[kwirky]

thanks for helping me troubleshot this.

1-what brand test kit are you using @ what resolution?
aquarium pharmeceuticals calcium kit. reads in increments of 10ppm. reads 440ppm

nutrafin kH kit. reads in increments of 10ppm CaCO3. Reads 120 ppm CaCO3.

salifert magnesium kit. Reads in increments of 30ppm. Reads ~1550 ppm

Milwaukee pH probe calibrated last week. reads in increments of 0.1

Swing needle meter hydrometer. Heard they're just as accurate, but I haven't checked to see if I have to adjust it's readings. Deep Six, reads in increments of 0.001 but you can guestimate to .0005 or so by looking at it.

2- what is the salinity of your mix?
1.025 in my tank

3-are you using any ca reactors ,what is your co2 injection rate? is it on a timer or controller?
nope, dripping kalk

4-what is your Kalk dosing schedule & how much & what time how do you mix your Kalk?
I mix up a fresh batch. at about 5 in the evening. I mix 1 tsp Seachem kalkwasser in a 4L jug of RO/DI water. Then start dripping it at about 11pm before I go to bed (the lights are just about to turn off then).
I set the drip rate to about 1 second per drop through airline tubing. When I wake up in the morning (7 am), each morning it's seized up, and only dripped 1/4 of it. I loosen the airline tubing to continue the drip. Seizes up again at about 7 pm, and I loosen it again.

I mix new kalkwasser about every 2 days, and each mix is dripped over 1.5 days.

5-how often you water changed with the mix you are refering to & what is the xolume?
the system was started with tap water. I used the last of my seachem reefcrystals, mixing 70% oceanpure, and 30% seachem salt.
The subsequent water changes have been with RO/DI water, and oceanpure salt.

The tank is a month old. 3 days in I did a 30% water change. 3 days in again, did another 30%. 1 week later I did a 10% change, and another week i did another 10%.

I've been planning on doing a 10% water change every 2 weeks now that the nitrates have been stable for over 2 weeks.

6-what is your tank size & your total net water volume ?
tank is 120 gallons. Sump is filled to 15 gallons. I'm guestimating the total water volume is about 120 gallons considering displacement of the liverock and sump space.

I added 6 tsp of baking soda mixed in the 4L jug last night at 12:30 pm, dripped at about 2 drops per second to prevent clogging.

Right now (4:10pm), my system's at:
pH 8.2
alkalinity still at 120ppm. Hastn't seemed to budge after adding the calcium carbonate.

Another note: