Need help!

[khushtram]

I have been using fritz salt for the past year now. I have a mixed lps and softie tank so I never worried about testing water Params except for my salinity since all of my corals have nice colors and seem very healthy. I decided to add a small frag of sour apples birds nest and noticed that day after day my birds nest polyps started receding.
So I decided to check my cal and alk params just to see where they are at and for some reason my alk is at 5.2 (tested with a brand new Hanna alk tester) and my cal is at the 380 mark (tested with an old Red Sea cal tester).
What is the safest way to raise my alk without hurting my corals ?
Mind you I was doing a 5gl water change weekly since I got the new fritz salt. Any suggestions ?

 

[LIreefguy]

I would just start dosing with 2 part solution. There are a few brands you can use. I wouldn’t try to raise those levels too fast since your other corals are all doing well

 

[khushtram]

I have a 2 part esv bionic. I have been dosing 1 ml every 30 minutes or so for the past 2 days and my alk doesn’t seem to rise at all. Maybe I am doing it wrong ? Should I dose both cal and alk ? Or just alk on its own ?

 

[NS Mike D]

here is the link to a reef calculator in the sticky thread in the reef chemistry forum.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/reef-chemistry-calculators.172972/


Use the Reef chemicals calculator with this lable: Reef Chemistry Calculator




It has both alkalinity and calcium sections listing most of the products available

it also has warning about changing things to fast, for example rising alk too fast can rise Ph too fast/ this is the blurb for using Ransy #1 part A DIY formula:

Recipe #1 is for use in aquaria where the pH is normal to low. It will have a pH raising effect due to the elevated pH of the alkalinity part, as do most of the commercial two-part additives. The rise that you get will depend on the alkalinity in your aquarium, and, of course, on how much you add. If you add on the order of 0.5 meq/l of alkalinity then the pH will rise about 0.15 to 0.35 pH units immediately upon addition (and higher locally before it has a chance to mix into the whole aquarium). So if you are using limewater (kalkwasser) and the aquarium runs at pH 8.4 or above, this recipe is not the best choice. Otherwise, it is likely to be a good option.


I highly recommend using this to decide which products to use and your game plan. Bookmark this calculator too,

 

[NS Mike D]

I have a 2 part esv bionic. I have been dosing 1 ml every 30 minutes or so for the past 2 days and my alk doesn’t seem to rise at all. Maybe I am doing it wrong ? Should I dose both cal and alk ? Or just alk on its own ?

what is you water volume estimate (ie add sump volume and substract rock volume. for example I guess that 30% of my tank is rock so I exclude that much out of the volume.



for 50 gal of water volume here is what you need to raise alk from 5.2 to 8.5 dkh using Esv bionic

318.5 ml; 10.7 fl oz; 63.7 tsp


also balance CA according to the calculator should be

421 ppm at 3.03 meq/l ( the CA side of the calculater can help you does to achieve this

and this warning about pH

Do not dose all at once. This should be slowly dosed into your aquarium. Monitor pH while dosing. Do not allow immediate impact of pH to be more than +/-0.20.


yes dose Bionic CA as well (use calculator too see above)


and test for Mg as well and dose if needed (mg keeps alk and Ca from getting together and precipitating out of solution)

 

[Flippers4pups]

I have a 2 part esv bionic. I have been dosing 1 ml every 30 minutes or so for the past 2 days and my alk doesn’t seem to rise at all. Maybe I am doing it wrong ? Should I dose both cal and alk ? Or just alk on its own ?

Use this calculator to raise them Individually:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[khushtram]

80 gl total

 

[khushtram]

Both calculators estimate 3.5-3.6 fl oz (20-21 table spoons) so I’m guessing 0.5 fl oz at a time in the course of 24hrs ? I’m new at this dosing thing. Like I said I’ve only kept lps and softies for the most part so I never had a reason to dose until now.

 

[NS Mike D]

80 gl total

is that 100 gals less 20 gals for rock etc

 

[khushtram]

60 gallon cube plus 20 gallon sump and 15 gallon frag tank all plumbed together minus the rocks and sand I would say well around 80 gallons.

 

[NS Mike D]

Both calculators estimate 3.5-3.6 fl oz (20-21 table spoons) so I’m guessing 0.5 fl oz at a time in the course of 24hrs ? I’m new at this dosing thing. Like I said I’ve only kept lps and softies for the most part so I never had a reason to dose until now.

what are you targeting for your final alk?

I am getting 509ml (17,2 fluid ounces 101.0 tsp) to get 80 gals from 5.2 dkh to 8.5 dkh (a mid range reef tank target)


509 mls will take 10 1/2 days at 1 ml every half hour

 

[NS Mike D]

bionic will somewhat lower ph, so you could be a bit aggressive rasink alk with this. If yoi do up the dose keep checking ph to limit ph changed to no more that 0.20 in after a dose.

 

[NS Mike D]

to get CA to 41o using ESV Bionic Original CA (not calciium chloride)

150 ml; 5 fl oz; 30 tsp

and this on dosing amounts
"Do not dose all at once. Although it may be ok to do so, I don't recommend it. Dose 1/3 to 1/2 and the next day test. Check your levels and then dose another portion."

 

[khushtram]

I’m a bit scared to do aggressive dosing until I get a proper ph meter alk I have laying around is these paper test strips which I don’t really trust. Hence the reason why I was only going for the 1 ml at a time [emoji56]. I’ll chime back in after I get a proper ph meter. Thanks everyone these prosts really help a lot.

 

[NS Mike D]

on last post here is the screenshot of what I plugged in: