Does alk drop even with calcium reactor?

[MofoCorals]

I have bee testing my alk weekly and it drops .5-1dkh per week. My calcium is 460-470 and mag is 1350(elos). Is arm media not good or should I be mixing the calcium media with something else?

 

[JohnK]

What salt do you use, and how frequent are your water changes? I'm wondering if possibly your ca is high for other reasons, and because of that you can't dail up the reactor enough to keep the alk stable.

For example, if you do regular water changes with salt with a high Ca level, that would keep the Ca elevated. If the Ca is elevated in the first place, a ca reactor will never correct the imbalance...

 

[MofoCorals]

I'm using reefchristals right now.

 

[JohnK]

Huh?

So were the Ca and alk levels balanced before, and now you've seen the alk drop? Or could the levels have been out of balance all along?

ARM media works well. The fine ARM can turn to mush a little easily if the PH drops a little too low in the reactor, ARM course is more forgiving IME. Both are fine for maintaining levels IME.

 

[MofoCorals]

I haven't tested my salt. I do weekly water changes. My alk was dropping a lot very fast before I got the reactor. Now it drop a lot slower but still drops. It might be my salt though. I'll check it tomorrow morning.

 

[dcforester1]

your calcium is dropping as well you just cant see it with the test kits we use. i would check your salinity, and your mag. If those are nt in check, you will nt be able to keep your alk up. I am also having an issue with my alk dropping recently. I dont know if it because I am getting alot of growth with my coral, or if its something else. If its a fairly new set up(the reactor), you might need to dial it in alittle better. Randy had a good article in ReefKeeping mag. It talk about the relationship between Alk, Ca, and Mag, you might want to check it out.


Good Luck Derek

 

[Aquaman_68]

+ 1 on checking the Salt mix. IO/ RC have been known to produce batches of Salt mix with low levels of alk/kh...(oh & also high levels as well)

Nevertheless.......No matter which salt you use it is always a good measure to check ea batch of salt mix you start to use.. (when opening a new bucket or bag that is)

& anyone reading this....If your salt becomes hardened in the bag cause of moisture...that can cause the mix to have higher & lower readings thru out the bag with alk/KH...Mag, Ca, etc etc... (just food for thought for everyone....)

 

[MofoCorals]

Will def check the salt. Thanks everyone. I think Im going back to Coralife salt.

 

[Greg Hiller]

If you are not getting enough output from your reactor just crank it up. More water flow in and out, more CO2 in. For a tank with a lot of fast growing corals, the alkalinity of the water you do small water changes from is really not very important. If you really think it's low, just add some sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) before you do a water change.

ARM works fine and you'd be very surprise how much calcium and alk output you can get from even a small calcium reactor.

 

[MofoCorals]

If you are not getting enough output from your reactor just crank it up. More water flow in and out, more CO2 in. For a tank with a lot of fast growing corals, the alkalinity of the water you do small water changes from is really not very important. If you really think it's low, just add some sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) before you do a water change.

ARM works fine and you'd be very surprise how much calcium and alk output you can get from even a small calcium reactor.

I tested my water change water and the alk is 7. I think I'm going to raise it up to 9 before water changes. If I crank up the reactor will my calcium(470) get even higher?

 

[MikeG]

If I crank up the reactor will my calcium(470) get even higher?

Yes it will. You can try to match the waterchange water to your tank alk faor a couple weeks and see if it still drops over the coarse of a week and that will tell you if you need to increase the output of your reactor.

 

[Aquaman_68]

Plus 1 on above comment...when you do water changes just bump up the alk on the freshly made SW with some Alkalinity suppliment...(half of the two part liquid)

 

[Sherri]

I recently started having issues with Alk too -- seems to be something with Tropic Marin that I am hoping they will resolve. I just add baking soda (mixed in RODI water) to my newly mixed water. Very disappointing results from an expensive salt.

 

[bill120mph]

I use tropic marine as well and alk is always low I mix with rodi and bring up the alk before I do a water change, I just started running a reactor this week, I will see how it goes.

 

[Sherri]

I never used to have to buffer Alk with TM. Thinking of changing salts ...