calcium reactor alkalinity is going down calcium is going up

[Hellothere12]

I can't seem to find any good articles on calcium actors anymore thanks to Google being one of the worst search engines now. But I've owned and ran my old calcium reactor on my old tank for close to 2 years never hand a problem, untill my tank decided to leak at the bottom seam one morning.
I got a new setup and a new calcium reactor AquaMaxx t3
My tank has been running for 8 months and I decided to turn this baby on bc coralline algae is taking over everywhere all my SPS are growing great! But I can't nail down my Alk with out calcium going crazy high
Alk is pretty steady at 135 to 125 ppm
But my calcium is 495 and rising
I have my ph at 6.5 in the reactor and a drip rate at one drip ever 7 seconds
Any ideas how I can dial in my Alk to 145ppm without dosing everyday.

 

[Brew12]

I can't seem to find any good articles on calcium actors anymore thanks to Google being one of the worst search engines now. But I've owned and ran my old calcium reactor on my old tank for close to 2 years never hand a problem, untill my tank decided to leak at the bottom seam one morning.
I got a new setup and a new calcium reactor AquaMaxx t3
My tank has been running for 8 months and I decided to turn this baby on bc coralline algae is taking over everywhere all my SPS are growing great! But I can't nail down my Alk with out calcium going crazy high
Alk is pretty steady at 135 to 125 ppm
But my calcium is 495 and rising
I have my ph at 6.5 in the reactor and a drip rate at one drip ever 7 seconds
Any ideas how I can dial in my Alk to 145ppm without dosing everyday.

Unfortunately, you probably can't do that quite yet. Some reef tanks consume more alkalinity than calcium. In a perfect world they should be balanced with your reactor media but it often isn't the case. Once you get more demand from your coral they should become more closely aligned and keeping it balanced will be easier.

 

[SK_maui]

Sounds like you need to buy more coral

 

[Hellothere12]

Unfortunately, you probably can't do that quite yet. Some reef tanks consume more alkalinity than calcium. In a perfect world they should be balanced with your reactor media but it often isn't the case. Once you get more demand from your coral they should become more closely aligned and keeping it balanced will be easier.

Okay thank you so you would you recommend Still dosing All to keep things balanced out until hopefully they figure themselves out.

 

[Hellothere12]

Sounds like you need to buy more coral

I have plenty of coral not going to lie I have probably have 15 to 20 medium size frags . Also I feel like adding more might be part of the problem, everything soaking up the alkalinity so quickly.

 

[Brew12]

Okay thank you so you would you recommend Still dosing All to keep things balanced out until hopefully they figure themselves out.

I would. I think it will be best to set your calcium reactor up to maintain steady calcium and then dose alk as needed to make up the difference. You should find that as you need to dial up your calcium reactor more that your alkalinity dosing stays fairly constant or even goes down.

 

[Hellothere12]

I would. I think it will be best to set your calcium reactor up to maintain steady calcium and then dose alk as needed to make up the difference. You should find that as you need to dial up your calcium reactor more that your alkalinity dosing stays fairly constant or even goes down.

Okay thank you vary much make since!

 

[minus9]

What's your magnesium?

 

[Hellothere12]

My mag is 1350

 

[jda]

There is a link in my signature with how to dial in a calcium reactor. A drip every 7 seconds is way too slow. Stop using the pH controller, tune it by hand and it will likely get all sorted out.

 

[Hellothere12]

There is a link in my signature with how to dial in a calcium reactor. A drip every 7 seconds is way too slow. Stop using the pH controller, tune it by hand and it will likely get all sorted out.

Tune it by hand can you explain? I think I understand where you're going but please tell me more.

 

[vetteguy53081]

What media are you using and what effluent count are you using?
I have it other way around with High alk at times and using ReBorn and ReMag

 

[Hellothere12]

What media are you using and what effluent count are you using?
I have it other way around with High alk at times and using ReBorn and ReMag

I'm using the same media, my co2 bubble rate is one every 4 to 5 seconds and drip rate is every 7 seconds so your saying just run the drip rate faster

 

[jda]

I have written on this a hundred times. It is all in the link in my signature. Throw the pH monitor away (figuratively), start with 40 drops and 10 bubbles and work from there as explained worrying only about effluent dKh and then later tank dKh/calcium.

 

[GoVols]

I can't seem to find any good articles on calcium actors anymore thanks to Google being one of the worst search engines now. But I've owned and ran my old calcium reactor on my old tank for close to 2 years never hand a problem, untill my tank decided to leak at the bottom seam one morning.
I got a new setup and a new calcium reactor AquaMaxx t3
My tank has been running for 8 months and I decided to turn this baby on bc coralline algae is taking over everywhere all my SPS are growing great! But I can't nail down my Alk with out calcium going crazy high
Alk is pretty steady at 135 to 125 ppm
But my calcium is 495 and rising
I have my ph at 6.5 in the reactor and a drip rate at one drip ever 7 seconds
Any ideas how I can dial in my Alk to 145ppm without dosing everyday.

Shoot for an SG of .35ppt or above and alkalinity at about 9.0 dKH

Wonder if you tried dosing TM Balling Part-C, if it would help balance out your cal and alk ions???