Calcium Reactor and Trace Elements

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motortrendz said:
Gotcha. I'll give it a go and try to get my nitrates down a bit more. I have a heavy bioload in my tank.
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Be careful as a drawback to too low of N and P can be that dinos begin to flourish.
 
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motortrendz said:
The question I have is when using a calcium reactor how do.you calculate the dosing. with 2 part it goes by the amount of calcium you dose daily. But not sure how to calculate it with the reactor. My reactor runs 5ml/min to maintain. But not sure if that equates to anything?
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Reef Stallion said:
I thought it could help me calculate the daily consumption of calcium and alkalinity.
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I'd guess that motortrendz figured it out by now, but another calculator that I like is here:


You can work out your daily consumption with it and use that to help guide your use of the colors program, assuming that the earlier comment that their suggested dose is based on daily alk consumption. @Randy Holmes-Farley probably just does it with mental math.
 
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I had not thought a calculator would be needed, but I guess it simplifies the process. Note that if the calcium difference is small between tank and effluent, it would be more accurate to get the calcium change from the alk change, which percentage wise is a much bigger change.
 
Jose Esteves said:
@GoVols

Hows the Red Sea colors doing for your tank?
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Well,
They have sill been the best trace elements that I've used, in injunction with the calcium reactor's media that I use. My reactor's media is packed with strontium.

If your dosing two part, dose their color's program, per your reef's cal intake per Red Sea's instructions.

Their color's program does not contain strontium, so you could use Red Sea calcium part - A. It doses strontium or as @RichtheReefer21 pointed out.... Seachem's Reef Advantage Calcium powder doses strontium too... :D

Use to know how much Seachem powder to mix with RO/DI use with holding containers and dosing pumps, but (lol) forgot that ratio... ;Oldman
 
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GoVols said:
Well,
They have sill been the best trace elements that I've used, in injunction with the calcium reactor's media that I use. My reactor's media is packed with strontium.

If your dosing two part, dose their color's program, per your reef's cal intake per Red Sea's instructions.

Their color's program does not contain strontium, so you could use Red Sea calcium part - A. It doses strontium or as @RichtheReefer21 pointed out.... Seachem's Reef Advantage Calcium powder doses strontium too... :D

Use to know how much Seachem powder to mix with RO/DI use with holding containers and dosing pumps, but (lol) forgot that ratio... ;Oldman
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I'm running a CaRX too with same media (Reborn). And I have been dosing Red Sea colors as well, 1ml every 3-4 days just to be on the safe side. I haven't seen a difference really, but I am also old, so my eyes may be playing tricks on me.
 
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Jose Esteves said:
I'm running a CaRX too with same media (Reborn). And I have been dosing Red Sea colors as well, 1ml every 3-4 days just to be on the safe side. I haven't seen a difference really, but I am also old, so my eyes may be playing tricks on me.
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Well,
Sorry for the overdue response:

Not long ago, I went almost 4 months without making a water change...;Wideyed After the first two months, coral colors were not as deep or rich. Dosed heavier and they made a nice improvement.

Back to my more scheduled water change routine since then...:D

I guess, the both of us would be better off to pull icp test... ;Hilarious
 
AS
GoVols said:
Well,
Sorry for the overdue response:

Not long ago, I went almost 4 months without making a water change...;Wideyed After the first two months, coral colors were not as deep or rich. Dosed heavier and they made a nice improvement.

Back to my more scheduled water change routine since then...:D

I guess, the both of us would be better off to pull icp test... ;Hilarious
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I haven't done a water change since July LOL, Reason I wanted to dose trace. Added a new tank and plumed it to my main system and added 50g of new water. I've been also was dosing Acropower, and just switched to Brightwell's amino acid to give it a try.

I have noticed better colors on some acros. While some were never affected with color loss

20200210_185608.jpg 20200210_185833.jpg 20200210_185955.jpg 20200210_190029.jpg
 
So an update for me, I did what randy recommend so I started low, dosing only 1ml of each a day, and bought test kits to ensure I wasnt overdosing/underdosing. It worked out to 2ml of each a day to balance my system. My colors got super bright. On the downside, I completed my new sump build, it caused a nutrient depletion and I went from trying to bring nitrates down to fighting dinos, and having alot of my acros stn while trying to dose nitrates and phosphates lol. I finally got everything back to a stable point but most of my acros have lost most of their colors. I did start dosing reef nutrition by red sea and it seems to be helping with getting everything healthy again.
 
Jose Esteves said:
I haven't done a water change since July LOL, Reason I wanted to dose trace. Added a new tank and plumed it to my main system and added 50g of new water. I've been also was dosing Acropower, and just switched to Brightwell's amino acid to give it a try.

I have noticed better colors on some acros. While some were never affected with color loss

20200210_185608.jpg 20200210_185833.jpg 20200210_185955.jpg 20200210_190029.jpg
Click to expand...
motortrendz said:
So an update for me, I did what randy recommend so I started low, dosing only 1ml of each a day, and bought test kits to ensure I wasnt overdosing/underdosing. It worked out to 2ml of each a day to balance my system. My colors got super bright. On the downside, I completed my new sump build, it caused a nutrient depletion and I went from trying to bring nitrates down to fighting dinos, and having alot of my acros stn while trying to dose nitrates and phosphates lol. I finally got everything back to a stable point but most of my acros have lost most of their colors. I did start dosing reef nutrition by red sea and it seems to be helping with getting everything healthy again.
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Welp,
I've used Red Sea "Reef Energy" for a long time too. Gotta feed your reef!!!

And, fell in the ole ULNS trap long ago (2015). All I got was dinos in the end, as well as ruining an wonderful reef too.

Control phosphates with gfo (in it's own reactor) and stopped shooting for Ultra Low nitrates.

Thanks for your updates... :)
 
GoVols said:
Another Update:

After trying other brands of trace elements (with my calcium reactor) the Red Sea colors still stand strong.

Still running the media's as posted above.

The only conclusion that I could come to, was that the other brands contained strontium, which the small ARM media should supply plenty of that.

The Red Sea colors do not contain strontium / Red Sea puts that element in their calcium part a.

We are over 2 dkh in alk intake per day at this point.
Been dosing 2ml of each of the four Red Sea colors / 5 days a week / and could not be any more satisfied.

To me the Red Sea colors have really stood out over the long haul, against all others, when dosing with the above cal reactor media's.

As the author of this post:
You truly need to play if safe when dosing trace elements and an ICP report would be the best guide to use.

Regards, GoVols
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I am in the process of starting back up on the Red Sea program and think I will keep it going for the foreseeable future. At one point I was using the program but stop. I have noticed over time that my color are not as vibrant as they were when I was using the program. Now I am going to go completely no water change and do controlled supplements with Red Sea ABCD and Red Sea Nutrition A&B. Also going to look at either switching from BRS 2 part to Red Sea Calcium+ to add strontium as well. I ran a test and currently have 0ppm strontium and had 0ppm iodide.

Also I got lazy testing for calcium and it dropped to 300ppm. I realized after a few days of my Alkatronic testing and my dKH was remaining higher than my range so over a couple of days I increased to 425ppm calcium. Now my dKH is almost below my range according to my Alkatronic testing. I also started dosing Iodide, but believe that increasing my calcium back to normal levels helped increase dKH consumption.

Will be great to see how far I can push the envelop with trying to maintain appropriate level more closer to NSW.

Also going to stop dosing Acropower since it seems that it does nothing that I can visibly see for my tank.
 
mitch91175 said:
I am in the process of starting back up on the Red Sea program and think I will keep it going for the foreseeable future. At one point I was using the program but stop. I have noticed over time that my color are not as vibrant as they were when I was using the program. Now I am going to go completely no water change and do controlled supplements with Red Sea ABCD and Red Sea Nutrition A&B. Also going to look at either switching from BRS 2 part to Red Sea Calcium+ to add strontium as well. I ran a test and currently have 0ppm strontium and had 0ppm iodide.

Also I got lazy testing for calcium and it dropped to 300ppm. I realized after a few days of my Alkatronic testing and my dKH was remaining higher than my range so over a couple of days I increased to 425ppm calcium. Now my dKH is almost below my range according to my Alkatronic testing. I also started dosing Iodide, but believe that increasing my calcium back to normal levels helped increase dKH consumption.

Will be great to see how far I can push the envelop with trying to maintain appropriate level more closer to NSW.

Also going to stop dosing Acropower since it seems that it does nothing that I can visibly see for my tank.
Click to expand...

Mitch,
I saw the same things after stopping water changes, after awhile my color's faded as well.

So, dosed more of the Red Sea Colors, and my corals started looking more rich and vibrant again.

Have no clue where this Reborn media situation is going for the long haul, so been firing 70mls of TM All for Reef to try something new.

If it looks good after the first 3,000mls are used up, will likely mix my own to cut down the cost factor.

Dose 15ml of both parts (A and B) Reef Energy, every other evening.
 
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GoVols said:
Mitch,
I saw the same things after stopping water changes, after awhile my color's faded as well.

So, dosed more of the Red Sea Colors, and my corals started looking more rich and vibrant again.

Have no clue where this Reborn media situation is going for the long haul, so been firing 70mls of TM All for Reef to try something new.

If it looks good after the first 3,000mls are used up, will likely mix my own to cut down the cost factor.

Dose 15ml of both parts (A and B) Reef Energy, every other evening.
Click to expand...

What are you doing to keep PO4/NO3 in check with the program? I have chaeto and have been able to maintain PO4 around 0.07-0.10ppm without using anything. Just hoping that adding the Reef Nutrition doesn’t increase my PO4 and have the need to maintain it. I used Lanthanum Chloride when it wasn’t ideal but haven’t had to for quite sometime.
 
mitch91175 said:
What are you doing to keep PO4/NO3 in check with the program? I have chaeto and have been able to maintain PO4 around 0.07-0.10ppm without using anything. Just hoping that adding the Reef Nutrition doesn’t increase my PO4 and have the need to maintain it. I used Lanthanum Chloride when it wasn’t ideal but haven’t had to for quite sometime.
Click to expand...

lol
Went back to water changes.
 

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