Reef crystals crazy alk water changes!

Battlecorals · Jun 21, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I never test alkalinity on new water. I just assume it is acceptable, which for me is a fairly wide range.

I use ordinary IO rather than Reef Crystals since I do not prefer the vitamins and metal chelators that RC adds.

Sorry, this is a little off the original topic but I was curious to know a little more about the vitamins and metal chletars you mentioned. Can you point me to any info you have on that at all. and why you'd consider them unfavorable

glb · Jun 21, 2015

So if I need to raise SG when I mix, just add a little more salt and don't worry about how this affects the other numbers? I'm aiming for 1.024-1.025

Righteous · Jun 21, 2015

I've got an 8.5 gallon nano, and switched from RC to E.S.V. B-Ionic Seawater System. With ESV the salt, magnesium, cal and alk are all kept separate and you have to mix them together. It prevents clumping and settling, which has a much bigger impact with small batches for nano tanks. I use a food scale, and have all the component measurements written down. Any time I test, the new water parameters are almost exact on every batch. It is more expensive, and maybe a little more work (though i found it to be less, since the consistency means less adjustments). Also, since you can adjust each component, you can bring the numbers to where you want them. It's also clear and ready for use as soon as it's mixed (no overnight mixing).

If I had a large tank with large volume water changes, I probably wouldn't think it to be worth the cost, but for small tanks its perfect.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 21, 2015

glb said:
Thanks. So I made myself crazy for no reason. I'm going to get IO and start fresh. If my alk drops in the tank after the change I'll just dose it up with Kalk.

Sounds good. Just be careful to add the kalkwasser in small amounts of the pH will get too high.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 21, 2015

glb said:
So if I need to raise SG when I mix, just add a little more salt and don't worry about how this affects the other numbers? I'm aiming for 1.024-1.025

Depends on how much you raise it.

Boosting sg from 1.024 to 1.026 will boost everything (except pH) by about 8% (say, 410 ppm to 443 ppm).

glb · Jun 21, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Sounds good. Just be careful to add the kalkwasser in small amounts of the pH will get too high.

Exactly. This I have down pat after a mad scientist weekend of figuring out exactly how much Kalk made the alk go up a certain amount. For my tank, 1/3c Kalk raises the alk by .2kh, so I can adjust accordingly. Because of my co2 problem, the ph never gets too high.

glb · Jun 21, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Depends on how much you raise it.

Boosting sg from 1.024 to 1.026 will boost everything (except pH) by about 8% (say, 410 ppm to 443 ppm).

Well I bought IO which mixes at 1.022 or 1.023 I believe. I've tried to keep the SG at 1.025-.26 by adding more salt mix, but I'm wondering if keeping a little lower and closer to the instructions might make more sense. Ca and Mg were always high with RC because I added a lot of extra mix to get it from 1.021 to 1.026. How about 1.023 on average? I have Zoas, acans, mushrooms, a panope birdsnest and a Hollywood stunner chalice. They're all doing fine.

glb · Jun 21, 2015

Righteous said:
I've got an 8.5 gallon nano, and switched from RC to E.S.V. B-Ionic Seawater System. With ESV the salt, magnesium, cal and alk are all kept separate and you have to mix them together. It prevents clumping and settling, which has a much bigger impact with small batches for nano tanks. I use a food scale, and have all the component measurements written down. Any time I test, the new water parameters are almost exact on every batch. It is more expensive, and maybe a little more work (though i found it to be less, since the consistency means less adjustments). Also, since you can adjust each component, you can bring the numbers to where you want them. It's also clear and ready for use as soon as it's mixed (no overnight mixing).

If I had a large tank with large volume water changes, I probably wouldn't think it to be worth the cost, but for small tanks its perfect.

I've heard people rave about this system. I'm going to try going back to IO and see what happens. Thanks!

Downbeach · Jun 21, 2015

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 21, 2015

glb said:
Well I bought IO which mixes at 1.022 or 1.023 I believe. I've tried to keep the SG at 1.025-.26 by adding more salt mix, but I'm wondering if keeping a little lower and closer to the instructions might make more sense. Ca and Mg were always high with RC because I added a lot of extra mix to get it from 1.021 to 1.026. How about 1.023 on average? I have Zoas, acans, mushrooms, a panope birdsnest and a Hollywood stunner chalice. They're all doing fine.

IMO, it makes most sense to match 35 ppt seawater (sg = 1.0264). The demand in the tank will keep the alk from being too high. Calcium being a bit high is no concern.