Does dosing calcium lower ph?

Will or can dosing calcium lower ph and alkalinity?

 

Not necessarily. what method of dosing calcium are you using? Do you also dose alkaline with this? If you just dose calcium you are likely to lower you alkalinity which can then cause unstable pH levels.

 

well, I was dosing Brightwell's calcion... was dosing at night after the lights went off and my ATO has super buffer dkh... I think the dkh wasn't dosing fast enough and the alkalinity declined as I rose the calcium up to 470 from 360 over several days... when it was at 360 my alk was 11, but then went to 10 and today was at 7!!!

I am raising my alk now, so it seems that dosing calcium did unstabilize my alk and thus it dropped... probably also is what caused coralline bleaching and sudden algae growth... does that sound about right?

 

sounds to me like your magnesium level cannot bond these ions

if you dont have a magnesium level capable of supporting your targets on calc and DKH
for every 20ppm Calcium you increase you can lose 1 degree of DKH
So you increase your DHK and you notice for every degree of DKH you increase
your calcium goes down by 20ppm

whats your magnesium and SG ?

Steve

 

SG - 1.025
Mg - 1500

 

you can get your DKH back to 11 with that mag and SG
Just be prepared for your calc to lower to 420 = which is OK anyway

or reach a compromise between 440 Calc and 10 DKH - which should work out in your current SG and Mag levels

Steve

 

Steve,

Thanks for the input. When I started dosing calcium, my thoughts were "since my dkH is so high at 11, I don't need to worry about dosing or keeping up with it"... I had no idea that it would drop so dramatically.

When I told my LFS that my coralline was bleaching and I had a sudden algae bloom, AND my GSP wasn't opening, their first instinct was that my alk was low... I told him I would double check, but that the last time I had checked it had dropped from 11 to 10, so I thought I was still OK... I was shocked to find out that it had dropped to 7 last night!!

Glad I decided to recheck it though.

I feel like maybe 440 calcium and 10 dkH is the way to go... or is it advantageous to run at 11 dkH?

Thanks again!

Will

 

Here you go......Aquarium chemistry 101;
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

 

Gotta Love Randy Holmes-Farley!

 

Yes, yes....I guess we could say he is the MAN. I like Robert Fenner also.