methods of suplementation?

[NewbReefer]

I am curious of everyones methods for maintaining Calcium, Alkalinty, and Magnesium and what brands or name of the suplements you use. I noticed my Mag and alk a bit low. Im out of calcium test and hoping to find somemore today at the fish store.

 

[daugherty]

i use sea chem calcium, reef builder, and keny ph buffer. but i do change my water every week so i do not have to add very much of anything usually just a little reef builder.

 

[daugherty]

i also use oceanic salt it has one of the highest levels of calicum but a low alk. but still not at to low of levels.

 

[McCrary]

I use a calcium reactor for calcium and alkalinity and my magnesium is replaced with water changes, although I am probably going to start dosing magnesium pretty soon.

 

[Piggy]

All three of mine were low. I've been working on getting them all in the right range. I finally got my calcium and alkalinity in the right range. But it seems to take awhile to get magnesium up. I use reef builder but it really doesn't dissolve. So when I run out I plan on using something else that was suggested. As for calcium Sea Chem.

 

[ladypheesh]

we use kent marine pro buff, and kent marine liquid calcium, only when they are needed. We haven't started looking at magnesium yet. Also we use oceanic salt.

 

[yote]

I been using kalk in my ATO for about 6 months now for calcium.But I will dose with SeaChems Reef Complete from time to time.Use Reef Builder to bring alkalinity up,and use reef Advantage magnesium.

 

[Reefgyrl]

I use kent liquid calcium and Magnesium and lugols iodine. I haven't had to add mag. in over 6 months and my calcium I just got down to a normal level of 500. But when I do add it I usually do it in my top off water or my water change.

 

[fatman]

I use Kalkwasser in my ATO water. Occasionally I give a little boost to my alkalinity with SeaChem Reef Builder, as I tend to use up my buffers some what because I add acid to my Kalkwasser to increase my calcium input to my tanks.

 

[McCrary]

Fatman- What kind of calcium reactor are you running for your SPS tank?

 

[d.french]

75 gallon setup i use seachem reef complete liquid, and seachem reef carbonate.

on my 125 i dose with pickling lime on a slow drip.

reef complete(calcium, magnesium, strontium)

125 is not full of calcium demanding corals since it is a softie tank(shrooms, polyps, leathers, gbta.

75 gallon has some lps corals, zoos, ricordea, yumas, and rbta

 

[fatman]

I do not use any of my calcium reactors at this time. They are all 8 year old custom made units that I used without pH controllers. They were not without a lot of problems, so I quit using them. Since then pH controllers have become cheap and readily available but I have not found the need to go out and buy new equipment yet as I use quality ATO units for the Kalkwasser so I have good control over that supplementation and I use electronic Calcium and pH monitoring. Using Kalkwasser and a calc reactor is cheaper and easier than using a two part bottled supplement system but not cheaper than Kalkwasser and an Alkalinity buffer and occasional pH supplement. I would only consider a double chamber calc reactor if I was going to go back to using calc reactors. The pH of the effluent going into your tank is jut to low of a pH when it is from a single chamber calc reactor. The other choice is to feed your calc reactor water into your skimmer to blow off excess carbon dioxide. I also use deep sand beds which supply the magnesium and strontium that would be delivered from the calc reactor with the calcium or through two part supplements such as Little Fishies C-Balance.

 

[McCrary]

Yea, the nice thing about some of the calcium reactors now is that the pH of the effluent is actually pretty decent and the issues with lowering of pH aren't as bad, but if the tank is totally loaded with SPS and the growth rates are really high it can lower the pH. But they are kinda expensive in terms of initial cost and media.

 

[fatman]

Yea, the nice thing about some of the calcium reactors now is that the pH of the effluent is actually pretty decent and the issues with lowering of pH aren't as bad, but if the tank is totally loaded with SPS and the growth rates are really high it can lower the pH. But they are kinda expensive in terms of initial cost and media.

:bounce: I have a hard time doing what would appear as an up grade to any of my own systems without doing the same to my customers tanks. It would save a lot of labor on their tanks, but they pay for the labor. When actually put in writing that does not sound too ethical does it? Another area for more thought. I can get the actual reactors at a discount buying in volume, and even the pressure gauges and regulators, but not the controllers. If I could get the controllers at a decent price it would be a pretty easy decision. The way it is I am running Kalk reactors on the customers tanks and they require being cleaned at least weekly. :^:

 

[RyanG]

Ethics and small businesses especially service businesses dont exactly go hand in hand.

 

[fatman]

I have the wife of one of my employees do billing for services as I always under charged, which did not make the employees any to happy. I used to have wives (only one at a time) for figuring costs and sending bills. I would be one broke puupy with few assets if I had to depend on myself to run the billing side of the company economics. I do much better at spending money than collecting it, or charging for the services that supply it. I do very well at effectively not making a large taxable profit, yet living with all I need and nearly all I want. Seems most of what I need and want is tax deductible. Somehow I just can not bring myself to be greedy enough and unethical enough to provide all I want but do not need.