alkalinity and calcium

[ssimon15]

Hello everybody,hope the new year has started well for all of you. Being new to the hobby of reef aquariums, i am confused about alk & calc. I don't have test kits for them , thinking that my weekly water changes would keep them up . Should i get kits and start testing or wait awhile,and see how everything is going . So far tank is thriving . The tank is a 24g aquapod with 3 small fish 5 mushrooms,1 small hammer, 1 rock with zoo's ,1 sinularia tree, and small rock with star polyps. All other tests are fine,tank is about 2 months old after getting cured lr. thanks STUART

[reefheadhbyst]

your tank needs calicium to keep coral alive they need calicium to keep thriving and if the calicium drops to low it can like kill your coral so i would get the calicium test but i dont test for alk and i have a well est. 40 gallon with coral fish and crabs but you would need calicium

[Poseidon]

Ca and Alk need to be in balance. If you test for one, you should test for the other. Think of Ca as bricks, and Alk as mortar, you can't build much with or the other, but with both, your possibilities are endless.

I would encourage both of you to test for BOTH Ca and Alk levels. Once you find the balance, then you won't need to test often, but that balance needs to be found, and maintained.

Here is a link that was really a great help to me to help figure out dosage of different products.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

[rjs5134]

Wow, it's amazing how much cool stuff people have available. Thanks for the link Mike... My favorites list is getting really long now.