I have a 265 Gallon display tank, 50 gallon sump and a 75 quarantine tank all plumbed together. I run a calcium reactor (which I have been using for 15 years) for my calcium and alkalinity supplementation. Long story short- my calcium runs 430-480, my alkalinity is generally around 9-10.5 dKH. About a month ago I noticed my PH dropping around 7.7-7.9 at night. While this may not be a concern, my PH almost never dips below 8.0 during the night. I eventually tested my water and my alkalinity was around 6.0. I verified this with a LFS test also. I began adding Alkalinity Buffer in liquid form using the Bionic 2 Part Solution (without the Calcium component). I continued with this for about two weeks. It has since then been about two weeks and my Alkalinity tested out around 5.4. 

   So..... Is there something else I could use that would be more efficient/effective? I believe someone referred to the use of Baking Soda? It may have been Mark?

   Will I continue to have to maintain this schedule?

Let the questions, which I hope to be followed by answers, begin.

   -Thank you, David.

While I am not 100% sure what size water volume my reactor is rated for, this reactor is off my 90G. I figured it would not keep up long term and I would eventually have to upgrade. However, if it can keep the Calcium levels up, shouldn't it be able to maintain Alkalinity also?

The reactor has been up and running on this tank since inception (around six months ago). I usually replace the media once the two reactor chambers are about half full. The chambers are now less than half full. Maybe replacing the media will help. I still am curious as to why calcium levels test out fine but not Alkalinty? I am not sure if I have replacement media kicking around or not. I will check and replace if so.

My Mag levels tested out around 1400 a month ago (LFS testing). I have not tested since and do not have a Mag test kit.

All coral looks good. Great polyp extension. Four emerald crabs growing ridiculously large. Hermit crabs have upgraded their shells. All death I have seen is some snails. I bought 60 snails months ago. The 40 asteria snails are all good but there are only five of the other snails left (maybe margarita's- large round black shells). I attributed their death to believing these are not the best aquarium snail.

I did notice my rock work looking more white over time. However, I attributed this to the upgrading lighting package. I went from two 175W MH's to three 250W MH's and latter cranked up the wattage to three 400W MH's with two 160W VHO's. As I looked at the back of the glass today, there is numerous dime sized coralline algae growing.

I went two weeks between testing. First test cal was 430, Alk was 6.4. I added 40 ml of liquid Alk for two straight weeks. Tested Alk again and it was around 7. Continued adding Alk for a few more days before getting slammed at work and forgot to keep up with Alk supplementation.

So what would be easier, more cost effective and best for my inhabitants. 

  Thanks so much for your help.

I find that my tanks have required much more frequent dosing for alk than for Ca... I dose Ca maybe once every 2 weeks to keep the Ca between 420 - 480 ppm whereas to keep my alk above 8, I need to dose for alk pretty much once daily

 

You can use baking soda alone, but the combination of 4 parts baking soda / 1 part washing soda is more effective, and helps avoid the pH drop you get when you add baking soda alone...

 

You might want to think about adding kalk instead of the B- Ionic... kalk will increase both alk and ph (and Ca ,too)

 

And  B- Ionic gets pretty expensive with the over 300g of water that you have.

 

 

 

 

Kalkwasser is a very good way to manage this.  I use a continuous drip ATO run off a peristaltic pump and I deliver top off water as a Kalk/vinegar mix.  I make 7 gallons of RO water weekly in my ATO reservoir with 14 tsp of Kalk Paste and 3 tsp of vinegar.  There is some chemistry behind this (nothing super complex) but the vinegar assists in managing alkalinity through promoting a carbonate balance in the ATO reservoir with the Kalk paste.  I wish I had hard numbers I could share but I am kinda running a bit weak on my alkalinity testing as this is a new step up from a BioCube and I have been so busy building things I still use my test strips ... so I don't have a believable real number, but my alkalinity is much improved from the Biocube where I just relied upon weekly water changes.  

I am confident you would not be hurt by trying this, but be careful with your ATO set up, if its dumping larger volumes sporadically (like a float) you will want to look into the amount of Kalk Paste you use to avoid some bad problems with a massive dose of a concentrated Kalkwasser.  Also, just FYI.  Using Kalkwasser is a very well established method, the ONLY issue is that a failure of an ATO system with a pump that delivers large volumes quickly (if its Kalkwasser its delivering) can be a very bad thing so depending on what your doing equipment wise and how fail safe it is and how large the reservoir is... just think things through.  

 

Yes, if you upsize your reactor that may be all you need. But you are talking triple the capacity of your curent reactor.

 

I'm sure he can for a better price than others.

If it makes you feel any better, I have had to be dosing for the last week because my regulator went out on me and its back east being rebuilt.  My alk is low right now also.

Since getting the new system dialed in, I was testing alk/cal every week, but after a month and seeing my alk move less than .2 dkh (yes that is a decimal in front of the two) and my Cal move less than 5, I now only test every other week(but I am a nerd who likes testing and proving myself right, lol)

If you have been in the store in the last two months, you have prob heard me talking about this system. If not, feel free to stop by and we can explain it and show it to you, as well as 1-2 inch per month growth tips on our New ORA Redplanet colony. (by the way, selling frags)

Thanks

Jerry and the Team at ReefOn

During my 16 years of SW reefing, I have never had, nor treated for any fish disease up until about three months prior to upgrading to the 265G. I purchase a Yellow Eye Tang that came down with ich. When everything was said and done- I lost him, two Helfrichi Firefish and my Blue Spotted Jawfish. Not fun!

Prior to upgrading, I decided not to push my luck. I want to "observe my fish" for four-six weeks prior to placing them in the display tank. Should any of the fish come down with something, I will isolate my "quarentine tank" and turn it into a "hospital tank" or pull out the fish and place it into a dedicated "hospital tank." In my studies, I have come to understand many of the chemical treatments used on fish can inflict more harm than good and even cause negative long term effects. I have some more delicate species on my wish list and belive this the best route to go in hopes of success. I am sure there will be some people who live by treating prior to any possible infection or parasite, but I have chosen not to.

I was in your store a couple of weeks ago for the first time. I only saw a younger employee working at the time and never heard about your current set up.

I will provide a very good link to a discussion on dosing Kalk and the use of Vinegar to increase calcium availability (first one below).  I also have a link to an article on alkalinity that is somewhat technical (it is after all chemistry).

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rhf/index.php

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/2/chemistry

I will summarize the important parts.

There is an upper limit to the level of Calcium supplementation that can be provided through the use of Kalkwasser, but its perfectly acceptable, and even recommended, to use Kalk dosing as a method to both balance alkalinity and dose Calcium on systems WITH a calcium reactor as these typically drive alkalinity DOWN, which is what your seeing.  So... I think your in a perfect situation to use this.

However, if you dose to much kalkwasser to fast you can drive both Calcium and Alkalinty DOWN.  This is not probably an issue on a 300 g system but it would depend upon your daily ATO volume and if your using saturated Kalkwasser as ATO water, which is probably NOT required for you as your running a reactor all ready.

You can increase the level of calcium availability (reducing calcium carbonate precip upon addition to your tank or in the ATO reservoir) by dissolving the Kalk powder in vinegar purchased from the store as 5% acidity, its fine...  read the above first article to get an understanding of how much to use etc...  but tis about 15 ml/tsp of paste. 

BEWARE that you could theoretically accumulate enough vinegar to influence the alkalinity test result through titration of the acetate (vinegar=acetic acid = acetate plus a proton) which goes into your aquarium as this will titrate with the carbonate etc and likely influence most commercial test kits...

how much is open to debate.. two things for sure happen.... one balances this by consuming the acetate... 

bacteria consume acetate as a carbon source and produce two CO2 from a single acetate so it gets consumed and produces more CO2 to form appropriate carbonate buffering... and although the rate of its consumption is probably difficult to measure it likely increases over the first few weeks/months of use as the bacterial population expands with the new food source and then probably some sort of equilibrium would be reached, so its going to go away through feeding.

However, its relevant by addition because total carbonate alkalinity is titrated at about 3.5-5 mEq/L... at 5% acidity it would take roughly 500 ml (1/2 L) of pure 5% acidity store bought vinegar to the tank all at once to change the result by around 10%... at 15 ml vinegar per gallon of water with 1 tsp Kalk that would equate to 33 gallons of Kalk water... which I would go through in 1.5 months for my 70-80 gallon system so I am guessing this is no more than 3 weeks of addition so if NOTHING got consumed in a short time your alk tests would begin to rise detectably but in error...

So.. my advice is to start slow with kalk in mostly water and increase your vinegar additions to help calcium availability over a few months if your SUPER worried about it.  A LOT of people use vinegar and I have not seen anyone complaining about false Alk tests in practice but that means squat as no one tests for acetate.  I am almost certain that very little would accumulate due to consumption.  Hope this helps.... and is not too confusing.  Its like everything else, its complicated if you really want to understand it and it sounds confusing and even dangerous... but many many people find it very easy... and for the most part its trouble free so long as you go slow, monitor your tank, and dont dump 20 gal of saturated Kalk into your system in 5 mins.

You use CO2 to form carbonic acid to lower the pH in order to dissolve rock (calcium) in the reactor, and you adjust the water flow rate and CO2 bubble rate to get the pH in the effluent stream to a level low enough to actually dissolve the calcium (say pH 6.5 is depending on substrate size type etc).  As well as dissolving the calcium through the pH effect, carbonic acid is simply protonated carbonate so your basically making alkalinity too... 

If you turn up the Co2 in attempt to get more carbonate buffer your going to drop tank pH as you turn the carbonic acid/carbonate/bicarbonate equilibrium towards low pH and your pH will drop at any given alkalinity so you cannot chase alk with a reactor without killing your pH... so thats why I recommend using Lime water... it will help consume the excess CO2 keeping carbonic acid formation a bit less, in turn help to raise Alk and bring more Ca.  I guess I am not sure I know if there is an exact ratio that can be relied upon in terms of delivery.  Ca once added is either deposited as coral skeleton or precipitates as rock or is in the water, because there is a CO2 gas / air exchange that is significant and that directly influences Alk I am not sure if its always the same system to system especially when you start pumping CO2 in with a reactor and your system has different gas exchange rates than the next one...

I guess I am not sure how much any of this can be predicted... I was just going along the lines of... we need more Alk... and Kalk is a pretty reliable way to do this and even recommended to help balance the pH issues with reactors...  Unsure really but what you say makes some sense as well.  Clearly you can use science to understand what SHOULD happen but we are all basically using a unique set up when you consider the number of variables that significantly influence these equilibrium so I kinda measure and adopt to what happens... in this case I THINK (I do NOT KNOW) that Kalk seems reasonable... its certainly testable and unlikely to hurt if approached with some reasonable caution and its about as cheap as it gets.

 

Normal sea water has VASTLY more calcium than carbonate alkalinity.  If you were to quantitatively precipitate the entire carbonate/ALK as calcium carbonate the calcium level would barely drop (like 15%) so there is no "equilibrium" in terms of there being any kinda of an equivelance between these two... which is why most people do OK with calcium and chase alkalinity.