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What were the main challenges you faced trying to keep Alk and pH up?GSP should only be put on an isolated rock away from main rock work or else it will be everywhere. Keeping corals is not only dependent on parameters in range but keeping stable parameters. The latter takes some getting used to and is a combination of good habits + good equipment. All in all it will take you a few months or even years to get where you can grow corals. Good news is that there is plenty of good knowledge material on YouTube and on this forum.
I am slowly keeping coral alive and growing them too. I am doing this since 2014 with hit and miss success. Main culprit was not able to keep ALK and PH in good range all the time. I also am battling high NO3 and PO4 but now I am able to grow chaeto successfully in my fuge, so I am hoping low nutrients in a few months.
I added sodium bisulfate yesterday. I will test my tank for alk if a few hours today. My target is 8.3 alk.To answer one of your question, I would get your mag down also, to around 1350-1400..if your nutrients are that low you will want yoir alk around 8...go slow..
Alk can be help up relatively easy with dosing,, pH is harder to keep above 8.2-8.3 with Co2 concentration is the biggest culprit. In a heavy bioload tank its easy for pH to drop to 7.7 even as alk stays up at the 8 to 10 range.What were the main challenges you faced trying to keep Alk and pH up?
Main challange is to remember testing Alk and doing it manually. Ideally it should be tested everyday if you have a tank full of hard corals. If less corals then every 2-3 days or even weekly testing should suffice. Most beginners don't do that. I wasn't. Now I am getting better with regular testing.What were the main challenges you faced trying to keep Alk and pH up?
If you want to raise ph to 8.2/8.3, which i agree will be a lot better for your corals, i think you can safely do it by simply raising your alk. 8 is good but 9 or 10 ain't bad either if raised slowly. If you dont want to increase kalk bc ur CA is already high, you can then supplement with soda ash. If you are worried about precipitation, raising mag should help.Main challange is to remember testing Alk and doing it manually. Ideally it should be tested everyday if you have a tank full of hard corals. If less corals then every 2-3 days or even weekly testing should suffice. Most beginners don't do that. I wasn't. Now I am getting better with regular testing.
Without automated testing and dosing, it is a cat and mouse game specially if you have lot of frags growing and consuming calc and alk. Initially it would work with just water changes, then with Kalkwasser in the ato. Just make sure you test alk at least 2-3 times a week and keep it stable around 8 DKH. Right now I am dosing Kalwasser in my ATO and alk has been stable. I also have a CO2 scrubber and along with Kalk, my PH remains around 8. I would like to be above 8 but this is the best I can do right now.
The heater is a 100W Eheim set to 78f.What is the heater power wattage? Keep a close eye on the tank temp. You only have a 29+10G system that can get hot pretty quickly. Your heater should be around 100W I think. I am using 2X 200W heaters in my 80 Gallon system.
it should be OK - heaters are designed to work a long time and it'll only be temporary for these few months until things warm up in NC.I wanted to share this update with all of you.
I used sodium bisulfate, followed by a 15% water change to lower my alk. Now my alk sits at 8.1 dkh.
However, this dropped by pH to 7.3. I do not have a protein skimmer, but I have a refugium. I decided to add an airstone to my sump's filter socks chamber and aerated with indoor air. pH did not climb above 7.4 after close to 48 hours of this.
I then routed my air intake to take outside air. The pH is currently sitting at 8.0 (slightly above, I used API for pH) after 12+ hours of outside air. I am so excited about this.
However, I have noticed that my heater is working all the time now. I moved the heater and the thermometer to opposite ends of the display tank before adding the airstone. My tank temp is consistently at 78f despite my heater working all the time.
Should I be worried about the heater overworking? The outside temp is between the high 50s to low 30s.
Chemistry can be challenging sometimes even if you're a pro and have 1000s in equip,if you're new and can't pinpoint what's going on exactly,why not do like a 70%water change in order to get the water pristine again for optimum uptake and ion exchange,chemistry can be frustrating,so why not save yourself the money on bottles and just do a large scale water change then do a 15 percent a day or two after to save yourself the guesswork. This way you will know for sure there is a optimum balanceI added sodium bisulfate yesterday. I will test my tank for alk if a few hours today. My target is 8.3 alk.
How can I reduce magnesium? Is there a product that I can use to reduce magnesium? Should I reduce calcium as well?