Third time better be the charm

[Lowell Lemon]

My parents are planning a big family trip to Hawaii next year and my daughter wants to go while we're there. It's $350 but I don't know if she'd ever go again after Hawaii. They have a $50 Intro to Scuba class that we could probably do easily.

You can get her to try snuba first for less in Hawaii. Few minutes lesson and into the water. Limited depth due to floating tank. Two people per tank.

 

[tbrown]

You can get her to try snuba first for less in Hawaii. Few minutes lesson and into the water. Limited depth due to floating tank. Two people per tank.

That's what my mom was recommending as well.

 

[MrsBugmaster]

Won a 100$ gift card from Live Aquaria. Not sure but I have heard some stories about bad experiences. Not sure what to pick up. Could get a peppermint and bumblebees for the office or emeralds for the 180g. I pretty much am good on fish atm. But could always get some more just not sure what I want. Any ideas?

Dry goods

 

[danieyella]

Won a 100$ gift card from Live Aquaria. Not sure but I have heard some stories about bad experiences. Not sure what to pick up. Could get a peppermint and bumblebees for the office or emeralds for the 180g. I pretty much am good on fish atm. But could always get some more just not sure what I want. Any ideas?

dry goods, or cuc

 

[Stang67]

Feeling motivated today. Going to get the awc set an tested tonight and work on a fun project in the basement I have been wanting to do.
Maybe pull some honey to spin too.

 

[Stang67]

Well got absolutely nothing done over the weekend.
Tested the awc system and did a 1g manual change. Pretty snazzy. Now I just have to program it to do automatic ones.
My other issue is my ca and alk are scary low. So can I dose kalk and do daily 1g h2o changes? Or should I only do one at a time? Gut says only dose and get those levels up. Po and ni seem to be easily regulated with the skimmer and fuge. Ph is low also and I believe that's alk related.
Good news is stuff is growing like mad. Just need to keep up with it.

 

[Stang67]

OK so learned that kalk is not the ideal way to raise calcium and alk. Rather its used to maintain the levels once you get them where you want them. So now I'm off to research best ways to raise them. Grrrrr moonshiners is looking better and better every day.

 

[F i s h y]

OK so learned that kalk is not the ideal way to raise calcium and alk. Rather its used to maintain the levels once you get them where you want them. So now I'm off to research best ways to raise them. Grrrrr moonshiners is looking better and better every day.

I use reef code A and B. There are cheaper DIY alternatives but this is easiest for my situation.

 

[exnisstech]

OK so learned that kalk is not the ideal way to raise calcium and alk. Rather its used to maintain the levels once you get them where you want them. So now I'm off to research best ways to raise them. Grrrrr moonshiners is looking better and better every day.

2 part? DIY, ESV etc? I drip kalk 24/7 50 minutes on 5 minutes off with a brs dosing pump in my larger system about 200g but I still have to add 25ml of 2 part daily or levels start to drop.

 

[Stang67]

Looks like some sort of 2 part to raise and then kalk to maintain (possible ca reactor if additional support needed) I have been reading about adding to the ato (which man suggested) but then there is evaporation to calculate. Me no math.
Going to run some calculations and see what I am gonna need to get me "level" and then order that and some kalk for dosing once level. Brs has a kit but I am not fond of them to say it nicely.

 

[rmorris_14]

Brs has a kit but I am not fond of them to say it nicely.

same

 

[Stang67]

Levels over the last month for reference;
7/19 ph: 8 alk: 6.7 ca: 415
7/27 Ph: 8 alk: 7.0 ca: 420
8/2 ph: 7.9 alk: 6.1 ca: 375
30g water change
8/6 ph: -- alk: 7.3 ca: 400
8/10 ph: 7.7 alk: 6.7 ca: 400
8/15 ph: 7.7 alk: 6.1 ca: 400

So alk is dropping more then ca but I would like ca up more as well as ph.

 

[Stang67]

It says these have to be added in equal amounts? @F i s h y is it OK to add more of part b then part a, as long as I am adding both?

 

[F i s h y]

Levels over the last month for reference;
7/19 ph: 8 alk: 6.7 ca: 415
7/27 Ph: 8 alk: 7.0 ca: 420
8/2 ph: 7.9 alk: 6.1 ca: 375
30g water change
8/6 ph: -- alk: 7.3 ca: 400
8/10 ph: 7.7 alk: 6.7 ca: 400
8/15 ph: 7.7 alk: 6.1 ca: 400

So alk is dropping more then ca but I would like ca up more as well as ph.

Fresh air makes the biggest difference on my ph with all the people I have in my house. I've been inconsistent with dosing last 2 weeks so my alk continues to drop need to get doser set up

 

[F i s h y]

It says these have to be added in equal amounts? @F i s h y is it OK to add more of part b then part a, as long as I am adding both?

Phone dying I'll respond in a bit but yes I do. Almost 2 to 1 honestly.

 

[F i s h y]

ok a couple of things, dont raise your alk by more than 1 dkh a day in my experience. so change your end values that you want to raise alk to a value of 7.1. Im sure you can raise it by more, but i have found that my coral react and are stressed if i do. Ad the amount slowly over the course of the day.
For CA, i have never seen any issues by raising it quickly. i would still dose over the course of the day.
I always dump my Alk (Part B) where my return pump is so i know it gets mixed in really well. I dump my CA in the overflow before the sump so that it is mixed before hitting the pump. I have found that this reduces the amount of precipitate i get on the warm electronics like heaters and the pump itself.

what salt are you using? My IORC mixes at a high alk. I don't really do water changes anymore, about 10 gallons a month on my 360 total gallon system max.

 

[Stang67]

Since I "plan" on switching over to moonshiners I did some research on what "they" recommend using in that program. If only to get in line before the major jump. So I ordered brightwell calcion-p and alkalin8.3-p along with some more kalk. The calculator I found (rhf) gives me how much powder I need to combine with rodi, but doesn't say how much rodi? I am going to assume a gallon? MS has a calculator for calcium as well and I asked for one they recommend for alk. I will definately go slow and test ca, alk, mag and ph daily to see how it's affecting things. Then once I get it within the acceptable range I will send out an icp test to confirm. I also got new salifert tests for alk and CA. I was gonna need them soon anyway. From what i have read some people use kalk in their top off but thats a bit scary for me. I have a single head doser i will use for it once its needed. Hoping for a good labor day sale to stock up on icp tests. Down to my last one.

I know tldr, sorry.

 

[Stang67]

So I added a bit of calcium and alk yesterday (50ml each ca in am alk in pm). Tested ph, ca and alk this am. Ph is up slightly, ca is down slightly and alk is up slightly. Added 100ml of each this am. Will test after work. Think it may be precipitating out somehow??

Edit: I recognize that I should add it slowly vs dumping it in. Added ca to return pump chamber going back up to tank and 15 min later added alk to return chamber where water comes in from tank.

 

[tbrown]

You gave it time between so it shouldn't be precipitating out from that. How's the mag levels?

 

[Stang67]

You gave it time between so it shouldn't be precipitating out from that. How's the mag levels?

High it always high. Like 1500+. Eclxept when I had dinos it was "normal" then.