[dinor2]

What do you all keep your levels at for your corals, soft, sps and/or lps?

My levels are currently

Temp 76
Salinity 1.024
Ph 8.0
Alk 1.6
Calc 520
Mag 1300
No ammonia, nitrites or nitrates, and no phosphates.

I'd also like to know who uses the kalk drip system as I'm thinking this may be what I need to perfect my water params.

I'd like a couple of those numbers to go up a little but, it's staying consistant and my corals seem happy, but not as happy as I've seen them in other tanks... so thought I'd see what works for you all.

Thanks.

[Br14n55reef]

Dana
your tank is close to crashing the calcium has to stay below 500. Try to never let it get over 450..temp is ok I keep my tank at 80..your ALK should be above 2.5 ......3.0 is perfect....if this were my tank I would do a water change ASAP and lower Calcium......your numbers should be nitrite 0, nitrate 0, Amonia 0, Calcium 420s and Alk 3.0 0r 3.5 temp 78,80 ....I dont use kalk this complacates things if you ask me...just use a 2 part supplament like C-Ballence ....this is what I use on my 55 reef lps corals...
Please keep me/us updated on your numbers and we'll help you through this...
Good Luck
Brian

[jimw369]

Originally Posted by dinor2

What do you all keep your levels at for your corals, soft, sps and/or lps?

My levels are currently

Temp 76
Salinity 1.024
Ph 8.0
Alk 1.6
Calc 520
Mag 1300
No ammonia, nitrites or nitrates, and no phosphates.

I'd also like to know who uses the kalk drip system as I'm thinking this may be what I need to perfect my water params.

I'd like a couple of those numbers to go up a little but, it's staying consistant and my corals seem happy, but not as happy as I've seen them in other tanks... so thought I'd see what works for you all.

Thanks.

Alk way too low. Tank out of balance. +1 what dinor says. Im sure your live rock is green and not turning purple. As your tank gets older with that low alk you are going to have an algae problem. No buffering capacity.

[Br14n55reef]

So whats up Dana I was hopeing to hear from you today but maybe your workin on your tank...atleast i'm hopeing you are

[pogodzib]

Alk = 4 meq/l
Calcium = 425 ppm
Mg = 1300
pH = 8.25 (am), 8.45 (pm)
Temp = 78-81
ORP = 380
Salinity = 1.025
Ammonia=Nitrate-Nitrite=Phosphate = 0

I use a weak kalk water solution for all water topoff

I wouldn't worry too much about your calcium levels being high. But, with calcium that high, you should get your alk up to 4.0 meq/l. A low alk will make your pH less stable, along with increasing your changes for having calcium & magnessium precipitate out of solution.

Read this article about proper alk & calcium levels and the best way to get them back into balance. Chemistry and the Aquarium

[Ganrin]

I had a bucket of salt that mixed calcium at 540, and alk at 2.5meq/l at a sg of 1.025.
For the first 4 months I was expecting my corals/coralline to use the ca fast enough to lower the ca for me (didnt happen), about 2 mo ago I started dosing alk half of kent 2part and just in the last 2 weeks my ca has finally started to balance out. My softies have gotten much happier lately.
Todays numbers were sg 1.026, ca 420, alk 3meq/l, ph 8.2(mid day test), mg 1300, am 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, phos 0.

[dinor2]

Ok, so, my livestock are doing well, despite the low levels of alk and ph, and high of calcium (which I need to test tonight again along with mag, ph and alk).

Actually, my lr has tons of purple coralline on it; check it out...

Left side


Middle


Right side


Yes, I do have a good amount of algae but, it's not out of control and I am slowly adding more snails (more variety of 'em as well) AS WELL AS balancing out my water params, which is why I'm only adding a handfull of snails total for the time being until I get those levels better.

My kenya, on the right side of the tank, should be splitting any day now (or peeling?) but, I am not real sure which route I should go with in stablizing those params....

I'm wondering if I just need to give it a little more time to flush out the 'bad salt' I used one water change a couple weeks ago (which is why all this happened, before, my levels were near perfect, alk was 2.5, calc was 420, ph was 8.2 and it was all steady until that dang red sea salt).
So, now that I'm back to the salt I was using before, my livestock does seem to be getting back to 'normal' but I'm going to keep track (every day is the plan) of those levels, I was just wanting to see what you guys have yours at so I have a target range to stay at, which, sounds like what mine was before was ok.

Now I guess I'll post my readings either later tonight or tomorrow and we'll go from there... I was really thinking I needed to start dosing kalk, seems like a lot of people think that's a must in a reef tank... but guess I still have options to weigh.

Thanks for helping me out guys, I'll post those results asap.

[dinor2]

I still can't get over the fact that all it took to throw all this off balance was using a different salt! Will post test results today, hoping the Red Sea salt is almost out of the system and back to normal. My normal apparantly was what it needs to be at.

[jimw369]

[quote=dinor2;81579]Ok, so, my livestock are doing well, despite the low levels of alk and ph, and high of calcium (which I need to test tonight again along with mag, ph and alk).

Actually, my lr has tons of purple coralline on it; check it out...

Left side


Middle


Right side



I stand corrected. Your tank looks great!

[dinor2]

Lol, thanks Jim!

I'm considering starting an 'iv' drip of some dkh kent buffer after i do the weekly water change tomorrow. I figure at least until the rest of the salt gets out of the tank (the Red Sea salt that is) and/or I get a kalk drip system going, think that is what my tank needs more than anything right now. The alk is usually right at 3 and the ph 8.2 and I'd rather have them a tad higher and the kalk should do that job well and help things stay stable. As long as I don't dump a whole can of flake food in there or something!

Still waiting for the kenya tree to split off, hoping to get some plugs tomorrow though, maybe my lfs will barter some with me for some more kenyas...

Oh, here are my water params for today, and I know they're not any better but I do water changes every Sunday and everything is staying steady.

Ph 8.0
alk 1.6
cal back up to 500
mag 1400, also too high but probably my fault, added a little too much tech m. Now I know what will be enough.

Setting the buffer drip up tomorrow is just a band aid until I get the kalk drip going. Looking forward to a fun water change tomorrow!

Thanks for all the suggestions/help, please let me know if you know/think of anything I missed!

[dinor2]

Ok, so here are my parameters now, a little different...

Salinity 1.024
Temp 76
Ph 8.3 (up from 8.0... I did add a mj1200 ph to the koralia 3 and mj900, the k3 and 1200 both break surface of the water... could this make a difference in ph, adding the mj1200 to break more surface water? I forget..)
Alk 2.0 (still a little low)
dkh 7
mag 1300
calc 500

Thoughts, suggestions? At this point, I'm ready to purchase the kalkwasser and start doing a low dosage drip overnight and see how that helps.

Also, tested my mixed saltwater that I use at water changes, the ph was 8.4! Alk was 1.6. I never have really mixed it all in a big container with a powerhead and heater until this last batch... put it all back in the gallon jugs, then put it all back int he bucket i have with the powerhead and heater. My theory is that my replacement water is what's messing with my levels now, especially with the ph being that high... so, going to test it tonight or in the morning after it's been oxygenated again, hopefully, the ph will be lower. Otherwise, going back to the ro water and not the ro/di and going to try a batch of the ro. Going to be getting my own ro filter here in May but, would LOVE to have this water chemistry figured out!

[dinor2]

Almost forgot, my latest addition!

Merten (or haddon, prev owner says this but, still looks merten but, what do you all think?) carpet anemone (I really don't care what it is, I love it!)


At the bottom left of tank, right where I put it! My clown loves it, fortunately keeps the other two fish away!


There are two other false percs that came with the carpet, but they're doing well in QT right now. Another 5 weeks and they'll make the dt an interesting place with the clown already there...

[dinor2]

Well, I figured out how to make my corals super happy! My iodine was at .02! I slowly raised it so it's now at .05 and wow, what a difference in my corals! More color, opening more and they seem to be growing quickly again! I figure that when I learned how to make my skimmer skim aggressively, that's where my iodine went! Sooooo....

Here are my current params, and, in my tank anyways, are making corals happy!

Temp 78
Salinity 1.024
Ph 8.2
Alk 2.0
dkh 8
calcium 460
magnesium 1320
iodine .05
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
phosphate 0

I am also going to add a silicate test kit but, I have mostly coraline algae and bubble algae. (researching whether or not I want to get an emerald crab for that or just keep hand harvesting them till it dies off...).

I've added a new frogspawn as well! LOVE that coral! I'm attaching a video I took yesterday of the tank, it's super bright but, still gives a better idea of what my tank is like right now. OH! Adding a sump this week as well! Just need something that fits under my tank and thru the door! Bought a 20gal long, hopefully it'll fit.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions!