Calcium dropping, but not alk. New growth is present

Jlax132 · Mar 9, 2012

Hello everyone

Over the past week or two I have been testing alk and calc daily to figure out my dosing amounts. I using b ionic 2 part. My calcium will drop 10-15 ppm a day, but my alk hasn't dropped from 9 dkh at any time. Could this be? I did a small 10% wc but the alk was no different in te new water so I'm not getting it from that. It seems that my alk isn't being used at all. Problem? All my coral look great with sick polyp extension and the frags are incrusting. any ideas?
Thanks in advanced
Jeff.

stiddley · Mar 9, 2012

What are your calcium readings? dKh is fine where its at...have you tried looking at mag? my calcium used to drop like crazy until i got my mag situation figured out. I had mag at 1200-1250 and after dosing the tank to get it to almost 1400 my calcium wont budge from 450...also im running 10-11 dKH...the mag in my opinion acts like a slow calcium regenerator since it dissipates beautifully slow...But on the other hand, if you have corals encrusting and polyp extension like crazy, then you must be doin something right:wink:

hoanle · Mar 9, 2012

I agree with Stiddley. Check your Mg to make sure it is in line then stop dosing 2 parts for a week and check Alk, Ca again to see if they drop. By the way, which test kits are you using?

Jlax132 · Mar 9, 2012

Thank you

the thing is I have not even dosed the alk part of the two part. And is 10-15 ppm of ca alot per day in a 72 bow with about 15 frags and like 5 colonies? And I have not tested the mg at all. I wil buy a test kit pronto. What's a good level for mg? And for test kits I use API for calcium and salifert for alk.

stiddley · Mar 10, 2012

10-15 ppm is a little much, but not unheard of. I do a 5 gallon water change every week in my 37 tall and it keeps everything perfectly stable. The mag test kit is semi expensive but worth it. Mag should be around 1300-1390, or about 3 times as much as calcium.

Jlax132 · Mar 11, 2012

I am going to get a kit today to test it. Will post my results

stiddley · Mar 12, 2012

any mag readings?

Jlax132 · Mar 28, 2012

Finally got it in order. Mag was at 1000 and brought it up to 1300. My ca and alk usage have gone down since this. I only drop 5 ppm of ca and about .6 dkh of alk per day. Mag has stayed the same. Everything sound good?
Jeff

ritter6788 · Mar 28, 2012

What salt are you using? Mag shouldn't drop that low unless alk and calcium are being used up first.

Jlax132 · Mar 29, 2012

I was using IO that was the problem

beaslbob · Mar 30, 2012

Jlax132 said:
Finally got it in order. Mag was at 1000 and brought it up to 1300. My ca and alk usage have gone down since this. I only drop 5 ppm of ca and about .6 dkh of alk per day. Mag has stayed the same. Everything sound good?
Jeff

Sounded good before.

Now that mag is up you may find that dosing equal amount of calcium and alk when alk drops will work. After all that is the diy two part system. Which you might want to read about if you haven't already.

my .02