Low alkalinity low calcium low ph low nutrients help

vpustovoytov · Oct 30, 2014

i guys i am new to this forum please anybody can hell me

im suffering for 3-4 month of low nutrient , low alkalinity , low ph, low calcium in my 100 gallon reef. calcium reactor, kalkwasser and 2 part additives i have to use a lot every day to keep all my levels at minimum only and i even did 60% water change slowly and still everything low and no body can explain me what is going on, i have coraline algae whitening also, i used to have good grow. please need help!

Thanks

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 30, 2014

Can you give your most recent values and how much of what you are adding, and roughly what's in the tank?

vpustovoytov · Oct 31, 2014

That is very nice of you to respond to me
I know you are very knowledgable in chemistry so you can help I'm sure you help a lot of people
So I couldn't get my numbers right for like 4 month

I have 100 gallon reef for 3 years using io and good coralline growth, than my friend helped to put a calcium reactor to set and forget and also I got an algae scrubber and was changing water once a month and I changed io to tropic marine pro bio active as per my friend.
but it worked for a couple months and than boom my number low, so I started using a kalkwasse with calcium reactor didn't help , than I took off CR and kalkwasser and stated using brs 2 part and it required me tons of additives to keep it at low normal level
I read all your articles but I could not find an answer
So my friend sad my balance is off and I have to change water
So i did gradually 60% and I used different salt Red Sea coral pro and still using kalkwasser and 2 part brs a lot
Right know as of yesterday cal 430 ,alk 136, mag 1450
I have small to medium size fishes , good skimming apex probes and led lights
My phosphates 0, nitrates 0, ammonia 0 I don't have precipitations on the pump, heater only live rocks getting more white and less coralline
Why I need so much additives if I've been using best salts on market and I tested all my salt mixes with excellent numbers but when I change water nothing is really changes , next day numbers low and if I don't add tons of additives they go low and my corals getting whiter
Please help me
I don't want to go FWLO tank I love my corals !

mrcoffee2 · Oct 31, 2014

Have you tried the tropic marine bio calcium with your top off water? I hear the two work amazing

vpustovoytov · Oct 31, 2014

Never
Did you
Bu I think kalkwasser is better it's balanced solution

phillrodrigo · Oct 31, 2014

The calcium is fine not sure what the alk would be only because I don't know what 136 is in dkh it may be fine

vpustovoytov · Oct 31, 2014

125 ppm is 2.5 meq/l
150 ppm is 3 meq/l
I'm using Hanna checker

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 31, 2014

mrcoffee2 said:
Have you tried the tropic marine bio calcium with your top off water? I hear the two work amazing

You cannot mix Tropic Marin Biocalcium into any water prior to dosing. That is its main drawback.

It will precipitate calcium carbonate in it.

FWIW, that product is just a dry mixture of calcium chloride and sodium carbonate/bicarbonate (plus possibly other things).

vpustovoytov · Oct 31, 2014

Randy what do you think is going on in my tank please

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 31, 2014

The current values (cal 430 ,alk 136, mag 1450) are fine.

So the question is how much are you dosing.

It turns out that some people do get into a situation where they need a lot of two part supplement, and chemistry imbalances seem to not be the cause. But we don't really know why.

How much two part are you dosing to maintain that level?

Do you notice excessive precipitation of calcium carbonate anywhere? Hardening sand? Coated heaters and pumps (more than we all normally get), etc.

vpustovoytov · Oct 31, 2014

No precipitations and sand is soft I'm dosing brs supplements 200 ml soda ash and kalkwasser 2000 max saturation

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 31, 2014

OK, so the two part is equivalent to about 3 dKH per day, and about another 0.6 dKH from the limewater.

That's on the high side, but not unreasonable for a tank with a lot of SPS corals and coralline algae growing well.

Some folks with coralline and soft corals alone might get to 2-3 dKH per day.

Unless you see excessive precipitation, I'd just keep up with the two part and limewater.

vpustovoytov · Nov 1, 2014

Thank you
I'll let u know in 2 weeks or so

leptang · Nov 1, 2014

My 6 year old system sucks up around 3-1/2 dKH in 24 hours and around 40 ppm of calcium a day. Limewater couldn't keep up with my demand for alk/Ca anymore. I dont have a calcium reactor either. So i started to use baked baking soda (carbonate) in the morning when the pH is low and let it drip in my tank until i get home. Then when the pH is high after work over half of the light cycle of my tank, i drip baking soda (bicarbonate) so the pH doesn't get to high. When the lights go out i add concentrated calcium chloride Brightwell Aquatics Calcion, i dont get any calcification when adding it thank god. But i do worry about chloride build up, so i change 20% of the water a month.

leptang · Nov 1, 2014

leptang said:
My 6 year old system sucks up around 3-1/2 dKH in 24 hours and around 40 ppm of calcium a day. Limewater couldn't keep up with my demand for alk/Ca anymore. I dont have a calcium reactor either. So i started to use baked baking soda (carbonate) in the morning when the pH is low and let it drip in my tank until i get home. Then when the pH is high after work over half of the light cycle of my tank, i drip baking soda (bicarbonate) so the pH doesn't get to high. When the lights go out i add concentrated calcium chloride Brightwell Aquatics Calcion, i dont get any calcification when adding it thank god. But i do worry about chloride build up, so i change 20% of the water a month.

this all started to happen after moving my tank. I tossed out my white DSB of aragonite to black sand, and lost buffering i think.

vpustovoytov · Nov 1, 2014

Thanks but I still don't understand how people maintain alk and calcium only with calcium reactor and they have 250-300 gal tanks

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 1, 2014

vpustovoytov said:
Thanks but I still don't understand how people maintain alk and calcium only with calcium reactor and they have 250-300 gal tanks

CaCO3/CO2 reactors can generally be scaled to meet the demand in any aquarium. Perhaps yours was undersized, the flow rate was too low, or the CO2 addition rate/pH was not appropriate.

vpustovoytov · Nov 1, 2014

It's oversized and flow rate was appropriate it was perfect setup and effluent numbers were 40-50 dkh
May be since My tank is not doing bad right now I can set it up again

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 1, 2014

What was the water flow rate through that reactor?

Reefnjunkie · Nov 1, 2014

I'd have to agree with Randy in that your calcium reactor is one undersized or not dialed in properly. I use just a calcium reactor and actually just had to reduce the amount of CO2 being added as my KH was climbing. My effluent is set at a PH 6.7 and the rate of effluent I'd guess is somewhere around 25-30 mls per second.
A calcium reactor is capable of handling your system without the 2- part and Kalk unless you're trying to keep the PH in the 8.1-8.3 which proves is difficult or rather impossible for me.

I also run a reactor capable of over twice my gallons, my GEO 624 could keep up.

Hope you get it figured out as I know how frustrating it can be, dosing is a pain IMO/E and like your friend I like the set it and forget methods