Can't keep parameters stable

[jccaclimber]

Tank: 29 gallon biocube.
Lights: Rapid Aurora puck.
Age: >2 years
Note: Moved from Indiana to Texas ~6 months ago
Fish: 2 clowns
CUC: Small hermits, snails.
Inverts: 2x rbta, various lps, sps, softie.
Macro: Chaeto on a CFL, same cycle as tank lights
Top off: kalk added manually
NO3/PO4: Solid 0 on a low res API kit. I can dose 5 ppm KNO3 and it will still test 0 24 hours later.

Even pre-move I have always had low alk (5-6, cheap API kit, confirmed at three LFS in different states), but the corals always did well so I didn't worry about it.
In February I noticed all of my coraline vanishing. Not dying and turning white, flat out disappearing from the back wall. All corals growing, but I got nervous.

Question: Why can't I get my alk and Ca to stay up?

Test history:

March 3rd I replaced my empty test kits, found my alk at 6 (API), calcium at 390 (Red Sea), Mg at 1300 (red sea). I got similar results on 3/4 and 3/7.
On 3/10 I used epsom salt to raise my Mg to 1350 with 40 g epsom salt.
On 3/19 I started putting in B-ionic, 5 mL of A and 5 mL of B daily.
On 3/23 I started upped the dose to 8 mL each as my Alk was not changing no Mg or Ca testing).
On 3/24 after dosing the alk was up to 7.
3/25 Mg tested 1320 so I brought it to 1360 with 50 g epsom. Alk was measuring 7/8. Ca at 410.
4/5 I dosed 50 g epsom (continuing daily B-ionic). Mg at 1400, alk 7/8.
4/18 The alk was still reading 7, but the Mg read 1520 (tested twice). Noting that what seemed like heavy dosing wasn't bringing things up I took my hands out of the tank for a while other than to feed.
4/30 (today). Mg still reading high despite no more dosing (1560?). No reason to distrust the kit, but where did it come from? Alk was 6, Ca at 400.

When I dose, levels barely pull up, but I feel like if my skeleton growth were really that high it should plummet, or I should have signs of unhealthy coral when I stop dosing.

 

[bertoni]

Many tanks go through 2-3 dKH per day. My soft coral tanks consumed that due to coralline growth. That was 15-20 ml per day of the DIY two-part, plus full-strength Kalk, as I recall.

I would measure alkalinity every day, and dose the two-part daily according to the result. You should get a trend line fairly quickly.

Those magnesium numbers probably are in line with noise limits in the test kit. 1520 and 1560 ppm probably are close to indistinguishable, being within 3% or so of each other. I would measure calcium and magnesium weekly for a bit, just to track them. Test noise makes daily testing fairly pointless unless you're doing a lot of special dosing.

 

[Pokahpolice]

Agreed with above comment. Also on a smaller tank, topping off manually will make it very challenging to keep levels stable.

 

[jccaclimber]

If I'm understanding this correctly:
1) My tank might actually be consuming that much alk/calcium.
2) Dosing is going to be difficult, especially as I get home 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through the light cycle. I'm going to end up with large swings until I come up with a different solution.
3) I'll try daily dosing at 10 cc and see what happens.
4) I've been testing alk daily because it is easy, and the others every couple days to see what happens. It sounds like this is overkill.


Would it help to dose half in the morning and half in the evening to at least decrease the shock to the tank when I dose, or will it not matter? I'm not willing to do that manually long term, but I am willing to do it for a month or two to see if I get results which justify automating the process.

 

[Scorpius]

Dosing pumps are in your near future. I work almost seven days a week and i cannot dose manually to keep things stable.

 

[bertoni]

Dosing twice a day might be enough. Some experimentation will let you know. My soft coral tanks got 2-3 dKH in one shot, once a day, for quite a while. Later, I added Kalk, but I'm not sure how much the dosing actually went down.

 

[jccaclimber]

Dosing twice a day might be enough. Some experimentation will let you know. My soft coral tanks got 2-3 dKH in one shot, once a day, for quite a while. Later, I added Kalk, but I'm not sure how much the dosing actually went down.

Assuming that you moved to something that delivers a more gradual dose through the day, did you notice any change in growth/conditions as a result of the change?

 

[bertoni]

No, I never saw a difference, but I had no stony corals in the system.