Reefer 170 Mistress Upgrade

[beardedman11]

Well, with the alk up at 9.1 yesterday and wanting it to be around 8.5 I asked google(if you haven’t used it to help out with your reef I would highly recommend it) how to lower it back down and get it where I want it. Said it would take about 5-6 days if I left it alone. It then asked if I was doing a water change and told it a 10g today and it already knows I use tropic Marin which has an alk of 7.9 and told me with a 10g water change it would lower it back down to 8.5. It was dead on with that after checking a hour after it came out to be 8.5. I asked the other day how much to dose with having a tsp of kalk in a gallon stirrer how much I should be dosing a day(156ml) if I was dosing 12x and came out to about 12.5ml. So I changed the dosing to 13 and will pick that back up on Saturday.
Stopped by the lfs today to grab a good bottle of rowaphos and went ahead and changed that in the reactor and flushed the reactor into a bucket to rinse it out. I went again with half the recommended so 20g or about 1 TBSP to keep slowly lowering the PO4 so I don’t strip the water to clean to quickly.
Of course while at the store they had a so zoas that’s been on my list to buy so added some godbeast and GMK to my tank. They opened up pretty quick.

 

[beardedman11]

Few photos during the water change. This jawbreaker got stung pretty badly by a hammer that fell next to my box and has slowly recovered. Few zoas: queen strats, mindtricks, mesosphere, and LSOH.

 

[Blitheran]

Well, with the alk up at 9.1 yesterday and wanting it to be around 8.5 I asked google(if you haven’t used it to help out with your reef I would highly recommend it) how to lower it back down and get it where I want it. Said it would take about 5-6 days if I left it alone. It then asked if I was doing a water change and told it a 10g today and it already knows I use tropic Marin which has an alk of 7.9 and told me with a 10g water change it would lower it back down to 8.5. It was dead on with that after checking a hour after it came out to be 8.5. I asked the other day how much to dose with having a tsp of kalk in a gallon stirrer how much I should be dosing a day(156ml) if I was dosing 12x and came out to about 12.5ml. So I changed the dosing to 13 and will pick that back up on Saturday.
Stopped by the lfs today to grab a good bottle of rowaphos and went ahead and changed that in the reactor and flushed the reactor into a bucket to rinse it out. I went again with half the recommended so 20g or about 1 TBSP to keep slowly lowering the PO4 so I don’t strip the water to clean to quickly.
Of course while at the store they had a so zoas that’s been on my list to buy so added some godbeast and GMK to my tank. They opened up pretty quick.

If my levels get out of wack I just dial back my dosing.

My range is 8.5 to 9.5 for alk.

If my alk rises and gets to 9.5. I decrease my dosing and naturally let the corals consume the elements to get back to the proper level.

Just an idea before you spam a water change and shock the system

 

[beardedman11]

Got my alk down to 8.2 and got the dosing pump started back with dosing kalk and it seem to have stable off for now. All my acans look like crap and not fluffy ever since starting kalk and rowaphos. After testing today I need to start feeding more so add that to my list to do. Test results were good besides nitrates going lower than I like. But PO4 is down at a perfect level.

 

[oldschoolreefer26]

Few photos during the water change. This jawbreaker got stung pretty badly by a hammer that fell next to my box and has slowly recovered. Few zoas: queen strats, mindtricks, mesosphere, and LSOH.

You have some really nice pieces in your collection, those zoas are awesome, looking happy and healthy!

 

[beardedman11]

Few photos during the water change. This jawbreaker got stung pretty badly by a hammer that fell next to my box and has slowly recovered. Few zoas: queen strats, mindtricks, mesosphere, and LSOH.

You have some really nice pieces in your collection, those zoas are awesome, looking happy and healthy!

Thanks. I’m a Zoa hoarder. lol I’ve lost quite a few when I neglected the tank but starting to get those back and of course add some more.

 

[beardedman11]

Here’s yesterday test results

 

[beardedman11]

Checked alk today and it dropped down some more so I went ahead and up the kalk dosing 2ml so dosing 15ml 12x overnight. I’ll check again in a couple days and see if it’s settle and stays there. Probably dose some alk to bring it back up to 8 or just leave it at 7.5.

 

[oldschoolreefer26]

Checked alk today and it dropped down some more so I went ahead and up the kalk dosing 2ml so dosing 15ml 12x overnight. I’ll check again in a couple days and see if it’s settle and stays there. Probably dose some alk to bring it back up to 8 or just leave it at 7.5.

I’ve never used kalk before so I’m following along to see how this turns out. What does your tropic marin alk test out at? Mines been low at 7.6 but it’s been stable so I’ve just left it alone.

 

[beardedman11]

I’ve never used kalk before so I’m following along to see how this turns out. What does your tropic marin alk test out at? Mines been low at 7.6 but it’s been stable so I’ve just left it alone.

I haven't actually checked the alk on a fresh batch of mixed salt water. lol guess I'll do that next week when I make some water. I think its around 7.4. Dosing the kalk without a PH probe sucks due to not knowing what the PH is on your tank 24/7 which in knowing would help out a lot. I'm sure mine is really low due to 5 people and 3 dogs and we rarely open the windows during the summer time. I'll keep the post update as best as time allows.

 

[oldschoolreefer26]

I’ve never used kalk before so I’m following along to see how this turns out. What does your tropic marin alk test out at? Mines been low at 7.6 but it’s been stable so I’ve just left it alone.

I haven't actually checked the alk on a fresh batch of mixed salt water. lol guess I'll do that next week when I make some water. I think its around 7.4. Dosing the kalk without a PH probe sucks due to not knowing what the PH is on your tank 24/7 which in knowing would help out a lot. I'm sure mine is really low due to 5 people and 3 dogs and we rarely open the windows during the summer time. I'll keep the post update as best as time allows.

Ah yeah that’s a lot of activity in your house! I have the hydros x10 controller and the ph, temp and salinity probes have been a game changer for sure, would highly recommend.

 

[beardedman11]

Ah yeah that’s a lot of activity in your house! I have the hydros x10 controller and the ph, temp and salinity probes have been a game changer for sure, would highly recommend.

Yeah. The sad thing is I've got a apex classic sitting in a stand of a new build(in the garage) I'm doing along with an apex A2 with trident and dos sitting in a box I'm going to use for that new build. I could easily hook up the classic and run that to keep an eye out for PH.

 

[beardedman11]

Test results from yesterday. Alk is still dropping from last week so I went ahead and changed kalk dosing to 20ml 12x overnight. I’ll test tomorrow which would be 2 days to see if anything has changed.