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#1
04-25-2010, 08:06 PM
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Why do you want your KH at 10 dKH? In order to have a balanced calcium and alkalinity you would need to keep your calcium close to 430 ppm.
Balanced Calcium and Alkalinity: (as per Randy Holmes-Farley) 360 ppm to 0 dKH 370 ppm to 1.4 dKH 380 ppm to 2.8 dKH 390 ppm to 4.2 dKH 400 ppm to 5.6 dKH 410 ppm to 7 dKH (natural seawater) 420 ppm to 8.4 dKH 430 ppm to 9.8 dKH 440 ppm to 11.2 dKH 450 ppm to 12.6 dKH 460 ppm to 14 dKH Calcium and Alkalinity need to be kept in balance for optimal absorption by corals and inverts. Keeping the levels elevated (in comparison to NSW values) the only thing you will accomplish is a greater rate of calcium precipitation in such places as powerheads, pumps, heaters, etc where heat is added to the equation. Elevated levels will not increase the rate of absorption by corals, that's an old reefer's tale. The balance of calcium and alkalinity to build corals is similar to the balance of calcium and phosphorus to build human bones - insufficient balance will lead to osteoporosis. Calcium and kalk reactors for the primary dosing of calcium and alkalinity, but they are not perfect. They will not provide calcium and alkalinity in perfect balance, and reefs will not absorb in perfect balance. The balance will get misaligned over time with one of the elements getting either too high or too low. This is why testing on a regular basis is required...technology (dosers, reactors, drips, etc) has not been able to take the place of test kits yet. Reactors are not set and forget, neither are dosing pumps, neither are any sort of calcium and alkalinity supplementation. Is that more clear? 
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#2
04-26-2010, 04:00 AM
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Quote:
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#3
04-26-2010, 05:28 PM
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Oh I know you're not new to it, but why do you want numbers that high? Do you have a reason? At least you are bumping up your calcium to match the elevated alkalinity you want to keep. That's a good step. Seeing as you want to keep the alkalinity that high, you may as well keep the calcium and kalk reactors online right now to hold the 10 dKH alkalinity level you are at, and just manually add extra calcium to get it up to the 440 ppm you want it at.
Basically, all you need to do is manually dose the tank until the numbers are balanced on that chart I posted. It doesn't matter where on the chart they are as long as they are balanced, then turn the kalk reactor up or down a bit (it's easier to fiddle with than the calcium reactor) to raise or lower your now balanced numbers to the ones you want. Get it? If not, you can send me your phone number and I will try to explain better that way.  But no, you can't raise calcium without raising alkalinity with either of your reactors. You have to manually dose whichever number is low, in your case calcium. You shouldn't have to manually dose very often when you have reactors (say once every 2-4 weeks), but you will have to. No reason to take them offline... Last edited by Myka; 04-26-2010 at 05:34 PM.
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#4
04-26-2010, 10:16 PM
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I have read that kh should be 7-11 so figured 10 would be ok. And the magic 420 is ideal. I had been running this tank with a kh of 15 for about 2 years. Since i've got it down the corals look alot fuzzier. I picked up some Kent Turbo Calcium and will be slowly bringing up the calcium. I can't adjust my kalk reactor at all. It's a SWC. I have kind of a weird setup for it. I have my ATO setup up so when it turns on the pump for my fresh water it also turns on the kalk reactor. So i have one resevoir of fresh RO water for the kalk reactor (IO bucket) and another resevoir with fresh RO water (garbage can) that is mixed with epsom salts. So 2 lines going in to my sump for top up. Added pic if confusing.
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#5
04-26-2010, 11:08 PM
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Well, it's not a bad idea to hover in the 10-11 dKH range for awhile considering how long you figure it was high for. If you feel like experimenting after a few weeks, you may find your corals are even fuzzier if you drop the KH down further. Mine definitely show best polyp extension in the 7s. I can tell by looking at my corals if my KH is out of the happy range. My corals don't seem to show any immediate signs when calcium is out of range though...I wish they did!!
Well, you're just going to have to add the calcium and see where your alkalinity ends up. Adding 50 ppm calcium will definitely drop the alkalinity further. However, if you add say 30 ppm to bring you to 410, and that drops your alkalinity to 7 dKH don't add more calcium - these are balanced numbers. Just wait a few days to see if your reactors will raise cal and alk on their own, or you may have to turn your reactor up a tad. Just remember that you want to balance the numbers at this point, then mess with the reactor which will raise/lower both cal and alk at the same rate keeping it balanced to whichever level you want to get to. Messing with reactors is way easier to explain in person/on phone. 
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