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Doug · 02/26/2001, 09:39 PM

Hi Mike and thanks again for the help.

I knew that I should have taken chemistry instead of rock science in high school all those years ago.

I was also thinking that the pH would reach a ceiling one day and am hopeful that we are both correct.

The tank is really loaded with hard corals, many SPS and LPS, and a lot of live rock. The thing that concerned me was that my coral growth rate has slowed, the coraline is in a holding pattern and I was starting to see a small amount of problem algae pop up. After seeing these changes take place I tested the Alk and realized that it was very low and in the range of 1.5-2.0 so I started to use the buffer but when the pH climbed I would stop and never get above 2.5meg for more than a day.

One interesting thing is since I started using Brad's buffer the Alk tonight is at 3.0-3.2meg which I am very happy to see. I have never had an increase in Alk like this when using the commercial buffers like I have seen using bs/ws combination.

As far as the Calcium goes it did drop from 370 down to about 250-300 based on my calcium test since last week. I had added some Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium last night and will continue to use that and the combination of Brad's buffer to bring things back to par. Once I get things back to normal, Alk about 3.5-4.0 and Cal around 400, I will start to use kalk again for my top off and hopefully at that point I will be able to use less buffer and still keep levels that I and my corals will be happy with.

On a good note, the expansion from my LPS today is better than it has been in quite some time and overall I am very suprised with the quick response from only two days of adding a buffer of this type. I can even see the polyps expanding on my green/yellow soft coral that I have not seen in sometime.

Thanks again for all the help.

Doug

02/26/2001, 09:39 PM	#21
Doug Reefkeeping Ninja Join Date: Oct 1999 Location: USA Posts: 12,868	Hi Mike and thanks again for the help. I knew that I should have taken chemistry instead of rock science in high school all those years ago. I was also thinking that the pH would reach a ceiling one day and am hopeful that we are both correct. The tank is really loaded with hard corals, many SPS and LPS, and a lot of live rock. The thing that concerned me was that my coral growth rate has slowed, the coraline is in a holding pattern and I was starting to see a small amount of problem algae pop up. After seeing these changes take place I tested the Alk and realized that it was very low and in the range of 1.5-2.0 so I started to use the buffer but when the pH climbed I would stop and never get above 2.5meg for more than a day. One interesting thing is since I started using Brad's buffer the Alk tonight is at 3.0-3.2meg which I am very happy to see. I have never had an increase in Alk like this when using the commercial buffers like I have seen using bs/ws combination. As far as the Calcium goes it did drop from 370 down to about 250-300 based on my calcium test since last week. I had added some Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium last night and will continue to use that and the combination of Brad's buffer to bring things back to par. Once I get things back to normal, Alk about 3.5-4.0 and Cal around 400, I will start to use kalk again for my top off and hopefully at that point I will be able to use less buffer and still keep levels that I and my corals will be happy with. On a good note, the expansion from my LPS today is better than it has been in quite some time and overall I am very suprised with the quick response from only two days of adding a buffer of this type. I can even see the polyps expanding on my green/yellow soft coral that I have not seen in sometime. Thanks again for all the help. Doug __________________ Doug Current Tank Info: 90g, and 75g swamp/prop tank.