There are some other processes that can lead to alkalinity depletion, including partial cycling of nitrogen (from organic compounds to nitrate and no further) and the incorporation of magnesium into calcium carbonate, but these are generally much less important than calcification.Ĭonsequently, alkalinity depletion in most tanks (especially in short time frames) is tightly coupled to calcium depletion, and if one supplements calcium and alkalinity in proportions equal to those that they are being removed, then it is MUCH less likely that calcium and alkalinity will become imbalanced4 and thereby trickier to correct. In this process, as alkalinity is depleted by 1 meq/L, calcium will be depleted by 20 ppm. The vast majority of alkalinity depletion in most tanks also comes about by the precipitation of calcium carbonate, as described above. In a reef tank with rapidly calcifying organisms, this effect will so predominate any other calcium export mechanism, that no others need be considered for this purpose.Īlkalinity2 for our purposes here is comprised of bicarbonate and carbonate. It can also happen abiotically1, such as by precipitation on heaters and pump impellers. This happens biologicall圓 in corals, coralline algae, mollusks, and a variety of other organisms. Let’s first look at how calcium and alkalinity are consumed in reef tanks.Ĭalcium is largely consumed by formation of calcium carbonate.
So while I am not saying that you should never measure things, I am saying that using appropriate methods may greatly cut down on the likelihood of having chemical problems, and thereby on the required frequency of measurement. In fact, I haven’t measured either in my tank for over a year, and yet I expect that the levels are fine, just as they have always been whenever I have measured them. That may sound trite, but there are ways to maintain reef tanks that require substantially fewer measurements of calcium and alkalinity than are required with other supplementation schemes.
Just as in many other fields of human endeavor, the easiest way to solve reef tank chemistry problems is to prevent them from happening in the first place.
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