Alkalinity probs maybe somebody can help

[Reef junky 305]

I'm some what of a newbie but maintaining a healthy tank full of coral but now that the tank is fully maturing and corals are starting to grow and as I think it's needing dosing.


display tank is a 175 bowfront with a custom 45 gall refugium with cheato and miracle mudd

For light I'm running 3 250 watt 14k pheonix bulb halides with 4x96 watt pc bulbs and a blue strip of creed leds

dual media reactor with gfo and carbon in the other.

Uv sterilizer

Fish are sohal-vlamingi-sailfin-yellow tang-purpletang-niger triger-flame angel mystery wrasse -few damsel-chromis-ora black snowflakes

Corals are about 50 different sps some are tennis ball size colony's -big montis-30 different types of chalices-70 species of zoas/paly-brains -lps colony's - favias


300 pounds of Fiji rock
Calcium checked with salifert
Alk with hanna checker & salifert
Magnesium is at 1350

I make my own water using red sea coral pro salt I was maintaining tank very well with 20 gall weekly water changes for about a year till about a month ago I started to see some of my Sps brown a little and some rtn on some of them so I started testing daily and noticed a slight drop in alk and calcium also. It would run at 9.4 dkh and calcium at 450 just with 20 gall weekly water changes.so i tested sunday and it droped from 9.4 to 8.4 and calcium from 450 to 400 so I decided to start dosing the following day. I did my regular water change a d it shot back ul to its normal params wich are 9.4 and cal 450 . so the following morning i dosed for the very first time 10 ml of each of bionic two part . I tested 12 hours after dosing and also 24 hours after dosing basically two times a day (dosing is done every morning at 8 am) and my alk kept rising slowly and calcium was dropping slowly. So the second week I decide to keep dosing 10 ml of alk but instead of 10 ml of calcium I bumped it up to 20 ml. And still alk continued to rise slowly and calcium maintained at 430 ppm so I lowered the alk dosing to 5 ml and calcium 25 ml and still the alk continues to climb.now this past Monday I did my water change and it raised it again slightly now I'm at 10.4 dkh and calcium at 430ppm....
This is three weeks of testing and dosing

I tested the new salt water mix
Cal 450
Alk 12 dkh
Mag 1340

I am seeing receding on 4 of my chalices wich I would hate to loose

My questions are is it ok to only dose calcium? ..... I've read that your suppose to dose same amount of each in order for it to work proper

Is it possible that the 20 gall water change causes a swing in alk since the mix comes at 12dkh ?
Thanks in advance any help will be appreciated

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It is fine to only dose calcium, especially since it is sometimes lower in a salt mix than you intend to keep the tank.

I'm not convinced that the browning or receeding of the SPS is due to calcium at 400 ppm and alkalinity at 8 dKH. Those numbers seem fine to me even before dosing.

 

[tmz]

I'd try a shadier location for the chalices for awhile. Sometimes though once they start to thin out tissue the only way to stop it is to frag them clear of the receding tissue. Wahtever is happening seems to spread from one to the other;maybe a pathogen . The alk and calcium seem fine at the levels you reported. An 11% waterchange even wwith 12 dkh mix seems safe enough in terms of alk shifts.

 

[Reef junky 305]

I have moved em to shadier location and I'm gonna frag the dead of when I get home and dip them in revive

I'd try a shadier location for the chalices for awhile. Sometimes though once they start to thin out tissue the only way to stop it is to frag them clear of the receding tissue. Wahtever is happening seems to spread from one to the other;maybe a pathogen . The alk and calcium seem fine at the levels you reported. An 11% waterchange even wwith 12 dkh mix seems safe enough in terms of alk shifts.

 

[tmz]

They can be sensitive to dip.Revive is relatively mild though. Try one and see how it reacts. I carefully brushed the fragged edges with straight lugol's. That seemed to help without exposing all of the tissue. Some have suggested cyanoacrylate glue along the edge but I haven't tried that.

Good luck and let us know how it works out.

 

[Reef junky 305]

It is fine to only dose calcium, especially since it is sometimes lower in a salt mix than you intend to keep the tank.

I'm not convinced that the browning or receeding of the SPS is due to calcium at 400 ppm and alkalinity at 8 dKH. Those numbers seem fine to me even before dosing.

Does my ph have an effect on color because my ph is always low 7.6 -7.8 and if I'm lucky 8.0

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Probably not.

How are you measuring pH? pH 7.6 would be quite unusual.

 

[bertoni]

7.6 might be low enough to cause issues, but 7.8 should be fine. I might check the pH kit for accuracy if it was reading 7.6 regularly, and work from there.

 

[Reef junky 305]

Probably not.

How are you measuring pH? pH 7.6 would be quite unusual.

Api test kit

 

[bertoni]

I'm skeptical about the 7.6, but it's possible. A pH probe might be more reliable.

 

[Reef junky 305]

Working on hooking up the reef keeper this week I'll have a probe then

 

[Reef junky 305]

I'm skeptical about the 7.6, but it's possible. A pH probe might be more reliable.

^^

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Let us know what you find with the probe.

 

[Reef junky 305]

Let us know what you find with the probe.

I should be getting the probe Thursday I tested my water today I've stopped dosing alk for about two weeks and I've only been dosing calcium

Alk is still slowly raising and cal is at 450 constant but I can't figure out wy my alk keeps raising it's 11.4 and a couple other chalices ain't looking to good


I just did a 25 gall water change

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What have you been dosing?

 

[Reef junky 305]

What have you been dosing?

Bionic two part but I've only been dosing 30 ml a day of the calcium and none of a the alk

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You sure you are dosing the calcium part?

Alk can't just rise on its own.

 

[Reef junky 305]

You sure you are dosing the calcium part?

Alk can't just rise on its own.

Yes lol I'm just gonna stop dosing the calcium

 

[Reef junky 305]

And monitor for the next couple dayd

 

[Reef junky 305]

You sure you are dosing the calcium part?

Alk can't just rise on its own.

Do u think my weekly water changes could be doing it it's 20 gall I use red sea coral pro alk comes about 12dkh