Help me find alkalinity stability

[Rmckoy]

I had a issue where the system wasn’t using alk at all .
all of a sudden it started but very slow .
In a 230 gal system , I find it easier to dose 12ml per day 2 part and not have to worry about kalk .

 

[arking_mark]

I had a issue where the system wasn’t using alk at all .
all of a sudden it started but very slow .
In a 230 gal system , I find it easier to dose 12ml per day 2 part and not have to worry about kalk .

I like Kalk and it helps me with pH stability. Right now, I have no day/night swings and am able to keep my pH at 8.3 +/- 0.02.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Being able to lock in your Alk is one of the best features of the alkalinity testers available today. In my case, I liked the PH boost of Kalk, but always struggled with knowing how depleted the kalk was in my reservoir. I switched to using an EC meter and now have insight into when the kalk needs to be topped up.

I recently switched to a CalRx, but missed the higher PH's as the tank PH was between low 7.9's and high 7.8's running solely on the CalRx. So I added my kalk back in and now run both kalk and CalRx. For the moment I have them running on the same dosing pump with the kalk using a size #17 hose and the CalRx using a #16. This gives approximately a 3:1 ratio of kalk to CalRx effluent. It works well for the moment. Eventually my consumption will outgrow the daily evaporation and I will need to separate the two, but for now it works great.


Here is my latest chart for the last 7 days.

 

[arking_mark]

For those following along, the tank seems to have stabilized around 7.8dKH with the 0.8dKH from Kalkwasser and 0.2dKH from AFR. I've only had to use the Balling components twice when the Alk dropped to 7.5.

I'm still not completely comfortable with AFR and what's the point if I need Balling for control?

 

[SmokenFunny]

I have two 200g tot. systems.Both have a "foundation colony" of montipora,the other has a giant lepto.I find having the big colonies keeps my draw more stable.They use a constant supply of nutrients and everything else, then the frags are along for the ride and do good.I'm dosing daily 6500ml kalk and 20ml/min cal rx. Food for thought

 

[arking_mark]

I have two 200g tot. systems.Both have a "foundation colony" of montipora,the other has a giant lepto.I find having the big colonies keeps my draw more stable.They use a constant supply of nutrients and everything else, then the frags are along for the ride and do good.I'm dosing daily 6500ml kalk and 20ml/min cal rx. Food for thought

Love this idea. I'll see if I can find a large monti or lepto locally. I'm thinking that now that my coralline algae is starting to come in, I'll have more luck with stability

 

[arking_mark]

Just a quick update.
- AFR is up to 0.3 dKH
- Kalkwasser is still 0.8 dKH
- I'm manually dosing 2/3 part to keep the Alk at 7.7ish

I'm slowly upping the AFR to see the impacts and if I can eventually automate changes.