Carx on a low demand tank?

[PegasisR]

Im slowly adding new coral to the tank and wanted to know if its okay to hook up a Carx to a low demand tank(only 6 corals atm) to keep everything stable as i add more coral in? Would that be okay to do?

 

[Oropher]

Hi. You're already famous (well known member). Salute!
Reacting to your question: there's no wrong or right answer if you know how to use Carx. I'm sure you know about your water too.

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Im slowly adding new coral to the tank and wanted to know if its okay to hook up a Carx to a low demand tank(only 6 corals atm) to keep everything stable as i add more coral in? Would that be okay to do?

6 sps corals or mixed corals?

 

[PegasisR]

6 sps corals or mixed corals?

Softie and lps ar the moment! Had two sps for a week or 2 till they stn'd

 

[PegasisR]

Hi. You're already famous (well known member). Salute!
Reacting to your question: there's no wrong or right answer if you know how to use Carx. I'm sure you know about your water too.

Haha, thank you but im always gonna be a noob with this

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Softie and lps ar the moment!

You probably don’t even need to dose yet. Forget calcium consumption. You could probably buy a small bottle of 2 part and manually dose once a week if you aren’t doing weekly wc’s. I don’t think you need the caRx yet. When you start throwing sticks in there, it’s time for the reactor.

 

[PegasisR]

You probably don’t even need to dose yet. Forget calcium consumption. You could probably buy a small bottle of 2 part and manually dose once a week if you aren’t doing weekly wc’s. I don’t think you need the caRx yet. When you start throwing sticks in there, it’s time for the reactor.

Well thats what i want to do i was hoping i vould get a rector and make all parameters stable for sps

 

[45ZoaGarden]

I don’t think you need it yet. But it can’t hurt when you actually have the sps. Right now your calcium consumption is pretty low so you don’t really need it.

 

[PegasisR]

I don’t think you need it yet. But it can’t hurt when you actually have the sps. Right now your calcium consumption is pretty low so you don’t really need it.

Water changes every week should do the trick right? Buffered to my tanks needs?

 

[PegasisR]

What would you say would be an stn causing issue?

 

[PegasisR]

I don’t think you need it yet. But it can’t hurt when you actually have the sps. Right now your calcium consumption is pretty low so you don’t really need it.

Just wanted to pick your brain somemore... but if i did add a calcium reactor during this low consumption point, would the alk and everything increase since the consumption is so little or would it keep everything at the desired numbers stable without increase?

#reefsquad

 

[45ZoaGarden]

Just wanted to pick your brain somemore... but if i did add a calcium reactor during this low consumption point, would the alk and everything increase since the consumption is so little or would it keep everything at the desired numbers stable without increase?

#reefsquad

Calcium reactors will effect alk levels. I’m sure you could control this through amount of media and flow rates though. I’m sure someone with more experience in calcium reactors can chime

 

[PegasisR]

Calcium reactors will effect alk levels. I’m sure you could control this through amount of media and flow rates though. I’m sure someone with more experience in calcium reactors can chime

Ah okay

 

[lapin]

I ran a big reactor on a 125g. The reason it was oversized was, I only want to buy 1 and it was for my 600g that was in the planing stage. It took a while to get it dialed in so levels were not over the top . No harm I could see other than my electric bill.

 

[C. Eymann]

I recommend those new to reactors to use kalkwasser and two part when stocking a reef for the first 6mo, once you have all /most the frags/coral you plan to have, then bring a reactor online, otherwise you will be fiddling with it as your demand will make jumps as more calcifying organisms are added- the big advantage on a properly setup reactor is its "set it and forget it- ness" which wont be the case if you are continuously adding new corals.
Once you are pretty much done stocking with coral/frags, then bring the reactor online.

That being said, any tank can benefit from a reactor, you dont necessarily have to have a big demand or SPS to run /get the benefits a reactor has to offer. Even if you just have mostly soft coral, as leathers and other soft corals do actually uptake calcium carbonate, leathers can actually uptake quite a bit because their tissue is dense with sclerites which are little fragments of calcium carbonate also coraline algea, snails and other critters will also uptake minerals (alk/cal/mag).

While softies and most LPS wont be AS affected by depleted or swinging levels of cal/alk/mag like SPS will, its still not ideal and can affect their growth/overall health. You want stability with mineral levels and reactors do an excellent job doing so.

Hope this helps

 

[PegasisR]

How would i go about adding kalkwasser and two part together? And what would the formula be for this? Also how would i find the magic number to dose for alk/ca/mg? What would be your steps? If you dont mind explaining the proper way

 

[C. Eymann]

How would i go about adding kalkwasser and two part together? And what would the formula be for this? Also how would i find the magic number to dose for alk/ca/mg? What would be your steps? If you dont mind explaining the proper way

You dont mix them together themselves, many if not the majority of esp newer tanks will easily have their demand met by adding kalk to your ato reservoir, if kalk starts not being able to keep up, start dosing 2 part in addition to running kalk in your ato. Because you will be meeting most the demand with kalk, you will only need to add a fraction of two part that other tanks using solely two part/not using kalkwasser.

there is no magic formula as every tanks demand rate will be different.
but there are good reef calculators to help figure out adjustments to tweak levels with two part
Accurate test kits are vital.

First, make sure levels of alk/cal/ mag are in the ideal range via waterchanges or two part additions, THEN add kalk to your ato reservoir, for the first week test every day or every other day to monitor how your alk/cal levels respond, if they dont change, kalk will be well enough on its own, down the road after your tank is packed with coral kalk may not be able to keep up, depending on factors like evaporation. Thats when the addition of two part may become necessary, or you can look into a calcium reactor.

 

[P-Dub]

Calcium reactors are used to maintain both alkalinity and calcium levels in a reef tank. To a greater or lesser degree, they will always need a certain amount of adjusting as demand changes and even then, they have a maximum output capacity that may need augmentation with dosing of calcium, alkalinity, and/or kalk.
Dosing elements such as Ca, Alk, and Kalk are not performed 'together' in a slurry of sorts, to do so, would be a certain mess of precipitate, but are done separately. The most widely chosen method is to use a doser. These elements are added based on the amount of consumption realized through regular testing the same way you might need to adjust your reactor to keep up with demand. A plethora of articles to help you out can be found here... Randy's Reef Chemistry Articles

 

[C. Eymann]

Another thing to consider when using any sort of mineral supplementation such as Kalkwasser, Dosing pumps/two part and calcium reactors is the brand of salt you use with waterchanges, esp if you do regular/often waterchanges,

If using an automated system to replenish minerals whether it be kalk, two part, calcium reactor or a combination, you want to use a salt that reflects the levels you keep your tank at, because esp if you perform regular waterchanges, you levels will slowly start to reflect the levels your salt mix has, which is why I recommend to stay away from "super salts" like Redseacoral pro, Reef crystals etc etc.
Go for a salt that tests close to NSW, Tropic marin reef or redsea blue bucket are several of my favorites.

 

[PegasisR]

You dont mix them together themselves, many if not the majority of esp newer tanks will easily have their demand met by adding kalk to your ato reservoir, if kalk starts not being able to keep up, start dosing 2 part in addition to running kalk in your ato. Because you will be meeting most the demand with kalk, you will only need to add a fraction of two part that other tanks using solely two part/not using kalkwasser.

there is no magic formula as every tanks demand rate will be different.
but there are good reef calculators to help figure out adjustments to tweak levels with two part
Accurate test kits are vital.

First, make sure levels of alk/cal/ mag are in the ideal range via waterchanges or two part additions, THEN add kalk to your ato reservoir, for the first week test every day or every other day to monitor how your alk/cal levels respond, if they dont change, kalk will be well enough on its own, down the road after your tank is packed with coral kalk may not be able to keep up, depending on factors like evaporation. Thats when the addition of two part may become necessary, or you can look into a calcium reactor.

Thats what im worried about with kalk! The evaporation... would it be an issue? aswell should i use 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of top off water since i have such low demand? and last question! do i bring up my parameters to where i need it and then start kalk?