Suggestions on husbandry for SPS

[howdy20012002]

yes.
how do I boost the alkalinity?
thanks

[Der_Iron_Chef]

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?

[Joe Reefer]

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.

[Chowder]

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.

[michika]

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.

[Joe Reefer]

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.

[untamed]

Originally Posted by Joe Reefer

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.

There is no doubt that Kalk can be used effectively to supplement Ca/Alk. A Ca Reactor can also do this on it's own, but the combination of both methods has less impact on the tank pH than either method alone. I'm right now bringing my Kalk reactor online and I'll be able to share with everyone actual affects it has on pH.

Neal asks...
"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."

Joe Reefer has provided a good link to learning how to run your reactor. I'll just add that the reactor can be adjusted to supply more or less Ca/Alk. The only way you are going to know how much Ca/Alk your tank needs is to get Ca and Alk test kits and use them. Then you will know if your reactor is set correctly or not. WAG is no way to setup a Ca reactor!

[michika]

Wag?

[mr_alberta]

Kalk seems to raise Alkalinity and maintains it quite well but not so much for Calcium levels. Calcium reactors raise Calcium levels and maintains them well but do not maintain Alkalinity as well as Kalk. Run both and its the best of both worlds!