Are my corals going to die?

[cmcimino]

I would suggest before bumping your kalk dose is getting the water up to the level you want. When you do water changes, the water in the tank takes the weighted average of the parameters of the water you are putting back and existing water in so if you are using NSW you will have to make additions to it prior to adding it or just after to maintain alkalinity. I would suggest increasing alkalinity before adding the mixed saltwater as to not spike the tank on accident by having it go down only to go back up. After you've gotten alkalinity where you want it in the tank, observe if your kalk mix is no longer able to keep it. This goes back to the bit I mentioned before about alkalinity going down faster the lower it goes. You may have the right dose in your ATO but your current alkalinity level is just not high enough to stay stable. Keep us posted!

I really appreciate all of the help! Say I wanted to shoot for a target of 8.5-9 dKH. I could raise my NSW to maybe 8dKH and do weekly water changes until the tank consistently sits at 8 dkH, and then maybe bump the NSW to my target dkH and wait for the tank to get to that amount. Use the kalk in the ATO to maintain those amounts between water changes.

 

[cmcimino]

Or should I use Sodium Bicarbonate, and Calcium Chloride to get my tank at desired calcium, and alkalinity?

 

[Whipples]

You could do that, or you could via KH supplement (take a stroll to Randy's forum here on R2R, he has plenty of information on how to do this with common household products) to slowly raise the tank .5-.7dkh per day. When you do water changes, you will want to test alkalinity to make sure it matches the tank otherwise you run the risk of undoing your daily dosing hard work .

If you do not plan on running an ultra low nutrient system, you can move to a salt mix that mixes closer to your target or just manually up your NSW before changes. I use the aquaforest reef salt which mixes right about 7.7-8dkh for me so I don't have to worry about extra stuff during maintenance .

As for dosing calcium, spread the dose out at least 20 minutes between adding the alk booster (baking soda, KH buffer, etc.) and calcium. you can always dose one in the morning and one in the evening. If they are too close together you risk precipitating calcium carbonate out of the aquarium and again, undoing all of your hard work.

 

[JEREMY82]

You do not want to swing it up to much in one day. calcium 25ppm and dkh just 1 for a day.remember this hobby just takes time ,for corals not looking great maybe use some revive

 

[cmcimino]

I've been looking on Bulk Reef Supply, and I'm thinking I can buy the Calcium chloride, and sodium bicarbonate, and make the solutions they have listed in the description. I then can use they're calculator to raise my alkalinity and calcium to desired levels, being careful to raise it slowly over time via water changes.

 

[cmcimino]

Sadly the Acan lord did not make it. It looks like all that is left is the skeleton. The torch looks better, but still needs a lot of improvement. Over the past few days I have been able to raise my alkalinity to 8.8 dKH. I will work on getting all of my parameters in the correct range, and keeping them steady before buying anymore corals.

 

[JEREMY82]

Sorry to hear your acan didn't make it.if you work on keeping tank stable and find a routine maybe once a wk or everyother week ,check tank perimeters, change some water ,things usually start to balance out .I personally keep hands out of tank and try not to mess with my tank to much.except for testing and cleaning sand bed and glass.this hobby can be very time consuming . so patience and baby it is best ,at least for me .Good luck