Forestal's Blog (12)

with adding kalk, i have ended up diluting my tank a bit ...

specific gravity 1.021 (added some salt)

Temp 77

pH 8.5, Alk 4.5, Calcium 340, Mg 1800 ppm (red sea Kit)

Last batch of kalk (5 gallons) ran in a bit fast and now am ahead of FW topoff rate, extra 3-4 gallon in sump...

measured S.G. and is 1.023 a bit low

running in next batch slower to catch up

pH = 8.25, Alk 4.5, Ca 320

Testing: Now after 3 days of 4 gallons kalk solution restarted...

Ca = 300, Alk = 4.0, pH 8.4, Nitrite 0.1, Nitrate <5, Phos 0.25

added a second free bag of phosban and carbon each to the sump as flow through the reactors is fairly slow

added 8 capfuls of seachem Calcium

Added 5 capfuls of Seachems Calcium Chloride 2 days ago

120 Gallon: Calcium 310, Alk 3.5, pH 8.2

Testing for the 120 Reef:

3rd 5 gallon of kalk added now 10 days , made the last batch a little stronger:

pH 8.5, alk 3.5, Ca 300

Using Kalk powder 1 tsp/gallon 5 gallons dripped in over 2-3 days shows:

pH 8.3, Alk 3.5-3.6, Calcium 280

I will continue to add the kalk at current rate, not quite making up for evaporative losses

Did a lot of re-reading on calcium/alkalinity and methods of supplementing. I decided since I don't (at least for a bit) need massive amounts, I would go with the simplest (and cheapest) option - Kalk drip. I have a 5 gallon bucket with slow drip into the sump setup , now running 24 hours, later today i will do testing on water to make sure pH, calcium/alk and such are doing the right thing.

Added some feather and grape caulerpa, lettuce macro, red gracilia and chaeto to the fuge,

I am going to restart more regular water parameter testing. Today's testing is with old Hagen test kit, salifert and seachem kits on the way that i ordered.

10 gallon: NH3 = 0.3mg/L, Nitrate = 5mg/L, Nitrite = 0.1 mg/L

120 gallon: NH3 = 0, Nitrate = 5 mg/L, Nitrite = 0.1 mg/L, Alkalinity = 80mg/L, Calcium = 320mg/L, pH = 8.1

I got some work to do to fix now it seems

Since the changeover, the orange and green plate montiporas are beat up and their frags are doing well. One of the acropora frags has rtn on all its branches, hopefully some survives - it was coated with algae and this is likely why. The turbinaria frag is looking mostly dead, but i am hoping some comes back. All else looking good and fishes.

Today hopefully my new snail shipment 30 each of cerith and turbos arrive along with another frag of sun coral and pocillopora so when they get b

Just redid the tank, took it down to scrub out remains of deep sand bed (due to lack of maintenance - they work if you maintain) and added a bunch more snails...my snails I discovered were decimated by hermits, which are now relegated to the confines of the fuge. I took this opportunity to re-arrange the tank. I have a slit pore gorgonian that has been barely visible due to its location, small frag fell and was left as I was unable to reach. Well this guy is now 14 inches tall with 8 branches