Boosting IO's alkalinity?

[danieljames]

I've seen you mention several times about boosting the Ca and Mg when mixing IO, but I haven't seen a mention of an alkalinity boost. I'm switching back to IO from RC, and rely mainly on water changes to keep these parem's in their desired ranges. Do you boost your alk at all when mixing fresh IO? Thanks Randy.

[MrPike]

IO doesnt need an alk boost, its around 4 meq/l which is on the high end of reasonable.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I agree, it is already as high as most folks would want, and even if you wanted higher, I would not boost it as you may accelerate precipitation of calcium carbonate in it. I do boost the calcium and magnesium in it. :)

[92reefer]

Hey Randy. I've been using IO for water changes as well and have noticed that the CA and MG drop after performing my water changes. I've been doing less frequent but larger water changes to my tank.

Can you provide a "guesstimate" as to how much I would need to boost 32 gallons of IO water change using your "MAG ONLY (7/14 magflake + 3/4 epsom) recipe and either Kent's Turbo Calcium or your 2 part recipe CA only? This would be great info to have since I could fix the MG and CA levels when performing my water changes.

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9933074#post9933074 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 92reefer
Hey Randy. I've been using IO for water changes as well and have noticed that the CA and MG drop after performing my water changes. I've been doing less frequent but larger water changes to my tank.

Can you provide a "guesstimate" as to how much I would need to boost 32 gallons of IO water change using your "MAG ONLY (7/14 magflake + 3/4 epsom) recipe and either Kent's Turbo Calcium or your 2 part recipe CA only? This would be great info to have since I could fix the MG and CA levels when performing my water changes.
Try testing the Calcium and Magnesium on a new batch of water tehn use the calculator to determine how much to add to bring it up to your targeted levels.
Repeat this procedure with 3 to 5 batches and if you find it is consistently the same amounts then you can stop testing and just add the amounts.
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

[92reefer]

Never thougth of that.

Thanks for the tip!

Naperville huh. Crystal Lake here. We're practically neigbors!