How can I get some nutrients in my tank?

OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks Alton, I've done that and it's not enough. So testing again to see what drop I have. I'm still using the kalkwasser though.
 

alten78

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Messages
386
Reaction score
478
Location
Sheffield Lake, OH
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
At full saturation? How much are you topping off per day? My 75 was full of sps and ran just on kalk for awhile. Knowing a little more on your dosing and daily numbers/consumption would be helpful.
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have that info for You ! I use 2 teaspoons per gallon. ( Mrs Wages pickling lime ) . the tank evaporates about 80% of a gallon per day. A little less when it's real humid. It goes thru 6 gallons in 8 days.
 

sneub

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 11, 2015
Messages
361
Reaction score
304
Location
US
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Maybe potassium? Sometimes pale corals may be due to lack of elements like potassium.
 

alten78

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Messages
386
Reaction score
478
Location
Sheffield Lake, OH
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ok, help me out a little more...so lets say alk is 7.8 and cal is 360 when you test it at 8am. Tank gets topped off with almost a gallon of kalk over 24 hours, what are your alk and cal levels 8am the next day?
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I tested last night. Will test again to night and let Ya know.
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ok Gents I'm getting wildly differing readings . It doesn't make sense. I feel if I posted the numbers I just got will just confuse the topic. I will start back to the beginning & start again. Thanks for following.
I've been testing nightly for weeks ! I'm afraid I'm chasing numbers. I will leave it alone for a few or more days and test again.
 
Last edited:

Randy Holmes-Farley

Reef Chemist
View Badges
Joined
Sep 5, 2014
Messages
66,553
Reaction score
62,861
Location
Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Kalk is equal parts alk and ca, as I understand it (and used it myself) as something to maintain levels, not raise them. I think I may have mentioned it in a previous post, but 360 for ca is low, I'd bump that up to at least 400. Bring both ca and alk to your target numbers, test again 24 hours later and see if they drop or not. If they don't, then your kalk is doing its job.

It can be used to slowly raise alkalinity, but not calcium.

The same is true for any balanced additive system.

If you boost alk by 1 dKH (say, a 14% rise starting at 7 dKH), calcium will hardly rise.

But if you boost calcium by 53 ppm (the same 14% rise, stating at 380 ppm), alk will shoot up by more than 7 dKH.
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks for dropping in Randy, I'm just trying to get the alk up from mid 7's to upper 7's . When I dose for alk I dose the same amount of Ca prt as well. I use the ocean blend pr t 1 & 2 solutions.
I'm going to test again tonight but not going to do anything about . Just gonna wait a while,see if the tank & the tester settles down a bit.
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Good Evening Folks, Let's see where was I last post,,, I got it, so I was having issues getting the alk up a few points (from 7.3 to 7.9 or 8 ). So after leaving the tank alone for 3 days , I have Alk at 8(right where I want it)
Ca at 360 Mg around 1300. So I now think that the Kalkwasser ATO is keeping things stable.
Do I want to get the Ca a little higher? I understand for a balance of Alk 8, I need Ca around 417.
Now I want to address bringing up the Ca. Will dose prt's 1 and 2 until I get the Ca where I want it. then test for stability. I'm not even going to think about how a water change throws my balances out the window!
By the way No3 is 2 Po4 is between 0.1 & 0.2. per the theme of this thread.i do have more Ha than I want, mostly just under the sand bed. I'm going post a couple of pics. Please consider this tank is not ment to be a show piece. It is a working experiment only. Thanks for following.
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
A couple of pics. HPIM8551.JPG

HPIM8549.JPG
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Good Evening Folks, So I started experimenting with dosing stump remover the end of December. Then I had a little Ha going. Now after dosing the N03 I have had a very swift outbreak of HA & Bubble algae.
It came on QUICK ! Today I did my best to vacuum 1/2 the sandbed and scrubbed & lifted the rock up out of the sandbed. I will step up the water changes & stop dosing . Next I will address the lighting which I thought I had. I must say this is challenging indeed !
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ok after a big water change I'm back to where I was.
No3 zero
Po4 barely over zero
Alk 7.8
Ca 380
well at least the kalkwasser I've been dosing is working ! A few corals did color up a bit. Back to the drawing board ! lol
HPIM8557.JPG
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Where was I ? Sorry had some other life stuff come up. So after experimenting dosing stump remover. I got the No3 up,the corals or at least some colored up. I did end up with an HA breakout. The pic above is an example. Some fine tuned picking with tweezers and a peroxide dip took care of this coral. I vacumed 1/2 of the sand as I had a literal carpet of HA right on the top/under. iI put some smaller rock to lift the base rock up & out of the sand bed. then did the other half. After this work & several big water changes ,I'm back where I started , Kinda.
No3 0
Po4 >o.1
Mg 1230
CA 370 380
Alk 8.4
Now the corals are looking better but I don't want them to just bleach out again,so looking for a better way to dose this Potassium Nitrate. without over doing it. Again this is an experimental tank.
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So Yesterday I finally got a "small" Red Flasher Wrasse. will add another small fish in a week or so depending if I find one worthy.
N03 0 Po4 >o. My plan this round is to add 1 tbs of Potassium Nitrate solution a day and see what happens. I won't be adding 2 or 3 just to see any rise. I removed the carbon and shortened lights on time to about 7 hours.
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Even ing Folks. Been awhile since I dropped in. ( I love spell check). So Last test on parameters was the 17th last month. All I have done is a couple of water changes.& topped of the ato with kalkwasser.
Temp 77
salinity 1.o25
Mg 1260
alk 7.8
Ca 365
No3 3
Po4 o.1 maybe o.2
So the corals have colored up ok a couple of sps don't look too hot but making it. I think the parameter are OK maybe, & no big Ha outbreak. I do have this persistent brown stuff with a few bubbles on the back panel. Also just a tiny bit of coraline on the glass. I should have more by now. Maybe bump up the CA a bit? If so what's a good alk? All things to experiment with. I do have 3 fish now The Copper Band a small Red flasher wrasse & a sunburst anthias. Been feeding more . Any Op's on improvement or questions You may have, would be appreciated.
Overall I give this tank a 2.5 out of 4 stars.

HPIM8574.JPG
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Sorry no pic now. Tank is looking a "Lot" better ! I think I finally got levels stable and somewhat where I want them. What I did was follow the instructions.pay attention to details ,rust the work I did and quite messing with it !
No3 >2
Po4 >o.1
Mg 1300
KH 7.3 Ca 380
Now ,I do want to get the Alk & Ca levels up a little,Mg could be a little more but everybody looks good . Most of the corals I thought were goners are slowly coming back !
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ok after 3 days levels are the same. Not sure if I waited long enough will test again in 3 days. Only change is a couple of squirts of Oceans Blend Mag. I was crying before that the kalkwasser /ato wasn't working. I was wrong.
Looking for stability at this point soon I will experiment with raising Ca & alk levels.
Also since dosing the stump remover,2 tbls per week 1 on Tuesday & 1 Thursdays .
 

jsker

Reefing is all about the adventure
View Badges
Joined
Apr 11, 2015
Messages
24,974
Reaction score
79,717
Location
Saint Louis
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
looks like the system is settling down.
 
OP
OP
cracker

cracker

5000 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
7,164
Reaction score
16,237
Location
north east Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks Jsker, Still getting stable readings. They were a tiny bit off which I assume was vegracies in the test/tester. I'm pleased it's finally settled. I look back and see I was impatient and kept messing with it .
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 67 51.9%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 67 51.9%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 33 25.6%
  • None.

    Votes: 29 22.5%
  • Other.

    Votes: 9 7.0%
Back
Top