I venture to guess that this is likely the #1 reason that you've had a problem with SPS in the past. SPS need Ca/Alk in order to survive. In an aquarium, they will inevitably use up the available Ca/Alk and die unless you have some sort of Ca/Alk replacement scheme.

I now have a calcium reactor up and running.
will that help with the alkalinity? or better question would be how do u control the alkalinity.
I am sure some people are shaking their head at my ignorance...but whatever.
Once again, thanks for the info.
Neal

I currently use both a kalk, and calcium reactors. Before I used to dose by hand, and wow was that a pain!

For the most part you have to boost Alkalinity. What do you mean about controlling it? As in with what products?

yes.
how do I boost the alkalinity?
thanks

Neal:

I was under the impression that a calcium reactor would maintain both calcium and alkalinity. Perhaps I was wrong, having never used one.

I dose manually, but like Catherine said, it's a PITA. I use Kent Turbo Calcium and Kent Superbuffer dKH every evening. It's a bit of a pain figuring out the rate of consumption for your system at first, as you have to test daily to see how much is being used....and then adjust your dosing accordingly.

Good luck! Did you just get your calcium reactor? How do you have it set up?

I had to have a look at Amazon to see this price for myself....wow

I will sell you my copy for $100 or you could call J&L and get it for $45 like I did. :twised:

The book is well worth the $45

Scott

Calcium reactors dose alk and ca evenly, sometimes they can become unbalanced. Then dosing for alk or ca is necessary until everything is balanced again. Here is a little info about using calcium reactors.

As the others stated Alkalinity is very important. The one thing that is the same when I loose a colony or piece is low alkalinity. I my self control it by testing it weekly trying to keep it in a range of 8-10 . If it is low I buff with Salifert Alk PH boost. I find If I don't keep my calcium above 400 and my Magnesium above 1400 the Sps start lacking in growth and some color. I learned alot of stuff off of the SPS forum on RC.

You can also buy Book of Coral Propagation: Reef Gardening for Aquarists by Anthony Calfo from his website, I think its readingtrees.com or something like that. With the canadian dollar being so nice right now, its a pretty sweet buy!

Calcium reactor = works on alk. levels
Kalk reactor = works on Calcium levels.

I've always find the easiest way to get everything calibrated is to start with your calcium reactor, get your alk. where you want it. Then add on your kalk reactor (if you plan to). I've done it the other way, and it was really dificult to get everything dialed in correctly.

Just an FYI when your calcium reactor disolves its media it releases phosphates. You may want to keep an eye on that.

I always thought people ran kalk reactors with their calcium reactors to mainly keep the PH higher due to the calcium reactor driving down the PH. I dont find any benefit from my kalk reactor so it tends to get refilled with kalk rarely.