So I finally wised up and improved my lighting. Basically went from 50 to 100 watts. That's all it took for everything to start growing in my 24g AIO cube. That means coralline is really taking off, zoas are getting much bigger, my montipora cap shows lots of new growth.
And now I'm noticing a significant drop in alkalinity. New saltwater comes in at 10.7 dKH before I do a 5 gallon water change. Tank then measures at around 8-8.5 However, after a week, the tank is testing at 7.2 dKH.
I'm thinking I need to start dosing kalkwasser to stabilize the alkalinity before I take the tank to the next level and add some more sps such as birds nest or green slimmer, etc. As I understand that it is the sps that really need stable alkalinity.
I came across this kalk calculator and I was wondering if you more experienced hobbyists could tell me if I'm reading this correctly. I'll say what I'm thinking it says and please feel free to set me straight.
I think this says if I mix 4 grams of kalk powder to 5 gallons of RO water and top off 1 liter of this kalk mixture into my tank daily, it will raise the calcium 3.02 ppm in 2 days and the alkalinity .21 dKH every day.
BTW, this calculator can be found here
Depending on how much the new corals consume, I think I can tweak this to maintain stability.
What say you?
And now I'm noticing a significant drop in alkalinity. New saltwater comes in at 10.7 dKH before I do a 5 gallon water change. Tank then measures at around 8-8.5 However, after a week, the tank is testing at 7.2 dKH.
I'm thinking I need to start dosing kalkwasser to stabilize the alkalinity before I take the tank to the next level and add some more sps such as birds nest or green slimmer, etc. As I understand that it is the sps that really need stable alkalinity.
I came across this kalk calculator and I was wondering if you more experienced hobbyists could tell me if I'm reading this correctly. I'll say what I'm thinking it says and please feel free to set me straight.
I think this says if I mix 4 grams of kalk powder to 5 gallons of RO water and top off 1 liter of this kalk mixture into my tank daily, it will raise the calcium 3.02 ppm in 2 days and the alkalinity .21 dKH every day.
BTW, this calculator can be found here
Depending on how much the new corals consume, I think I can tweak this to maintain stability.
What say you?