nursedude
Member
Some background info (TL;DR at the bottom):
As my Aquatic log tells me my 66 gallon aquarium is only 2 months and 18 days old, so its new. I am blurry eyed with research, now I think I need to step back and see what a few folks think. The issue I am hoping to lay at the feet of our knowledgable community, my Alkalinity. In the last two weeks my tank has started to consume Alk in large quantities, leading to dramatic swings 7.2-5.7 KH overnight. Up to this point it was very stable and I tested every three days (Alk, Mg, and Ca). I stopped testing Ammonia, Nitrates and Phos because they read zero.
I have one Frogspawn (it has grown) in the DT, and one furry mushroom in the sump, along with a softball size clump of Chaeto. I also have two small black and white clowns and an Orchid Dotty back. There has been GHA for which I began GFO and carbon, along with other measures, which seems to be helping. I dose Kalkwasser in my ATO, 2 teaspoons per gallon (I was dosing less but Ca and Alk were dropping). I believed this amount of Kalk would stabilize my Ca and Alk until I started to stock corals more heavily. I have some new precipitation on my glass within the chamber my ATO empties; I have placed a small power head in this chamber. I broke my protein skimmer while cleaning it and have a new one on the way. I believed this is why I have the new precipitation; because the protein skimmer provided circulation to this chamber (not dosing into skimmer chamber, dosing adjacent).
I did a water change yesterday 15 gallons, and had done a water change last week of the same volume. I have been adding BRS soda ash to the tank in small doses over the course of a day to bring the Alk to at least 7 for the last week. This is difficult because the tank seems to consume the Alkalinity faster than I can dose the soda ash in a safe manner. I was puzzled, for about a week it seemed my Alk was dropping but my Ca was stable, just this week my Ca dropped to about 380, at least this follows the expected pattern of decline. I use two Alk test kits a Seachem Alk/pH, and Salifert.
I do see very mild coralline growth, 1/16 inch a few places. The rock in the sump is covered in coralline with some growth.
Water Parameters from today:
Alkalinity 5.7 (AM) 6.7-7.0 (PM) 9 grams soda ash in 0.5 gallon RODI dosed today
Calcium 450
Magnesium 1350
Nitrate 0
pH 8.4
Phos 0
Salinity 1.025
My questions (I want to fix this as much as understand it):
Is it reasonable the Kalk in the ATO is not keeping up, or is it precipitating out?
Is the GFO the culprit, read 1/4 cup my be to much for my size tank?
I keep hearing about bacterial growth, a suspect?
A combination of coralline, and coral growth outpacing Kalk?
-Is it just time for 2 part dosing-
TL;DR My lightly stocked tank is consuming Alk, even with Kalwasser in ATO, time for 2 part?
As my Aquatic log tells me my 66 gallon aquarium is only 2 months and 18 days old, so its new. I am blurry eyed with research, now I think I need to step back and see what a few folks think. The issue I am hoping to lay at the feet of our knowledgable community, my Alkalinity. In the last two weeks my tank has started to consume Alk in large quantities, leading to dramatic swings 7.2-5.7 KH overnight. Up to this point it was very stable and I tested every three days (Alk, Mg, and Ca). I stopped testing Ammonia, Nitrates and Phos because they read zero.
I have one Frogspawn (it has grown) in the DT, and one furry mushroom in the sump, along with a softball size clump of Chaeto. I also have two small black and white clowns and an Orchid Dotty back. There has been GHA for which I began GFO and carbon, along with other measures, which seems to be helping. I dose Kalkwasser in my ATO, 2 teaspoons per gallon (I was dosing less but Ca and Alk were dropping). I believed this amount of Kalk would stabilize my Ca and Alk until I started to stock corals more heavily. I have some new precipitation on my glass within the chamber my ATO empties; I have placed a small power head in this chamber. I broke my protein skimmer while cleaning it and have a new one on the way. I believed this is why I have the new precipitation; because the protein skimmer provided circulation to this chamber (not dosing into skimmer chamber, dosing adjacent).
I did a water change yesterday 15 gallons, and had done a water change last week of the same volume. I have been adding BRS soda ash to the tank in small doses over the course of a day to bring the Alk to at least 7 for the last week. This is difficult because the tank seems to consume the Alkalinity faster than I can dose the soda ash in a safe manner. I was puzzled, for about a week it seemed my Alk was dropping but my Ca was stable, just this week my Ca dropped to about 380, at least this follows the expected pattern of decline. I use two Alk test kits a Seachem Alk/pH, and Salifert.
I do see very mild coralline growth, 1/16 inch a few places. The rock in the sump is covered in coralline with some growth.
Water Parameters from today:
Alkalinity 5.7 (AM) 6.7-7.0 (PM) 9 grams soda ash in 0.5 gallon RODI dosed today
Calcium 450
Magnesium 1350
Nitrate 0
pH 8.4
Phos 0
Salinity 1.025
My questions (I want to fix this as much as understand it):
Is it reasonable the Kalk in the ATO is not keeping up, or is it precipitating out?
Is the GFO the culprit, read 1/4 cup my be to much for my size tank?
I keep hearing about bacterial growth, a suspect?
A combination of coralline, and coral growth outpacing Kalk?
-Is it just time for 2 part dosing-
TL;DR My lightly stocked tank is consuming Alk, even with Kalwasser in ATO, time for 2 part?
