artificial rock, such as Real Reef, which is basically cement, and will leach alkalinity into your system in the form of calcium hydroxide for quite a while after immersion.
thanks for the tip.
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artificial rock, such as Real Reef, which is basically cement, and will leach alkalinity into your system in the form of calcium hydroxide for quite a while after immersion.
Thank you. Are the red sea coral reef energy a&b amino acids the same that you mean? What about phytoplankton?That was it - all "ph raisers" for marine aquariums will raise the alkalinity. The only way to raise the pH of a marine aquarium and keep it there is to decrease the dissolved CO2 in the tank water, remove any excess organic acids (this is not common), or both. Unless your pH is excessively low (below 7.8), you really shouldn't worry about it too much. For an SPS aquarium, however, alkalinity must remain stable - most suggest within +/- 0.5 dKH.
The way to accomplish this is to measure your alkalinity, preferably at approximately the same time of day, for 3 or 4 days straight. Calculate the daily drop, and average it. This, along with the tank volume, will allow you to calculate the correct dose of an alkalinity supplement, which you should add daily to maintain alkalinity stability. Ideally, you will also want to be adding a balanced amount of a calcium supplement, though this is less critical as long as your calcium stays above 380 ppm.
Thank you. Are the red sea coral reef energy a&b amino acids the same that you mean? What about phytoplankton?
Thank you I am going to shoot for stability now... as for the nopox and reef energy, should I stop them altogether?Hi Evan,
my opinions ...
slow down or you're going to run into a world of hurt. Do less, not more, and tolerate some algae for a while.
Toss the PH test kit, the only reliable way to test PH is with a calibrated probe and the only safe way to alter PH is by letting outdoor air inside. It's rarely a real problem so just ignore PH for now.
As was said above, the PH buffer spiked Alk and did harm to this stylo or birdsnest.
Don't dose a lot of stuff at this stage, you're feeding the algae and then trying to reduce nutrients by dosing NOPOX. NOPOX is strong stuff, and will drive nutrients down quickly if you have a good skimmer. You can't skip the ugly phase and have healthy corals without some manual labor, or algae eaters, usually both.
As far as KH, I recommend very low, between 7 and 8, because it's much easier to maintain than higher Alk. A spike in Alk from 7 to 8 does much less harm than a spike from 8 to 9 or 9 to 10. As mentioned above, lower alk is also better for lower nutrients. If your salt is high in Alk then you may have to change salts.
I don't know what your future plans are but if you want to grow other SPS, in particular Acropora, you need to get the stability mindset down pat. It's difficult, or it was for me anyway, I'm tempted to always change things and every change can lead to another problem.
Thank you I am going to shoot for stability now... as for the nopox and reef energy, should I stop them altogether?