What additives
- Thread starter KahluaZzZ
- Start date
I've started supplementing alk. I'm mostly using IO which is supposed to be good for use with RO, but I'm finding I'm coming up lower than I'd like for alk (9, rather be 11 or 12), and don't want it to drift down further. I'm using a Tetra kH supplement.
When I've run out of this I'll likely go to using a Rift Valley buffer. Note that actually I'm on tap water rather than RO, but it's very, very soft (0 KH ).
Look on your box. IO should be ok, Reef Crystals is very good, ditto kent. I used Aqua Medic for a while and that was coming in very low for alk.
When I've run out of this I'll likely go to using a Rift Valley buffer. Note that actually I'm on tap water rather than RO, but it's very, very soft (0 KH ).
Look on your box. IO should be ok, Reef Crystals is very good, ditto kent. I used Aqua Medic for a while and that was coming in very low for alk.
Ok. Since i started using ro/di water with reef crystals, my alk dropped really badly...and had a violent ph drop. My corals didn't look too happy about it.
My algae problems are the same. Nitrates are lower ( under 10 ), phos are still high ( around .25 ) altough i use Rowa Phos and caulerpa. I used seachem reef buffer 8.3 wich contains couples of elements like what's in the salt and my ph did came up to 8.2 back again.
Should i change the water more frequently than once a week on a 10 % change ??
I don't have all the marine test kits 'cause they're hard to find in here.
I did put some reef strontium, iodide ( not much ), reef plus and magnesium...and it helped somehow. But i hate doing this blindly.
My newly acquired Xenia is having babies and my frogspawn looks bigger so i guess it's a good sign.
Is coralline thriving on high ph only ? When it dropped, it all seems that the coralline suddently faded ( again ).
My calcium is naturally high ( 440 ) in the tap water. Is there a "too high" limit for calcium 'cause sometimes it goes up to 500 . Extra hard water in here.
My algae problems are the same. Nitrates are lower ( under 10 ), phos are still high ( around .25 ) altough i use Rowa Phos and caulerpa. I used seachem reef buffer 8.3 wich contains couples of elements like what's in the salt and my ph did came up to 8.2 back again.
Should i change the water more frequently than once a week on a 10 % change ??
I don't have all the marine test kits 'cause they're hard to find in here.
I did put some reef strontium, iodide ( not much ), reef plus and magnesium...and it helped somehow. But i hate doing this blindly.
My newly acquired Xenia is having babies and my frogspawn looks bigger so i guess it's a good sign.
Is coralline thriving on high ph only ? When it dropped, it all seems that the coralline suddently faded ( again ).
My calcium is naturally high ( 440 ) in the tap water. Is there a "too high" limit for calcium 'cause sometimes it goes up to 500 . Extra hard water in here.
If I was serious about feeding I'd grow my own phyto, number 2 option is DT's or equivalent bottled live, option number 3 is marine snow or similar yeast solution. The marine snows/phytoplex's/non-frozencoral-foods are all very very dodgy i.m.o. They don't count as additives anyway.
Odd that you got a big pH dropp when you went to RO/DI, especially off of R Crystals? I guess that's when you lose the effects of high Ca and Alk from your hard water. You have to stick with the RO though as any measurable phosphate is too much. You may have to go with this for a while as you will have phosphate bound to carbonate ions and are likely releasing those.... typically once you can measure phosphate you also have a big 'resevoir' of bound phosphate to get rid of as well.
I would be strongly tempted to get a commercial RO buffer, and then put the Reef Crystals on top. YOu have to keep alk high - it inhibits algae growth, and presumably a part of that will be 'binding' phosphate.
People don't like Oceanic as it seems the alk comes in really, really low with it. I've never heard that for RC. Additives are a minefield. You should be fine with 10% a week
Odd that you got a big pH dropp when you went to RO/DI, especially off of R Crystals? I guess that's when you lose the effects of high Ca and Alk from your hard water. You have to stick with the RO though as any measurable phosphate is too much. You may have to go with this for a while as you will have phosphate bound to carbonate ions and are likely releasing those.... typically once you can measure phosphate you also have a big 'resevoir' of bound phosphate to get rid of as well.
I would be strongly tempted to get a commercial RO buffer, and then put the Reef Crystals on top. YOu have to keep alk high - it inhibits algae growth, and presumably a part of that will be 'binding' phosphate.
People don't like Oceanic as it seems the alk comes in really, really low with it. I've never heard that for RC. Additives are a minefield. You should be fine with 10% a week