Alc & Calc Levels & Water Changes

tdyrkacz · Nov 10, 2015

I have a question regarding water changes in terms of Alk & Calc.

Once I get these into the levels I want it seems that a water change will throw it off unless I either buy salt which matches what I want or get the salt solution to the levels I want before doing the water change. So I guess I'm wondering what is the preferred method of dealing with this so that the tank doesn't have swings in parameters.

If any of you make your salt mix match your desired levels how do you do it? Can I just use the BRS Alk & Calc calculator and then pour in the required amount of alk & calk? Do i have to dose it into the salt mix over time or can i pour all at once? Please understand I am asking about the mix not the main display tank.

Thanks.

Anthony Wood · Nov 13, 2015

Make your life easy and keep the tank the same levels as a fresh batch of saltwater. Get a doser to keep your levels from fluctuating and call it a day. Get a jebao doser they work just fine and aren't nearly as expensive as the big names. I had one for a long time until I decided to spend the money on a bubble magus. There is no real reason to keep your alk and calc at high levels, it hasn't been proven to increase growth so why do it? You can keep it anywhere from 7-12dkh and get the same growth as long as it stays stable. Stability is more important then the number its at. Just keep it stable at what your salt mixes too.

But if you really want to you could use the BRS Alk & Calc calculator and then pour in the required amount into a fresh batch of saltwater. Put a power head in it to mix it up well for a few min and do your WC. You won't hurt anything. I actually did this for a while but eventually found out it's a total waste of money to just keep dumping additives into fresh saltwater because you'll run out faster then you think. Plus unless you are dosing the tank to stay at your desired level its going to drop so when you add new saltwater, the new saltwater will be higher then the tank. Unless your doing very large WC say 50%+ on a smaller system the levels aren't going to change much if any at all. For example I keep my tank at 8dkh I could do a 30g WC with red sea coral pro that mixes to 12dkh and the tank won't move off of 8dkh or at least not enough to pick up on a salifert test kit.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 13, 2015

tdyrkacz said:
I have a question regarding water changes in terms of Alk & Calc.

Once I get these into the levels I want it seems that a water change will throw it off unless I either buy salt which matches what I want or get the salt solution to the levels I want before doing the water change. So I guess I'm wondering what is the preferred method of dealing with this so that the tank doesn't have swings in parameters.

If any of you make your salt mix match your desired levels how do you do it? Can I just use the BRS Alk & Calc calculator and then pour in the required amount of alk & calk? Do i have to dose it into the salt mix over time or can i pour all at once? Please understand I am asking about the mix not the main display tank.

Thanks.

If you do small water changes, the effect is pretty small. I do many small water changes every day, so I have no such issues, but even a 10% water change will have a pretty small impact.

Almost never do you need to add more alkalinity to a salt mix to match your tank. Usually tanks are lower. Often in calcium too.

You can lower alk in salt mixes with muriatic acid if you want.

tdyrkacz · Nov 14, 2015

Currently I use Red Sea salt mix which has pretty low alk and calcium. I have been dosing my tank to get those two to a higher level about 440 calcium and alk around 8.5. I think this salt has a alk of about 7 and calcium of about 380 or so. I do 16 gallon water changes every 2 weeks. My tank is a 93 gallon cube with a 25 gallon sump for a total water volume of around 103 gallons. So i change 30% of the water every month.

I looked at Red Sea Pro but the alk is really really high. What do you guys think about red sea pro salt?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 14, 2015

tdyrkacz said:
Currently I use Red Sea salt mix which has pretty low alk and calcium. I have been dosing my tank to get those two to a higher level about 440 calcium and alk around 8.5. I think this salt has a alk of about 7 and calcium of about 380 or so. I do 16 gallon water changes every 2 weeks. My tank is a 93 gallon cube with a 25 gallon sump for a total water volume of around 103 gallons. So i change 30% of the water every month.

I looked at Red Sea Pro but the alk is really really high. What do you guys think about red sea pro salt?

What is your salinity? Raising it to 35 ppt should give higher values than you mention (at least according to Red Sea).

tdyrkacz · Nov 14, 2015

I keep Salinity between 1.025 to 1.026

tdyrkacz · Nov 14, 2015

The calcium and alk values I saw from the mix was before i started dosing so it is possible it was already depleted. I will measure these levels in a new salt mix before a WC to see where it really is.