Best Cal & Alk option?

footbag

footbag

Active Member
I am having difficulties maintaining my ALK in my 7g SPS minibow w/ 15g fuge. Alk will drop one DKH point every two days. My Cal seems to be fine and stays between 460 and 420. I do about 30% water change bi-weekly with Oceanic salt which has low Alk and High Cal.
My first question is should'nt my cal be dropping along with my ALK?
If not, can I add Kent Super-buffer to my auto-topoff to keep my alk more stable?
Would I be better off dripping Kalk even though my Ca seeems high enough? I evaporate about a gallon a week.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
IMO using kalk for a 7g tank isn't a good idea. Try some B-Ionic.
With the calcium, if it's going between 420 & 460 I would say it is going down with the alk?? 1 dkh = about 7.2ppm calcium... meaning if the if you're dropping 1 dkh every two days then the ca should only drop around 7.2ppm every two days.
 
footbag

footbag

Active Member
The Ca should be dropping alongside the ALK though, correct? It has dropped, but it didn't seem to drop in sync with the ALK. Could be another factor though.
You would reccomend Bionic over Kalk though? I was thinking that a kalk mix would be great if I evaporated enough water, which I'm not sure if do. 1g a week.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
You would reccomend Bionic over Kalk though?
For a 7g (22g) tank I would. It's hard to drip that small of an amount and dripping once a week wouldn’t work (w/o bumping up the levels) sense you’re dropping 3dkh +- a week. With B-Ionic you could maintain a steady alk/ca through the week with small daily doses.
I had a problem with loosing more alk than ca when I was trying to maintain elevated levels. I have sense backed off and maintain a stead 10.4dkh and 420ppm... more stable now than it has ever been:).
 
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