Monthly FTS 
Rebuilding a red sea 650peninsula
- Thread starter TheEuroMeister
- Start date
Also finally upgraded to a redsea 10gallon ato reservoir and glad I did was able to clean up my control side of the tank want to add some more hydros equipment so I can automate my Alk testing 
Figure I should do a quick update on the tank. Everything is still running and coral growth is really starting to take off I recently switched to kalkwasser dosing over night and all for reef during the day and so far everything is happy 
How's your kalkwasser at night working? I assume this was done for PH? My tanks is pretty decent ph but swings daily 8.3 to 8.0/7.9 at night. I'm also running AFR and have thought about kalk dosing at night to raise ph and maybe keep things more locked in at 8.3.
How is the hydros working for tracking Alk?
How is the hydros working for tracking Alk?
So I’m running the kalk at night because my ph wouldn’t get above 7.9 and was always super low added a co2 scrubber and it brought it up but would drop way down at night to 7.5. With co2 scrubber and kalk at night my ph is staying right between 8.15 at night and 8.3 during the day
As for the hydros I currently only have it running the basics not monitoring alk with it yet it doses my kalk and does ato, heaters and wave makers, I will eventually add on to be able to monitor alk
As for the hydros I currently only have it running the basics not monitoring alk with it yet it doses my kalk and does ato, heaters and wave makers, I will eventually add on to be able to monitor alk
I didn't even know hydros could track calc without the maven thing that isn't out yet until the other day I saw it mentioned. If I do it before you I'll let you know how it goes. Currently I'm dosing 20ml a day AFR I'm a bit stuck on how to go about swapping the night time 10ml for Kalk to keep it up closer to the daytime 8.3 but can't quite seem to figure out the best way to go about it. I don't really have room for huge Kalk reservoir. With it never really dropping below 7.9 I don't think it's holding me back very much but I don't have the corraline growth many others seem to have and never have.
So hydros doesn’t monitor anything but my ph but it does dose my kalkwasser overnight I’m currently adding 2500ml over a 10 hour period and then dosing 50ml of all for reef in 10ml increments through the morning
I have the Red Sea 5gallon container sits right next to my ato container which is the redsea 10 gallon it seems like a lot of kalk but it keeps my Alk in check when paired with all for reef. Before I started kalk I was having trouble keeping my alkalinity up now it sits right at 8.7-9 all coral seem to be growing like crazy
Do you have some type of stirrer inside the Red Sea 5gal container to mix the kalk or do you just mix it once while topping the container up with water and kalk?
I just mix it in a bucket and top it off every 5 days
That is why you’re having to dose so much. Kalk precipitates to the bottom of its container, so you’re not getting full strength.
My tank appears to be more heavily stocked from your pictures and I only dose about 480ml from 10pm-2am every night. My Kalk reactor stirs an hour before dosing to mix the Kalk back to full strength and then allows for the heavy particulates to settle back to the bottom of the reactor.
Interesting I’ve never heard that I’ve always just mixed it and separated the clear water after an our of sitting and used it to dose to the tank
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I don’t think kalk stirrer is better than premixed kalk solution AT ALL -.-
Unless you have some way to to recognize the powder solution’s potency has gone down? It’s kinda guessing game as when to recharge the reactor. I trust my mixing (2-3min) more than a reactor does. And you should know the premixed solution does not lose its potency unless disturbed.
With premixed Kalk solution…. You can least control the strength of the kalk solution you will dose simply by mixing lesser kalk with RODI. I usually start with 3Grams/Gal and going up. 6Grams/Gal being fully saturated you can still increase by adding carbon source like vinegar or vodka etc. You shouldn’t see any residue after mixing 15G/G but will start to see little as you get closer to 30G/G. I don’t re/use them but some so. Expose to air and introducing new rodi I feel like this do lose its potency.
I can pre-mix as many bucket as I want and simply change out the lid. Keeping them air tight and without disturbance. I use it on an automatic doser. No ATO on my SPS system. I am dosing2000ml-4000ml per day. (1/2Gal to 1Gal per day) depends on the weather and temperature. Evaporation fluctuates so I do have to adjust once in a while to maintain dKH more than pH.
. You heard that rigtt he. 4000ml of premixed kalk solution on a 48Gal tank . As for using kalk to “increase:stabilize” pH by dosing at night is good idea once you understand how to go about. BUT I suggest simply use Kalk as main source of supplement for calc and alk first before using it night dosing only. You will notice your corals grow very fast. Specially lps’s and softies. (Start with low dose). Maintain high pH all day first and also allow your corals and tank to get use to kalk. Keeping an eye on precipitation (white stuff around glasses and equiptments’s surface) and sand crumbing is other way to indicate you have precipitation problem).
I’ve also learn to dose (my full day of evaporation at night time) which increased my night time pH which carry thruout the day. My 2pt is secondary solution.
Using kalk as dkh solution is a key. In my cases. I would dose 1Gal of kalk solution 6pm-6am. Usually it would have been 1Gal from 6am-6am. This is best solution I founded which worked for my system.
This is exactly as I have always done and have never had an issue once I got it dialed In with the amount I dose which is right at 2500ml daily my calcium and alk both stay right where I want them. 440calcium and 8.5-9 on alk no issues with tank to this point and all my sps are growing like weeds especially my birds nest went from a ping pong ball size to a beach ball size in less than 6 monthsI don’t think kalk stirrer is better than premixed kalk solution AT ALL -.-
Unless you have some way to to recognize the powder solution’s potency has gone down? It’s kinda guessing game as when to recharge the reactor. I trust my mixing (2-3min) more than a reactor does. And you should know the premixed solution does not lose its potency unless disturbed.
With premixed Kalk solution…. You can least control the strength of the kalk solution you will dose simply by mixing lesser kalk with RODI. I usually start with 3Grams/Gal and going up. 6Grams/Gal being fully saturated you can still increase by adding carbon source like vinegar or vodka etc. You shouldn’t see any residue after mixing 15G/G but will start to see little as you get closer to 30G/G. I don’t re/use them but some so. Expose to air and introducing new rodi I feel like this do lose its potency.
I can pre-mix as many bucket as I want and simply change out the lid. Keeping them air tight and without disturbance. I use it on an automatic doser. No ATO on my SPS system. I am dosing2000ml-4000ml per day. (1/2Gal to 1Gal per day) depends on the weather and temperature. Evaporation fluctuates so I do have to adjust once in a while to maintain dKH more than pH.
As for using kalk to “increase:stabilize” pH by dosing at night is good idea once you understand how to go about. BUT I suggest simply use Kalk as main source of supplement for calc and alk first before using it night dosing only. You will notice your corals grow very fast. Specially lps’s and softies. (Start with low dose). Maintain high pH all day first and also allow your corals and tank to get use to kalk. Keeping an eye on precipitation (white stuff around glasses and equiptments’s surface) and sand crumbing is other way to indicate you have precipitation problem).
I’ve also learn to dose (my full day of evaporation at night time) which increased my night time pH which carry thruout the day. My 2pt is secondary solution.
Using kalk as dkh solution is a key. In my cases. I would dose 1Gal of kalk solution 6pm-6am. Usually it would have been 1Gal from 6am-6am. This is best solution I founded which worked for my system.
FWIW, my reverse-lit refugium (on 16h/day) is keeping my pH swings between 8.06 at the lowest at 04:00, and ~8.12 peak at ~13:30: my lights come on at 14:30, are on fully at 1600, sunset begins at 22:30, and lights out at 00:00. I test alk every other day at least at 22:15.
Even when I was doing two part with calcium in the morning before lights on, and Alk dosing during the "day" (for the display, that is), my peak was 8.2, with the same bottom end. Now that I'm back to dosing just AFR hourly (starting this last Monday, 13 Apr.) between 00:00 and 08:00, the swing is a mere 0.06 pH. The few times I've done low- or no-lights in the 'fuge, pH wobbled by as much as 0.3 or 0.4 in 24 hours.
(Started AFR again Monday morning [April 13] at 00:00: once it stabilized 24-hours after cutting out the two-part, it's back to the same ~0.06 pH daily swing that it did in the past.)
Granted, my 15 gallon fuge is nearly 1/3rd of the water volume of my 50g display (so, kinda big by comparison to the small 2 - 5 gallon section in most sumps, especially when considering most sumps with a dedicted fuge section are on tanks much larger than mine), but I'm only pumping about 100gph through it from the display tank. Still, I can 100% credit it for my pH stability.
Admittedly, a similar-sized or smaller fuge on a distinctly larger tank admittedly might not have as much impact, but if you light it brightly enough, long enough, and keep a big enough mass of macro in there, I'd put dollars to donuts that you'd see a measurable difference.
I've been able to keep my alk in a safe range, but I definitely spent some time tweaking it and fiddling with dosage rates, and it has definitely wobbled up and down some as a result as I've been adjusting lighting and some other things
May not be a practical option for you, depending on setup and situation, but I think a reverse-lit refugium with rock, substrate and macroalgae is well worth it if you can manage it - mine is actually a separate tank on a shelf next-to and slightly higher-than my display, gravity-feeding back into my filter section:
(For those of you who haven't seen it before...)
All of my "ugly phases" in the last year have either been completely contained in the refugium itself, or, at least >90% of the worst of it stayed in the fuge - the only thing that really ever leaked through (as it were) was FHA: never even had a proper diatom bloom in the display.
As a bonus, that means I also always have a tank lit with stuff to look at, no matter the time of day, and I can stock it with cryptic/delicate stuff that might not fare as well (or would just disappear) in the larger tank with higher flow and more territorial livestock. This way I get two tanks, without doubling my maintenance.
Even when I was doing two part with calcium in the morning before lights on, and Alk dosing during the "day" (for the display, that is), my peak was 8.2, with the same bottom end. Now that I'm back to dosing just AFR hourly (starting this last Monday, 13 Apr.) between 00:00 and 08:00, the swing is a mere 0.06 pH. The few times I've done low- or no-lights in the 'fuge, pH wobbled by as much as 0.3 or 0.4 in 24 hours.
(Started AFR again Monday morning [April 13] at 00:00: once it stabilized 24-hours after cutting out the two-part, it's back to the same ~0.06 pH daily swing that it did in the past.)
Granted, my 15 gallon fuge is nearly 1/3rd of the water volume of my 50g display (so, kinda big by comparison to the small 2 - 5 gallon section in most sumps, especially when considering most sumps with a dedicted fuge section are on tanks much larger than mine), but I'm only pumping about 100gph through it from the display tank. Still, I can 100% credit it for my pH stability.
Admittedly, a similar-sized or smaller fuge on a distinctly larger tank admittedly might not have as much impact, but if you light it brightly enough, long enough, and keep a big enough mass of macro in there, I'd put dollars to donuts that you'd see a measurable difference.
I've been able to keep my alk in a safe range, but I definitely spent some time tweaking it and fiddling with dosage rates, and it has definitely wobbled up and down some as a result as I've been adjusting lighting and some other things
May not be a practical option for you, depending on setup and situation, but I think a reverse-lit refugium with rock, substrate and macroalgae is well worth it if you can manage it - mine is actually a separate tank on a shelf next-to and slightly higher-than my display, gravity-feeding back into my filter section:
(For those of you who haven't seen it before...)
All of my "ugly phases" in the last year have either been completely contained in the refugium itself, or, at least >90% of the worst of it stayed in the fuge - the only thing that really ever leaked through (as it were) was FHA: never even had a proper diatom bloom in the display.
As a bonus, that means I also always have a tank lit with stuff to look at, no matter the time of day, and I can stock it with cryptic/delicate stuff that might not fare as well (or would just disappear) in the larger tank with higher flow and more territorial livestock. This way I get two tanks, without doubling my maintenance.
