Alk/Calcium balance chart

[scubadude]

Here is a very interesting and helpful chart I found that others may find interesting.

http://www.andy-hipkiss.co.uk/index..../caalkcalc.htm

I found out last nite that my Alk and CA where off quite a bit and I wanted to bring it up slowly and to as much balance as possibly and found this site very helpful.

[Captain Clam]

Cool link. How important is it for them to be balanced? According to the calculator my Alk. - 11 is too high for my Ca - 400. How is this a problem?

[scubadude]

Hey capt. Im not sure exactly....But my take is to just do a SLOW adjustment to get them back into the "butter zone" i would guess. I will give you my specs on my tank from last nite (im not very proud of though) My DKH was at 6.1 and My CA was at 325 but believe it or not nothing was really unstable as far as I could see.....but I was starting to get coralline to flack off on my back glass and I (very slowly over 3 weeks) noticed a decline in growth rates of my corals. I came to the realization that my CA reactor was out of co2 ......luckily a buddy of mine who we always talk over drastic measures before we make any adjustments to our tanks told me "Rocky back away from the spoon" or else my first reaction was to get my alk back up to par....I need to get back to the basics....but also read my corals/clams I was kind of astonished that my corals were still healthy (apparently) even though my DKH was so low.

according to my CA readings of 325 my DKH should have been -4.89
and my DKH was 6.1 Now everything seem fine as far as I could tell but im sure it wasnt.....Im now trying to balance and raise them up at the same time, but doing it very slowly

[Barry N.]

scubadude

Some how I can not get that link to work. I can click on the topic but then nothing comes up.

On my 180 SPS/Clam tank I have a dual chamber reactor and it took me months to get it dialed in. I think one reason is that I have to top off so much everyday. But now I got it at ca. 420ppm and alk at 10.2dKh.

On my other smaller tank I just use B-Ionic daily and it keep at 450ca. and 9.6dKh alk.

Barry