troubleshooting alkalinity

[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:

[littlesilvermax]

Originally Posted by kwirky

aquarium pharmeceuticals calcium kit. nutrafin kH kit.
salifert magnesium kit.

Assuming test kits not old or off (any test kit could be off if the titration got a drop of something else in it) I personally only trust salifert.

Originally Posted by kwirky

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.

Can be accurate, but have to calibrate via a refractometer, I have seen some off by .005. Go to LFS or friend and ensure accuracy.

[support@proline]

Hi Shaun
I have to agree with little silver max ,you can get salifert or even better you can use an Elos test kit ,Golds carries both or you can just take a water sample to them & have them test it,however a reliable test kit is very important ,specialy for KH & CA.
Also keep in mind that the tank is only one month old @ the early stages & cycling ,minimal Ph swings are expected ,you have the bacteria trying to break down nutrients & get stablished ,in the process a lot of oxygen is used,....
What are the tank inhabitabts @ this point ?
Also would it be fair to say that your kalk dosing ratio is higher @ night?

[kwirky]

in the tank's a royal gramma, and about 6 softy/LPS frags/very young colonies. I've been feeding 1/2 a pea sized fragment of frozen angelfish mix to the gramma once a day.

I'll take my hydrometer into gold's to get it compared, and I'll take in a sample of water to test.

Yeah, I think it's new tank syndrome causing the pH swings. My skimmer wasn't working properly for a while, too. Had to remove and clean out the air valve.

I think all these problems are just me being inexperienced and I should that I should be patient.

[support@proline]

Don't worry Sean
You 're doing fine ,the important thing is that you are trying to find solutions.
one thing I like to recomend just go slow on stocking the tank ,It always pays up ,I would just be happy with the corals you have & start to stock up in a couple months or so.
As for the PH swingwhat is the min & max ponits?
In what way are your corals responding to the swings ?

[kwirky]

it's min 8.1, max 8.3.

Not really. The xenia curls in on themselves in a real unpredictable way, and only for about 20 minutes if they do. The toadstools react when the PAR monsters turn on, but not to the pH. The green star polyps don't care about anything and neither does the frogspawn/hammer. And the echinophyllia frag, even though it's slow growing, seems bullet proof, between this tank, and the nano it used to be in. I made a newbie boo-boo of buying a small ellegance coral. It's feeding (gripping the food), but it's only been in there for 2 days. I'm going to be real antsy once it's been in there for a week. Heard that's when most of them die, if they do. *sigh*

I dosed 6 tsp's of baking soda the other night, and 6 more this morning, and it's sat at a rock solid 8.2 ever since I started dosing it. kH hasn't budged, but I'm going to continue this regimen since it's seeming to keep the pH stable. I don't have much of a calcium demand in there, so I'll just keep an eye on calcium and add kalk if I see it lower. I think i'm on to something, though, with the baking soda.

[albert_dao]

Constant drip or topoff is the norm for kalk.