can't maintain alk, mg, and ca

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

rwbogard, I presume you have two drips, right? You cannot combine them prior to addition to the tank, even in top off water.

FWIW, Any two part system will provide the effect you see.

FWIW, I also expect that you are about to be warned for shilling. You cannot promote your own products that way.

 

[rwbogard]

Yes, two drips, one for each part. My apologies, I just thought others would like a free sample too.

 

[mhurley]

rwbogard, please read our [ua].

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

rwbogard:

IMO, as a bystander rather than any official rep of RC, I am bothered not by free samples or even by violations of the UA, but by the way you intentionally PRETEND to be a happy user rather than the seller.

That sort of behavior takes away from all the useful experiences that real product users report here.

 

[billsreef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11383170#post11383170 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Randy Holmes-Farley
That sort of behavior takes away from all the useful experiences that real product users report here.

And therein lies the original and prime reason for the commercial rules in our [ua] We like unbiased commentary as opposed to advertising.

 

[five.five-six]

while, I appreciate the unsolicited offer, I have faith in, whether it is from 2part or any other vendor, food grade known supplements. this way I know what I am putting in my tank.

at this point I am suspecting borate saturation even though I have never used a borate based buffer

let me make a short time line

April 07:

I get a light / moderate calcium demand 100 gal tank off craigslist. at this point I install a ACIII to control saturated kalkwasser dossing. and manually dose mg (Epsom's and / or mag flake) for this period i am using coralife salt and my mg, alk and ca run a bit high but I am not all that worried, ~1500, 11dkh, 450 respectively. all is good

June 07:

tank has settled down after initial setup in April, I am feeling confident with the system, and am delighted with very good coloration and growth rates, I start adding some high demand corrals IE: large a. tortusa, at this point saturated lime-water is satisfying all my alk and ca demands, levels are still a bit high but it is cool


October 07:

I have quite a tank now, things are growing fast! I am fraging all the time now and making a bit of money I have rare desirable corals that are growing fast. at this point I am beginning to make small adjustments to alk and ca in addition to saturated lime-water. I am considering 2 dosing pumps or calcium reactor



November 07:

the poop hits the fan, a moonlight led falls in my tank while on and fizzes away for 6 hours while i am at work, all the plating on the electrical connectors was removed with dialysis. I have massive die off most all acropora gone, other SPS run about 50% loss, LPS ~25% loss. I have recently have bought 82#s o Tropic marin salt and go through most of it in the next few days trying to dilute toxins. (about 160 gallons of WC in one week, 100 gal tank) it turns out that GFO appears to have done a good job here.

I had recently installed 2 adjustable 400ml-4l/hr dosing pumps and have them running 15 minutes a night @ 400ml/hr setting


December 07:

now I can no longer maintain alk with saturated lime-water and 100ml/day Randy's 2 part, I am also adding 30 grams of soda ash a week and falling behind. sure I can just crank up the dosing pump. but something is wrong

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, if you are dosing "heavily" but do not see excessive precipitation of calcium carbonate on things like heaters and pumps, then it is likely being used by corals and coralline algae. The numbers you post in the first post look OK to me, and I'd just keep dosing for now as is (aside from the Epsom salt which I wouldn't keep dosing).

 

[five.five-six]

I am seeing percipitation on the walls of the sump, heavely in the dosing area. the epsoms or mag flak I just dose when needed. i am testing with salifert, and veriied with awt, I tested water from the same sample i sent it. only thing is that alk tests 2dkh high with salfert

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Are you monitoring pH? Are you adding the limewater very slowly?

I'd probably stop using soda ash and use baking soda type materials.

Maybe stop the limewater entirely until the precipitation issue stops. High pH makes it much worse.

 

[five.five-six]

yes, I am using the aquamedic dosser with a ACIII for limewater like this:

If pH < 08.10 Then DOS ON
If pH > 08.11 Then DOS OFF

and I calibrate my probe fairly often.

as far as soda ash are you saying switch to b. baking soda, or just change for a while?

according to my datalog, my mean ph does not appear to excede 8.25 I suspect I waii always have percipitation problems on the dosing area as there is a lag time of a seccond or two from when the ph reaches 8.1 and the pump shuts off

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

How fast does it add limewater?

Where are you measuring the pH in relation to the doser addition to the tank?

Is there much flow and turbulence in the sump?

The concern is the local pH in the sump when dosing.

 

[five.five-six]

I dose at 3l/ hr, when the pump is on but it is only on ~ 10% of the time

the probe is a few inches from the efluant tubes.

when I tweek my alk, I mix the soda ash with ro/di in a milk bottel, then I flush the calk dosing systym with a light viniger / ro solution, then connect the limewater pump to my gallon of alk solution, that way I do not spike my ph, it takes about 24 hours to dose a gallon of alk,


the sump location has low to moderate turbulance, it contains my return pump. I just orderde a bunch of nano 250 gph powerheads, I can put one of those in there. that section is ~ 12" x 12" x 12"

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I can't see an obvious reason for the precipitate. If you stop dosing the two part, do the alk and calcium values drop?

 

[five.five-six]

it is hard to say, i just started that a few weeks ago and it is only 100 ml/day of your 2part.

the calcium is holding steady ~400 at this rate, but the alk keeps dropping. and limewater used to keep them both steady. I suspect my alk test is fairly accurate, as my limwater consumtion goes up when the alk reads low, remember limewater dosing is pH controled

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If alkalinity drops below where you want it, then you need to continue dosing, unless you can find a way to reduce the precipitation. Maybe one of your kits is off. Maybe mag is low, maybe calcium or alkalinity is high.

 

[lowbudget]

i am having a similar problem but i know i have low mg. and my alk is around 7 and 8.
i dont know what to tell you. i just keep dosing. need to take my refractormeter to ali this weekend.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If magnesium is low, by all means boost it to about 1300 ppm, maybe even 1400 ppm.

 

[five.five-six]

this is just getting ridiculous. I am dosing 200 ml for each part which according to the reef chemistry calculator is 1 meq/l a day and my alkalinity is staying at 8.3, the 200 ml according to the calculator is 20ppm in 100 gal of water but is is just sitting at 360ppm, ma mg tests at 1350 but i just added 550 grams of Epsom's salt which should bring it up to 1500. I am at a total loss. the precipitant is so high that I just changed my media in my GFO / GAC reactor and it was coming out in chunks. just got a new calcium test and it reads the same as the old one

 

[five.five-six]

I just bought a new MG test kit from elos, I understand they are much bettter than salifert

 

[five.five-six]

well both kits read the same, but a few days ago I bumped my mg to read just over 1500, and gave my sump a vinegar bath. ALK and calcium are coming up, my ALK read 9 last night and ca crept up to 380, and the sump is staying clean