount of new water at 11dKH you add. The bigger the water change the more it will raise the alk level.

Since I set up my new system 5 months ago, I've been dosing manually. I test every 2 weeks and my alk goes from around 9 down to around 7. I have to dose both alk and Ca, but I use the online calculator to figure out how much to add and then slowly pour half of the alk or Ca dose into the overflow at the back of the tank. The next day I do the other half. I don't find that the 1dKH change in alk or 20 ppm change in Ca has any negative effect on anything in my tank (sps, lps, anemones, shrimp, crabs, stars sea cucumbers).

[fishkeeprian]

Originally Posted by Ron Reefman

Hi Ian,

It all depends on the water volume in your system and the amount of new water at 11dKH you add. The bigger the water change the more it will raise the alk level.

Since I set up my new system 5 months ago, I've been dosing manually. I test every 2 weeks and my alk goes from around 9 down to around 7. I have to dose both alk and Ca, but I use the online calculator to figure out how much to add and then slowly pour half of the alk or Ca dose into the overflow at the back of the tank. The next day I do the other half. I don't find that the 1dKH change in alk or 20 ppm change in Ca has any negative effect on anything in my tank (sps, lps, anemones, shrimp, crabs, stars sea cucumbers).

Hi Ron,

Hope you are well?

I only do around 10 liter water change to a 58 litre actual water volume.

If I test the redsea at 11dkh and my tank at 8.3 i'm guessing this is not going to raise my alk enough to make a great impact on the inmates in my tank, if only changing that amount of water?

[bertoni]

The difference between 11 dKH and 8.3 dKH is 3.7. So a 100% water change would move the dKH by 3.7. 10 L is about a 17% water change, so that'd be about 0.6 dKH. That's fairly small. The anemone might be reacting to the change in water quality, though.

[fishkeeprian]

Originally Posted by bertoni

The difference between 11 dKH and 8.3 dKH is 3.7. So a 100% water change would move the dKH by 3.7. 10 L is about a 17% water change, so that'd be about 0.6 dKH. That's fairly small. The anemone might be reacting to the change in water quality, though.

Hi so when i do my water change the alk is getting raised to 8.9? Could that small of a rise up set my tank?

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by fishkeeprian

Hi so when i do my water change the alk is getting raised to 8.9? Could that small of a rise up set my tank?

Extremely unlike that a 0.6dKH change in alk will bother anybody in the tank. Most people try to keep alk moves under 1.0dKH per 24 hours. Although I have dosed alk to raise the dKH 1.5 and even 2.0dKH in 24 hours due to levels having gotten down to 5.0dKH and have seen very minimal reaction from inverts in my tank.

I'm not recommending doing big swings in alk, but it's not that they are fatal to corals unless they get really big. That would be an interesting experiment. How big an alk swing, within the 6dKH to 11dKH normal parameters, in one dose would it take to kill a coral?

[bertoni]

I think it's more likely the anemone is reacting to the new saltwater in the system. There might be some trace element that's causing a behavior change. The reaction is nothing to worry about. Anemones do that from time to time, at least, mine did.