Alkalinity ?

[A Reef Scene]

I'm having a hard time keeping the alkalinity up, is there a good diy or a type of reactor that will help?

[MarcoPolo]

For us to help you, we need more background information. What is your alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium levels, and how are you currently providing / supplementing these into your tank? : fun4:

[HndMafia]

Where are your other parameters? Salinity, mg, ca, and alkalinity are all interrelated.

What types of coral are you keeping?

[Caesra]

Tagging along just to see the responses....

I had same issue before adding a calc reactor, the alk would bounce all over the place even with Kalk and careful dosing. I could not keep it stable.

[bertoni]

There are a number of approaches to alkalinity and calcium supplementation. This article describes a two-part that you can make:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

What are you adding now, and how much is the alkalinity dropping per day?

[A Reef Scene]

The mag is 1350
Salinity 1.024
Ca is 450
and alk is 8.5 and drops to 7.0, 2 to 3 days after the addition.
I use te brightwell part 2 for the Alk
I have a few very large soft corals and some large show size acros
Getting the alk there is not the issue, keeping it there is.

[A Reef Scene]

The tank is large around 400 gallons, two 400 watt MH. I would guess I evep around 1 to 2 gallons a day with the open top. I also top off the water every other day. I was thinking of getting a ATO system to help keep the water more stable.

[MarcoPolo]

Do you also dose kalk?

[bertoni]

I agree that an ATO system would be very handy. A drop of 1-3 dKH per day is fairly common for a wide range of tanks. Most tanks seem to need some sort of daily dosing.

[A Reef Scene]

Yes I do use kalk, forgot to post that

[mtaswt]

I am having the same issues. I dose kalk and still doesn't help? This past week I added vinegar to my kalk......hoping that will allow me to add more kalk which in turn will keep my alkalinity a little higher?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That may work, but in high demand system, limewater does not always keep up, and using a two part instead of or in addition to the limewater is a good plan. :)

[A Reef Scene]

Would a kalk reactor attached to the ATO be a good idea?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It isn't my preferred way to dose limewater, but many people use them. I prefer dosing for a settled reservoir. :)

[A Reef Scene]

Is a settled reservoir like the kent aqua dose?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Well, in my case it is 3 x 44 gallon brute trash cans plumbed together, filled with limewater. I mix it, let it settle, and a dosing pump draws it out.

But yes, a drip doser serves a similar purpose.

[HV1990]

Tagging along. Wouldn't baked baking soda put into a reservoir serve the same purpose?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Not entirely. It adds alkalinity, but no calcium, and has half the pH boosting effect. :)

[A Reef Scene]

Thank you for the help.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

:thumbsup:

Happy Reefing. :)