Hard time with Alk and Mg and Ca

[Acronuts]

Hey guys,
I am having a hard time maintaining Mg and Alk. With my last tests made with salifert they were:
Ca 410
Mg 1260
Alk 13 dk

I run a ca reactor which had been keeping my alk at 8 dk and my Ca at 460.I would dose Mg to keep around 1300 to 1400. All corals especially sps's were growing and coloring was great. My water changes were done using Neo Marine from Brightwells.

Because over the summer months I was going to be away I purchased mixed water from my lfs. Their water runs at, 450 for Ca, 1500 for Mg and 9 dk for Alk. There were two water changes of 25% for July and Aug. The lfs uses IO which usually runs alk at a higher point.
Another factor to include is that the ca reactor became clogged and I opened all lines to flush out. I could not get it completely under control so it propably dripped at about 80 drops per minute. The Co2 was on a controller so it would not come on unless necessary.

How do I get things back to normal ranges?

 

[drainbamage]

high alk is just going to precipitate out some of your calcium into a solid form-it's not going to be horrible for anything in the short term. I'd say get yours system back under control (the calc reactor) and just let the corals start to soak up the alk, just keep testing and keep sufficient calcium in the system. Unless you see any corals reacting really negatively, I wouldn't do a rush fix as it could be worse than just leaving things be.

 

[Fragtastic Reef]

high alk is just going to precipitate out some of your calcium into a solid form-it's not going to be horrible for anything in the short term. I'd say get yours system back under control (the calc reactor) and just let the corals start to soak up the alk, just keep testing and keep sufficient calcium in the system. Unless you see any corals reacting really negatively, I wouldn't do a rush fix as it could be worse than just leaving things be.

This is great advice, and recommend the same. You might wanna just run the calcium reactor but shut the co2 off until the tank is back where you want it, then dial the reactor in again.

 

[Acronuts]

So then It should not be a problem shutting the Co2 down. Now that will allow the Ca to increase but would that not make the Alk come down to quickly?
I know that the relationship is there between Ca and Alk but I seem to suck at understanding that relationship.

This is great advice, and recommend the same. You might wanna just run the calcium reactor but shut the co2 off until the tank is back where you want it, then dial the reactor in again.

 

[xmjxflipx]

I dont run a calcium reactor but i think what fragtastic is saying is to just run the calcium reactor, its not going to drop the alkalinity drastically. Since yes calcium and alkalinity have an inverse relationship. The alkalinity will slowly lower prob day by day and when ur alk is at where u want it to be then you can just open ur c02 back up again. I had an issue a while back, i had a high alk of 12-13 like u....i was manually dosing.....i had alot of sps and could see they had alk burn on the tips. I would rather honestly have high calcium than high alk so i made a decision to dose enough calcium to lower my alk throughout the day my calcium may have been 480 to 500 but my alk went back down to a 9.

 

[Acronuts]

Yes I don't want a drastic change since I already have had several other water issues in the last two months. I went ahead and turned off the Co2 and will test every other day to allow for it to drop around 9 dk as is recommended. Then at that point I will turn it back on. The white tips was definitely something I noticed but from there it just went down hill with some of my sps's,blasto's and acans. Interesting though, my older sps's and monti's that have been with me for 1yr or more did not seem to be affected at all. Just the newer pieces that I bought within the last 4 months.

Thanks for the input guys.

I dont run a calcium reactor but i think what fragtastic is saying is to just run the calcium reactor, its not going to drop the alkalinity drastically. Since yes calcium and alkalinity have an inverse relationship. The alkalinity will slowly lower prob day by day and when ur alk is at where u want it to be then you can just open ur c02 back up again. I had an issue a while back, i had a high alk of 12-13 like u....i was manually dosing.....i had alot of sps and could see they had alk burn on the tips. I would rather honestly have high calcium than high alk so i made a decision to dose enough calcium to lower my alk throughout the day my calcium may have been 480 to 500 but my alk went back down to a 9.

 

[xmjxflipx]

no problem, corals are amazing though, i recently went through a phase not dosing my alk and losing interest in my tank. My alk was at 6, surprisingly only a few corals died. One icefire echinata it was like 2" too, my oregon tort, some random tenuis and my tyree tricolor. While i wish my icefire and tyree tricolor was not killed during that time since they were nice sizedd colonies all my other favias, chalices and sps were totally fine, seemed like nothing was even bothering them....Im guessing if changes occur slowly over time the corals can somehow adapt to the conditions and changes from the desired optimal levels, but they can only adapt only so much until the changes are way too extreme to handle, or too fast.

 

[Acronuts]

no problem, corals are amazing though, i recently went through a phase not dosing my alk and losing interest in my tank. My alk was at 6, surprisingly only a few corals died. One icefire echinata it was like 2" too, my oregon tort, some random tenuis and my tyree tricolor. While i wish my icefire and tyree tricolor was not killed during that time since they were nice sizedd colonies all my other favias, chalices and sps were totally fine, seemed like nothing was even bothering them....Im guessing if changes occur slowly over time the corals can somehow adapt to the conditions and changes from the desired optimal levels, but they can only adapt only so much until the changes are way too extreme to handle, or too fast.

I agree changes over a slow time can be ok but some corals are just too sensitive to stay alive with the wrong water parimeters if left that way for too long. With me my ice and fire echinata, and other ORA sps's died! I too had nice sized colonies.