Alk dropping, Ca stable and no SPS, why?.

[Difrano]

My Alk drops everyday and I don't have any SPS and just a few GSP zoas and xenias and mushrooms. Is my alk dropping due to precipitation because my Ca hover around 500? Or my coralline is chomping only Alk and no Ca? I have coralline growing everywhere. You can see this chart

The spike on Jun 22nd is due to me doing the Trident calibration. So on 23rd I added some BRS Alk to rise it (used the calculator to do only a .2 alk bump) and then repeated on the 23rd. You can see how the Alk is dropping but my Ca is steady. So here are my questions for the alchemist experts:

I am new about testing for Alkalinity, Ca and Mg. I did not use to test them in my cube I was too lazy.

Thanks

 

[Difrano]

Any help?

 

[rmurken]

This pattern actually doesn’t scream abnormal to me. Your Ca might be a tad high, so maybe keep dosing Alk until it comes down to whatever your target range is. Ca numbers fall much more slowly than Alk, even though they are consumed proportionally. So over the course of a week, your Alk will appear to plummet daily, while your Ca will barely move.

Since they are used in proportion to each other, you need to supplement both. But seems like you might skip the Ca part for a few days until it gets down to whatever is appropriate for your Alk level.

 

[RL6723]

My Alk drops everyday and I don't have any SPS and just a few GSP zoas and xenias and mushrooms. Is my alk dropping due to precipitation because my Ca hover around 500? Or my coralline is chomping only Alk and no Ca? I have coralline growing everywhere. You can see this chart

The spike on Jun 22nd is due to me doing the Trident calibration. So on 23rd I added some BRS Alk to rise it (used the calculator to do only a .2 alk bump) and then repeated on the 23rd. You can see how the Alk is dropping but my Ca is steady. So here are my questions for the alchemist experts:

I am new about testing for Alkalinity, Ca and Mg. I did not use to test them in my cube I was too lazy.

Thanks

I dont see anything too abnormal about what your reading, my alk drops pretty quick too, i think im losing about 2.5dkh per week. Coraline eats up alk like crazy, so im sure thats what is using yours up. Calcium is slow to drop, i think our tanks only consume something like 6-7 ppm of calcium for every dkh of alk. I didnt see you mention it but what are you mag levels? One more thing I can add it I would definitely buy a second set of test kits just to verify the trident with. Mine has been very accurate, however there have been a few times when I just wanted to double check using my Hanna checker, just for the piece of mind

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The alk drop is very low and too low to see the accompanying calcium drop even if it is all from calcium carbonate formation. A drop of 0.2 dKH is accompanied, at best, by a drop of 1.4 ppm calcium, and if it is due to rising nitrate, there will be no calcium drop.

 

[Difrano]

The alk drop is very low and too low to see the accompanying calcium drop even if it is all from calcium carbonate formation. A drop of 0.2 dKH is accompanied, at best, by a drop of 1.4 ppm calcium, and if it is due to rising nitrate, there will be no calcium drop.

Thank you so much @Randy Holmes-Farley ! I loved all your articles but still a little list, I am in the process of learning some about reef chemistry, I always loved chemistry I started my college studies for chemical engineering but end graduating as automation engineer.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thank you so much @Randy Holmes-Farley ! I loved all your articles but still a little list, I am in the process of learning some about reef chemistry, I always loved chemistry I started my college studies for chemical engineering but end graduating as automation engineer.

You're welcome and I'm happy you find them interesting.

Happy Reefing.