DKH dropping

[Dbondaruk]

My dkh was stable for around - month in a half at 8 dkh...
I checked today and it was a dkh..... The only reason change lately my skimmer was not on for 3 days due to a ih out break and I decided to add stress coat with aloe,,,ba idea.. I have been doing my water changes every other week 10%. But I did a extra one o to the disease. The dkh of my mixed fresh saltwater is 10,I use reef crystals salt. I have good surface agitation. I'm confused why my dkh dropped suddenly,I do use ro di water but I do not buffer the ro di water beer mixing

[Vanquishxxxx]

U tested all throughout that month? How fast was the dip ur talking about?, u dose? U have corals?

[WDGLEAVES]

What corals are in the tank?

[Dbondaruk]

Yes I keep a log of everything..... I did start dosing as of 1-17-13.... I dosed tropic Marin bio calcium and organic pro coral by tropic Marin.... I scoop of pro coral once a week and 2 scoops of bio cal twice a week till my calcium level got to 460 than drop down to once a week.tank was set up10-5-2012
I started my lot beg of jan so water test before we're not written down but I remember my dkh was at 8-9 most of the time and ph at 7.8 /8.0.

1-12/. 7dkh 8.0 ph 415 cal
1-18. 8 dkh 8 ph. 430 cal
1-20. 8 dkh. 8 ph. 460 cal
2-14. 7 dkh. 8 ph. 500 cal
2-17. 7 dkh. 8 ph. 520 cal
2-23 5 dkh. 7.8 ph. 480 cal

Confused on whats going on...

[bamf25]

Corals are growing and taking up more dkh.

[Dbondaruk]

Yes I have corals

1 acro
1 birds nest
1 monti poro
1 duncan
1 frogspawn
1 blasto
Couple zoanthids

[VSpeck]

Corals are growing and taking up more dkh.

+1 time to start dosing

[Dbondaruk]

+1 time to start dosing

Sorry I am a newb,,,, so corals consume alkalinity????? I thought the tropic Marin io cal was a dosing supplement but I guess it just doses calcium... What are my options as to picking my alkalinity up? Or should I change to a different method?

[VSpeck]

Hard corals consume cal and alk. I use 2 part but there are many options out there.

[Dapg8gt]

Easiest to dose alk is plain old baking soda. Do a search for "Randy's recipe" to get an understanding of the 2 part method (actually 3 part)and see if that suits you and learn what they are for.

First you need to get it to your target that you want. Then don't dose anything for a day and test it 24 hours later to see what yor tank is consuming in that 24 hours and dose accordingly.

I would go to the stickies in the new to the hobby and chemistry forum and start reading to get a grasp on what you can and should do. Asking questions like this is good but some answers might not be 100% accurate so if you can read those stickies or just do a search for "dosing" or alkalinity.. There are a few ways to go about it and it's up to you to choose what's best for you. Sk8r has some really good stickies that are in easy to understand format to get you primed and ready for the other reads. Good luck.

And you don't have to buffer RODI water FWIW..

[Dbondaruk]

Ok thanks, one of my main problems is that I travel for mon- fri. Wife's not that into tank,lol just feeds .ill look for a method that doesn't require everyday dosing if there is something like that. Thanks for all the help, any tips would be great

[WDGLEAVES]

You will need to figure out what your tank is consuming on a daily basis then set up dosing pumps to dose calcium and alk, that way you can travel and not worry about having someone dose it for you. Also as stated read up on the two part method.

[Dapg8gt]

Kalk is easiest and cheapest and you can prob start at 1 tsp a gallon or less and dose it with all your evaporation on either a drip or dosing pumps hooked to an ATO..

[Dbondaruk]

Also is it fine that I am not adding a buffer to my rodi water that I use for top off???

[PAnanoguy]

Looks like on 2/17 when your Calcium got too high it caused your Alk to drop.

[keithhays]

At the risk of accidentally hijacking the thread with more complicated conversations, you are over dosing calcium in the system and this is likely causing ultimately the alkalinity drop.
You will probably now want to check your magnesium levels as well and make sure they are still in line.

I would go with the stickies suggestion.

[Vanquishxxxx]

Yes, alk and cal are in balance with each other. U can only fit so much in the water, more of one will lower the other. Time to start dosing. Suggest a cheap system like RKL. EASY, cheap and will make ur life very uncomplicated.

[Dapg8gt]

Also is it fine that I am not adding a buffer to my rodi water that I use for top off???

You do not need to add anything to RODI water. It will take on the characteristics of the water you add it too.

Your dosing that you will choose will help the PH, alk and cal stay within parameters.. Worry more about the alk cal and mag and the ph should follow.

[keithhays]

What would make your life easier at this point is to
1. Do a fairly large water change.
2. Stop dosing two part regularly
3. Begin using a saturated Kalk solution

You don't have that many coral and the kalk will take care of what you need the vast majority of the time. You can do slight tweaks with the two part if it comes to that.

The kalk (saturate lime water) is roughly 2tsp of kalk powder to a gallon of topoff water, but you will need to have it connected to a topoff system so that it is used instead of pure RODI.

[Palting]

Ok thanks, one of my main problems is that I travel for mon- fri. Wife's not that into tank,lol just feeds .ill look for a method that doesn't require everyday dosing if there is something like that. Thanks for all the help, any tips would be great

It's not a good practice to dose alk/cal on a weekly basis. It leads to large fluctuations in parameters, and that is more deadly than bad parameters. Daily dosing is better, multiple small doses in a day is best. You'll have to figure out the tank consumption, so that you can dose appropriately.

Do you have an ATO, or is the wife the ATO :D? If you have an ATO, kalkwasser is probably your cheapest bet. You can either put 2 tsp kalkwasser per gallon of RODI in the ATO, or use a kalkwasser reactor.

I use both kalkwasser via ATO/kalk reactor as well as an automated 3 part dosing. Personally, if I only had to chose one, I prefer the automated 2 part or 3 part dosing. Much easier to titrate than kalkwasser. If you go this route, forget about using premade bottled calcium and alk solutions. Too expensive, occasionally useless, and some with additives you may not need. Go with Randy's recipe or the commercially available DIY 2 part. Here's a link to Randy's recipe: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php. Here' a link to one of the commercially available DIY 2 part: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-2-part-calcium-alkalinity-kit-pre-portioned.html. You can automate these to deliver multiple small doses using a variety of methods. Here's one that I use: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/catalog/product/view/id/1932/

Although alk and calcium are the primary 2 elements to dosing, there is a very, very important 3rd: magnesium. You cannot get stable alk/cal numbers if your magnesium is out of whack. The dose required is usually very small, so it is not often mentioned. But, you do indeed need to monitor and dose magnesium as well.

I suggest you read that link to Randy's recipe. There is a lot of "must know" information in there regarding tank needs and dosing. Read it over a few times, as there is a lot of information to process.

[Palting]

BTW, here's one more link you may want to read through several times:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/index.php

[Dbondaruk]

Thamks alot for the help...
I will stop dosing what i have been dosing. I tested today and my cal was 480 and alk went to 6...
Im looking into the bulk reef supplu dosers, the omly thing that does worry me is that i have to connect it to a digital timer and i heard those fail alot.

Lol wife got tired of being the ato so she got one coiple weeks ago...as of now i use a 5 gal bucket.so i could mix the kalk in the 5 gallon bucket and thst would be fine? Its the tunse osmolator

[Palting]

I also have the tunze osmolator. I used it for a while to dose kalkwasser by putting kalkwasser in the reservoir. I didn't like it. Too messy, with slurry forming in the bottom of the reservoir, and a surface film of calcium carbonate. I ended up using a kalkwasser reactor. There were several options for this. One is designed by Tunze to work with the osmolator. http://www.marinedepot.com/Tunze_Osmolator_Calcium_Dispenser_5074_Electric_Powered_Dosing_Pumps_Top_Off_Accessories-Tunze-TZ4113-FIDPETAC-vi.html . I thought it was little too pricey for what it was, so I got the Two Little Fishes version. http://www.marinedepot.com/Two_Little_Fishies_KW_Reactor_300_(Kalkwasser_Reactor)_Kalkwasser_Reactors-Two_Little_Fishies-TL4613-FICRKR-vi.html The only challenge is connecting the small tunze tubing to the large reactor tubing, but it can be done.

As I said, my preference if I only had to use one method of dosing is 2 part dosing. It is easier to titrate to your needs. There have been very good reviews on the BRS doser. Howevr, after pricing everything I needed to dose 2 or 3 part, I went with the Bubble Magus doser instead. Also with excellent reviews. There are several other choices out there. I'm sure others here will chime in with their particular favorites. Your choice.

[Dbondaruk]

I also have the tunze osmolator. I used it for a while to dose kalkwasser by putting kalkwasser in the reservoir. I didn't like it. Too messy, with slurry forming in the bottom of the reservoir, and a surface film of calcium carbonate. I ended up using a kalkwasser reactor. There were several options for this. One is designed by Tunze to work with the osmolator. http://www.marinedepot.com/Tunze_Osmolator_Calcium_Dispenser_5074_Electric_Powered_Dosing_Pumps_Top_Off_Accessories-Tunze-TZ4113-FIDPETAC-vi.html . I thought it was little too pricey for what it was, so I got the Two Little Fishes version. http://www.marinedepot.com/Two_Little_Fishies_KW_Reactor_300_(Kalkwasser_Reactor)_Kalkwasser_Reactors-Two_Little_Fishies-TL4613-FICRKR-vi.html The only challenge is connecting the small tunze tubing to the large reactor tubing, but it can be done.

As I said, my preference if I only had to use one method of dosing is 2 part dosing. It is easier to titrate to your needs. There have been very good reviews on the BRS doser. Howevr, after pricing everything I needed to dose 2 or 3 part, I went with the Bubble Magus doser instead. Also with excellent reviews. There are several other choices out there. I'm sure others here will chime in with their particular favorites. Your choice.


So you like the bubble magus dosed?? Timer is built in it correct, that's not bad for 299...I'll do a bunch of reading this week and order a magnesium test. Im plannng a 145 tank but went with 40 gal to get my feet in sw,i been in fw mostly but quiting that,want to correct all my mistakes on a little tank lolThanks alot for the help