ifirefight
Active Member
More homework.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/f/
Please help me with my ALk and Calcium Levels. Please please Please
- Thread starter krazekajin
- Start date
krazekajin
Active Member
Originally Posted by Weberian
He dripped kalk, a balanced approach, like I said. . . .
I am glad you are having a talk about that article to teach others. Good job.
Just to clarify:
For the first three days I dripped kalk.
Then I switched to dripping a calcium only additive (Kent's Liquid Calcium). I added two capfuls to a gallon of top of water and dripped it at one drop per second or so.
The calcium only approach raised my calcium levels faster than the Kalk.
krazekajin
Active Member
an interesting thing happened with my test today. my calcium stayed at 350ppm. I am not sure why it did not raise. All of the other days saw at least a 10-20 ppm raise. Maybe my test was done wrong. I am going to try again a little later.
Alk is still a solid 5.6dkh and PH is 8.2
Alk is still a solid 5.6dkh and PH is 8.2
ifirefight
Active Member
Originally Posted by KrazeKajin
an interesting thing happened with my test today. my calcium stayed at 350ppm. I am not sure why it did not raise. All of the other days saw at least a 10-20 ppm raise. Maybe my test was done wrong. I am going to try again a little later.
Alk is still a solid 5.6dkh and PH is 8.2
Update????? :thinking:
an interesting thing happened with my test today. my calcium stayed at 350ppm. I am not sure why it did not raise. All of the other days saw at least a 10-20 ppm raise. Maybe my test was done wrong. I am going to try again a little later.
Alk is still a solid 5.6dkh and PH is 8.2
Update????? :thinking:
krazekajin
Active Member
well, after I realized that my calcium drip had stopped dripping (empty for two days) I measured and found these numbers.
PH 8.4
Alk 1.5 or 4.2 DKH (Drop)
Calcium 340 (Drop)
Now, my gut feeling is that because I had no drip for about two or so days, that is why my alk and calcium dropped. So after looking at my current levels, I see that it puts me into zone 2 which is corrected by a kalk drip. So I am now going to be dripping kalk and testing everyday.
For those who are just getting into my posts, the zones are used in the article at the top of this thread. By using zones to see where your tank is, you can then know exactly what you should do.
PH 8.4
Alk 1.5 or 4.2 DKH (Drop)
Calcium 340 (Drop)
Now, my gut feeling is that because I had no drip for about two or so days, that is why my alk and calcium dropped. So after looking at my current levels, I see that it puts me into zone 2 which is corrected by a kalk drip. So I am now going to be dripping kalk and testing everyday.
For those who are just getting into my posts, the zones are used in the article at the top of this thread. By using zones to see where your tank is, you can then know exactly what you should do.
krazekajin
Active Member
I now have balanced ALk and Cal. My alk is 4.2dkh and my cal is 390. I am dripping a kalk drip to see how a kalk drip affects my daily alk/cal rate.
weberian
Member
I don't know where that "balanced" chart came from - but the goal for a marine aquarium is between 7-10 dKH.
From "The New Marine Aquarium" by Michael Paletta: page 49: "Most scientists measure alkalinity in meq/L. The ideal range for a marine aquarium is 2.5 to 3.5 meq/L. Many aquarists also use the dKH scale, which is the measure for carbonate hardness. The goal is to have a dKH between 7 and 10. (To convert dKH to meq/L, divide the dKH number by 2.8)"
From "The New Marine Aquarium" by Michael Paletta: page 49: "Most scientists measure alkalinity in meq/L. The ideal range for a marine aquarium is 2.5 to 3.5 meq/L. Many aquarists also use the dKH scale, which is the measure for carbonate hardness. The goal is to have a dKH between 7 and 10. (To convert dKH to meq/L, divide the dKH number by 2.8)"