High Tide Aquatics

Two Part dosing and Ph

screebo

screebo

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I purchase my two part mix from BRS like many BAR members. I've got dosing ramped up pretty well to keep the CA at 400+ and aiming for 440. My carbonate hardness is always borderline "high" at about 12 or 13 and my Ph regularly hits 8.56 during the day. My instructions tell me to dose equally with CA and ALK...................should I cut back the ALK to bring the hardness and Ph back down to a lower level? Has anyone done lower dosage of one or the other "part" in the past with good results? Some of my coral looks just great but I'm still struggling with health of some acros and millis. Any ideas would help and THEN perhaps you could guide me toward some jumbo Peppermint Shrimp, 2" or larger or a nice, healthy, acclimated Copperband BF. I'm running out of Joe's Juice and at $12 a pop, that's getting expensive for dealing with those dam*ed Aptasia!!!!
 
Those are some high numbers John. I say cut it down personally. I don't dose equally myself. I try to keep my kh at 9 - 10 and my pH ranges from 7.8 - 8.2 depending on the time of the day.

As for the peppermint shrimp I bought a large one at Jim's last week. However, I think one of the 3 shrimps I bought ate my beautiful bright orange plate coral. Can't tell if they've started eating the aiptasia yet.
 
I'm going to shut down the ALK dosing pump for a day and cut it's schedule back several minutes a day and "see what happens" :O Now if I can only remember to put the ALK pump back on line in a day....... :glasses:
 
Definitely pull alk down, you don't have to dose equal parts - try to get ca and alk to hit a target range, and often you'll need to add more ca than alk. Don't forget to test magnesium as well, it can affect the levels of the other two in freaky ways.
 
treylane said:
Definitely pull alk down, you don't have to dose equal parts - try to get ca and alk to hit a target range, and often you'll need to add more ca than alk. Don't forget to test magnesium as well, it can affect the levels of the other two in freaky ways.
Click to expand...
Jer: Good idea I'll monitor closely. Jess: "YOU the woman" thanks for your confirmation that equal dosing is a "starting place" and not necessarily correct for every tank. I have the mag test kit but have usually not tested as I add 2 1/2 cups of mag. solution for every gallon of two part I use. Guess I better start using it. Maybe I can get back to having acros as healthy as my LPS. Well except for my Scoly looks like it's going away...8-(
Con: Let's trade some water, long distance transfusion. hehehe

Thanks for the good input, all.
 
This tool seems to work well for me when dosing two part and Mg. You can use it to calculate increasing values but the only thing to do if one part is too high is wait for it to naturally fall, i.e. stop dosing and test the water.

http://reef.diesyst.com/flashcalc/flashcalc.html
 
The calculator is bookmarked and in fact being used as we speak I'm starting to have trouble maintaining Ca and Alk using kalkwasser since my load has increased and my evap has decreased. I don't want to push evap more since I want to keep the heat in the tank...
More peripumps I guess:)
 
houser said:
The calculator is bookmarked and in fact being used as we speak I'm starting to have trouble maintaining Ca and Alk using kalkwasser since my load has increased and my evap has decreased. I don't want to push evap more since I want to keep the heat in the tank...
More peripumps I guess:)
Click to expand...

If you want to increase the potency of your kalkwasser, try dissolving the powder in vinegar first if you're not already.
 
Matt - no, I haven't gone there yet but I was actually debating it to be honest. I'm right at the verge where I just need a little extra oomph.
 
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