can't maintain alk, mg, and ca

[five.five-six]

since my tnak crash things have been getting better, there a few SPS hanging on, all the LPS and softies made it..well most of the xenia was lost but some of the nubs are growing polyps and the clams are unphased

HERE IS MY PROBLEM, I can not seem to keep my levels up

I am adding ~1.5 gallons of saturated lime water /day

35 grams soda ash 2x/week

50 grams calcium chloride 3x/week

350 grams epsom's 1x/week

I have been doing this for 12 days and the levels stay around

8 dkh
380 ppm ca
1270 ppm Mg


what the heck is going on?

 

[bertoni]

That doesn't sound like a very heavy dosing schedule for that size tank, off hand. Those numbers seem okay to me. This calculator might help:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

 

[five.five-six]

well I do know, up until the crash, kalk alone kept alk and ca ~ 11dkh and >440ppm, consistantly..

can I add epsom salt to my calcium mix? I just got these two dosing pumps for $15.00

 

[bertoni]

Yes, you should be able to dissolve some magnesium into the calcium part.

 

[five.five-six]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11277158#post11277158 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bertoni
Yes, you should be able to dissolve some magnesium into the calcium part.

great, maybe I am calculating this wrong. I am using the calculator and under product I choose "sodium carbonate anhyd./(baked b. soda) I am using 2part solutions soda ash.. just checked again and I am at 7dkh

also, I just got my dosing pumps. any ideas on how many L/day to as a starting point

thanks for all the help so far

 

[bertoni]

The solutions use a different tab on the calculator. It should be labelled something like "Randy's Recipe 1".

 

[five.five-six]

ok, I guess I will start small like 100ml/day and work my way up

 

[bertoni]

You need a more positive tank name.

 

[five.five-six]

I am just in mourning over the loss of my torts. I had some fairly reare and LARGE colonies.. all gone it 48 hours.

I got my two new dosing pumps installed and as soon as my 2-year old finishes his next gallon of milk, i will be ready to go

 

[five.five-six]

just checking b-4 I start, is 100ml/day of randy's 2 part a good starting point for my 100 mixed reef?

 

[bertoni]

That sounds reasonable to me.

 

[five.five-six]

riddle me this batman:

so the dosing 2-part is great, sort of. I have been dosing 2 part for a week, I can tell by the 2 cartons that the pumps are pumping ~ equal amounts of part 1 and part 2. I have been doing it for a week. when I started, ca was 370 and alk was 9 dkh. after a week I checked again and ca is 400, this is good, but alk is now at 7.4 and I tested it twice. this is not only bad but odd, mg is still at 1360, I thought that the solutions were designed to match normal balanced biological demand. obviously, I can crank up the soda ash, but me thinks there is a problem

 

[bertoni]

Hmm, maybe one solution wasn't mixed to the proper strength? That's a lot of drift for one week. What is the precision of the calcium test kit?

 

[five.five-six]

well it is a salifert. I noticed that ph was dropping off so i suspect the alk is correct, I used a scale accurete to 5 grams to make the solutions. yes that is a lot of drift... somthing is not right. just ordered a new calcium test, but I have tested it against a oh crrap i forget waht brand, and they read the same..


I can tell you this, I recently had a huge sps dieoff due to metal poisining, several of the colonys are recouperating with major tissue loss, I wonder if this is a product of injured corrals recouperating?

 

[bertoni]

Decay can consume alkalinity temporarily, but I don't think tissue growth should do so. Hard to say. What's the nitrate level, and have a lot of water changes been done?

 

[five.five-six]

I have not done a wc in 2 weeks, but I did change about 160 gallons in 4 days on my 100gal tank when this all started. turns oty that GFO does a good job of lowering chromium and nickel in your tank... probably better than the water changes. I suspect I have corals that are doing some very un natural healing. I can just do a lot of testing and power dose my way through this. just very weird. there does not seem to be much decay at this point

 

[bertoni]

Well, we'll see how the parameters shape up. Water changes that remove nitrate will deplete alkalinity relative to calcium.

 

[five.five-six]

same thing again this week,

beginning of the week I dosed 30 grams soda ash, which should raise alk from 7 dkh to 11,

been dosing 150 ml/day randys 2 part

just tested, alk =7.1 dkh, calcium =400ppm mg=1380

I suspect the alk is correct as the tank gets worse at maintaining pH as the week goes on

strange

and I do not have all that many high demand corrals, most of those died recently

 

[AlexB650]

Forget about calcium and just dial in your alk first. Then adjust ca-- your tank may be consuming alk way faster

 

[rwbogard]

[violation]