7.7 dKH OK?

[LouH]

I'm currently dosing 150 ml/day of Rany's 2-part recipe with soda ash into a100 gallon SPS, LPS and clam tank. It is moderately stocked but has three large montipora colonies and a 6" Dersa. My Ca is 410 and Mg is 1400. I was dosing 275 for a couple of weeks in an attempt to raise dKH, but no matter what I dosed, dKH always seems to drop back down to 7.7-8. I determined that I was overdosing based on calcium carbonate buildup on system hardware, so I dropped the dose last week.

My attempts at raising dKH at this lower dose rate was acomplished by slug dosing a baking soda solution (12 g baking soda) on top of my soda ash/CaCl solutions. This would raise levels initially by 1 dKH, but over 24 hours, dKH would drop to 7.7-8 again. Is my current dosing rate adequate, or do you think that I'm overdosing?

Lou

 

[nanojg]

how are you dosing? Fast, slow, all at once, spread out throughout the day, in high flow area?

 

[LouH]

I use BRS 1.1 ml/min dosers which are run off of an Apex controller. Each component of the 2-part is dosed drop wise directly into the sump return flow. Each doser is activated once every 15 minutes, and the alk portion is dosed 7 minutes after the Ca portion has completed its dose.

 

[nanojg]

are you dosing limewater? what is your ph generally?

 

[mrsmithers]

How are you testing/which test kits?

also a dkh of 7.8 is not bad. NSW has dkh is around 8 and the zeo users run theres around 6.5-7.5

 

[alanbates12]

Sounds like a question for Randy. I have been using Reef Fusion 2 part and dosing the same amount of both solutions. They have maintained, Ca 450, Alk 10.5 for a long time. I know my LFS has told me if one level drops reef fusion has a buffer that will get the levels back into range. Maybe Randy can give you some type of recipe. Guess try to find what works and keep it simple. And if thats your tank on your avatar its awesome.

 

[LouH]

are you dosing limewater? what is your ph generally?

I run topoff through a Kalk reactor. I dose between 1.5 and 2 gallons/day. PH runs between 8.05 and 8.2 over the course of a day.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

7.7 dKH is fine. I recommend 7-11 dKH.

A drop of 1 dKH in a day is pretty typical.

 

[nanojg]

7.7 dKH is fine. I recommend 7-11 dKH.

A drop of 1 dKH in a day is pretty typical.

I agree that the 1 dkh drop is normal, or even low for an sps/clam system, but what is causing the precipitation of calcium carbonate on his equipment when he tried to raise the dkh higher?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Lots of things can lead to that, and some precipitation is normal on warm objects. Often it is hard to pinpoint a single "cause".

 

[alanbates12]

I never started in the reactor world for Ca and Alk. I just use 2 part on my 180 reef/fish and my Alk is 10.5 always and Ph is 8.2 during the day and 8.1 at night. Never have understood the difference of the 2 part or a reactor. Does it have to do with demand? My tank is pretty full and seems to have lots of room on the dosing. Can someone please explain the difference

 

[greengeco82]

raise your mag a bit and see what happens. you mag may be lower than your test kit says. I had the same prob and i added a little mag and problem solved. Ive heard the salifert mag test kit shows higher mag than is actually present.

 

[LouH]

And if thats your tank on your avatar its awesome.

Thanks for the compliment on the tank. It took me about four years to completely finish it. The entire thing is modular. I can change out the fascade if I ever decide I want it to look like something else. Right now it is mahogany with a zebrawood picture frame around the tank. In case you can't tell, I'm pretty proud of it. :beer:

 

[LouH]

Lots of things can lead to that, and some precipitation is normal on warm objects. Often it is hard to pinpoint a single "cause".

I'm not getting notiable abiotic precipitation at the current dose level. However, when it (the dose) was higher, one of the worst areas of precipitation was in my GFO and activated carbon reactors. The GFO would turn whitish brown and the carbon would become one monolithic fused mass. I would have to dump muriatic acid into it and let it soak for a while before I could get the carbon out of the reactor. That was a pretty good indication that I was overdosing.

As far as my daily dKH utilization, when I switched to 2-part from a Ca reactor, my dKH was around 10. I tured the reactor off and went right to recipe 1 dosing at 1ml/gallon. In a day KH dropped to 8. That was the start of a long series of changes in my attempt to hit my desired Ca and Alk targets while increasing pH. Here is what I did throughout this journey (yes, it was very expensive):

1. steadily increased the dose from 1 ml/gal/day to 2.5;
2. re-routed the doser hoses so that they discharged into the main display in a high flow area;
3. purchased lower flow rate dosing pumps;
4. programmed my Apex controller so that I hit my dose target with 96 indepedent dosing events/day.

With all of that I'm back down to 150 ml/day and maintaining dKH at 7.7. I'm going to keep it where it's currently at and watch it for a couple of weeks before making any changes. We'll see what happens. :spin2:

Lou

 

[LouH]

How are you testing/which test kits?

also a dkh of 7.8 is not bad. NSW has dkh is around 8 and the zeo users run theres around 6.5-7.5

I use Salifert kits for all of my testing. Ive been using them for so long now that I can knock out an Alk, Ca and Mg test in under 10 minutes. I mostly just test Alk and periodically test others if Alk is moving around.

 

[alanbates12]

Thanks for the compliment on the tank. It took me about four years to completely finish it. The entire thing is modular. I can change out the fascade if I ever decide I want it to look like something else. Right now it is mahogany with a zebrawood picture frame around the tank. In case you can't tell, I'm pretty proud of it. :beer:

Awesome post some close up photos....