Cyano

[lmm1967]

I hit enter too fast and I can't edit my posts.....

....anecdotally I've noticed previously that cyano was more challenging to "fix" when alk is low. Not scientific - just something I noticed in the past. I believe I recall seeing a similar claim or 2 on R2R as well.

 

[ZapataInc]

I hit enter too fast and I can't edit my posts.....

....anecdotally I've noticed previously that cyano was more challenging to "fix" when alk is low. Not scientific - just something I noticed in the past. I believe I recall seeing a similar claim or 2 on R2R as well.

Well it seems like this started happening when I started dosing BRS 2 part last week.

 

[Adam]

Getting the big 3 in balance was hard hardest for me to get under control. I read everything and thought I understood the variables but once alk started precipitating in the sand nothing I did worked. Once I got it right things all fell into place.

Your Alk & Cal are out of ionic balance, Zap. Alk low Cal is high. At 439 Cal Alk should be at 11.1dKH to be in balance. I'm by no means telling you to raise it to that. Just telling you where the balance is. You need to know what the Mag is before you do anything. If its low your going to have problems trying to adjust Alk up. Shoot for Mag at 1400. Then raise the Alk a little at a time. As you add Alk the Cal will drop. Every system is different and you need to decide where to where your tank is happy. With low nutrients you can't go too high with Alk, maybe 7 to 7.5. If the NO3 is higher, say 2-10 then you can go up on the Alk to 8.5 to 9.

At 7.5dKH Cal should be at 414 to be in balance. Here's a calculator for it.

Calcium and Alkalinity balance calculator

Calculate the balance values of Calcium and Alkalinity

www.ultimatereef.net

 

[ZapataInc]

Getting the big 3 in balance was hard hardest for me to get under control. I read everything and thought I understood the variables but once alk started precipitating in the sand nothing I did worked. Once I got it right things all fell into place.

Your Alk & Cal are out of ionic balance, Zap. Alk low Cal is high. At 439 Cal Alk should be at 11.1dKH to be in balance. I'm by no means telling you to raise it to that. Just telling you where the balance is. You need to know what the Mag is before you do anything. If its low your going to have problems trying to adjust Alk up. Shoot for Mag at 1400. Then raise the Alk a little at a time. As you add Alk the Cal will drop. Every system is different and you need to decide where to where your tank is happy. With low nutrients you can't go too high with Alk, maybe 7 to 7.5. If the NO3 is higher, say 2-10 then you can go up on the Alk to 8.5 to 9.

At 7.5dKH Cal should be at 414 to be in balance. Here's a calculator for it.

Calcium and Alkalinity balance calculator

Calculate the balance values of Calcium and Alkalinity

www.ultimatereef.net

Thanks

 

[ZapataInc]

Yeah I didn't even know this was a thing with the alk and cal balance. So much stuff I didn't know. Thanks for everyone that has responded.

 

[ActiveAngel]

With low nutrients you can't go too high with Alk, maybe 7 to 7.5. If the NO3 is higher, say 2-10 then you can go up on the Alk to 8.5 to 9.

At 7.5dKH Cal should be at 414 to be in balance. Here's a calculator for it.

Calcium and Alkalinity balance calculator

Calculate the balance values of Calcium and Alkalinity

www.ultimatereef.net

I can chime in here as I always do low nutrients for my tanks, testing zero (under 0.25ppm) nitrate and 0-10ppb phosphate.

With low nutrients, you don’t want Alk over 9.5. Between 9.5 and 10 is when I start to see adverse effects. As such, I choose to keep mine at 8.4 dkH. Calc at 435ppm. And Mag over 1300.

Also, that calculator is interesting. I never heard of this definition of ionic balance. I wonder exactly what it’s trying to say, and am curious to know what and how it is calculating.

 

[Adam]

There isn't a prominent place on reef sites that state this balance level. Brett is the one who shared it with me and in doing some more specific searching I found some good info. Here's one link, I'm on my phone but will look for more when I get a chance.

Ionic Balance of Ca, Mg, KH in Your Tank is Crucial

August-Shelley

reefnation.com

I've found there's more info on this topic on European sites for some reason. I even believe the calculator on Ultimate reef posted above is a European site. With cyano, gha and other issues there are a lot of variables at play, mostly due to nutrients. But, anecdotally, I've found that when Alk & Cal are in balance there have been fewer problems and when they pop up they're easier to manage. It took me two years to get to that point and was much easier to maintain when I stopped dosing 2part and started using a carx & a kalk stirrer.

I don't shoot for the exact ratio just close and be in the window. I tried to keep it at 9dKH & 425 with NO3 of 2-10 & PO4 between .02 and .1. PO4 is the hardest for me to manage but I feed primarily frozen. Also the more coral mass in the tank the easier it is to keep nutrients down and I can't stress the importance of flow, lots of it.