alk trouble?

[booie]

ready to add Randy's two part solution, test results before adding are
ca...280
alk.....13.4
mag.....1020
ph...8
do i assume correctly in that i only want to add part 1 and no part two at all? and will it lower on its own or is there something i should do?

[Boomer]

Yes your Alk is way to high. Do not add anymore and don't get carried away with the calcium part. No more than 50 ppm / day. Your Mg++ is a so low and needs to be near 1300 ppm and no more that 100 ppm /day rise. It maybe part of why Ca++ is low. Who's salt are you using and what is the pH and salinity.

[Billybeau1]

booie

[welcome]

We gotta talk........... :D

What brand test kits ? What brand salt (like Boomer asked) and how do you measure specific gravity ?

[booie]

thanks for the welcome and the advice...........test kits are salifert and salt is IO reef crystals......specific gravity is running low also its 1.023 and im bringing that up slowly. i use a floating hydrometer to test. PH was always 8.2 with my older( and cheaper) test kit but with salifert it tests out at 8........by the numbers one might assume that more water changes need to be done as IO tests around 350 ppm ( or so ive read) but water changes are done at least bi-weekly......i do have 2 large ( bigger then a basketball) colonies of frogspawn and a few other LPS in the tank. could they actually be useing that much calium? and thanks again for the adice and welcome

[marsh]

IMHO...your problems are a combination of s.g. and Mg.

Your low s.g. will lower the Ca++ on on its' own. Floating hygrometers are calibrated at a particular temp. You need to know what yours is calibrated for. For example a floating hygrometer calibrated at 20 degrees C reading sg 1.023 with the sample temp at 25 C would have a salinity of 30.54....you want to be at a salinity of 35. ( http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/rhf/index.php ). Given 420 ppm Ca++ is "optimum" your sg alone would drop the Ca++ 54 ppm to 366 ppm (Ca++ ppm (30.54/35)*420 ppm) in a "balanced" saltwater mix.
So as you suggested getting the salinity up will help. You may want to consider getting a good ATC refractometer...?PinPoint salinity probe.

Your Mg will also come up as you correct the salinity. You might try raising the Mg 100 ppm at your current salinity then after you reach the target salinity...35 (sg 1.0264)....retest the Mg level. If out of range use the online calculator and selected product to get it within to your target.http://reef.diesyst.com/

After your salinity and Mg++ are at your targets then start your Ca correction.

[Billybeau1]

Yes, Reef Crystals at 1.026 is about 420 calcium and 1260 mag. So if you are only mixing at 1.023 then you get about 370 cal and about 1120 mag.

As Marsh states, your first priority should be to slowly raise your specific gravity to at least 1.025 - 1.026 would be better.

Then you can gauge your tanks consumption rate and adjust accordingly.

You will still have to add a magnesium supplement to boost your mag to about 1300. This will help a lot.

I use Kent's Tech-M but their are other fine products out there as well as the diy.

[marsh]

As for your intial question the Alk....??dKH 13.4...is high but will drop on its' own as it is consumed. Once it drops into your desired range (dKH 7-11) then monitor consumption rate and dose accordingly...

[Aquarist007]

this is the danger with two part additive solutions.
I treat calcium and alk levels individually. I have used this article like my dosing bible since day one:

http://web.archive.org/web/20021127040526/http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

[booie]

wow so much advice, where to start.....yes alk is 13.4 dkh and we have never added any chemicals before always relied on just the salt mix, how we got to 13. 4 who knows...s.g. is now up to 1.24 so by tomorrow we will be at 1.025.....then we will start adjusting according to everybodies advice thats for helping us!