Dosing 2 part seems massive

[Jackri]

Right now I have a 90g mixed reef with a couple of clams, a lot of coraline and moderate amount of stonies.

All my topoff water is kalk which is about 1 1/2 gallons a day and I drip 20 oz of alk 2 part (10-13 oz twice a day roughly) and I add 300-400ml of calcium 2 part a day and it doesn't keep up.

A reactor isn't in the works but really shouldn't my alk be above 5-6 and calcium above 320 with all the dosing? Everything is really healthy and looks better than these older pics but it's what I got

Sorry for the whitish water as kalk was just added and stupid facebook won't bring up the fullshot I want

 

[bertoni]

Are you dosing the DIY 2-part? If so, recipe 1 or recipe 2?

If you're dosing the recipe 1, I agree that the amount seems very high. Are there any signs of precipitation, other than the white water?

The water shouldn't turn white when kalk is added. That might indicate a problem. How much is added in one dose?

 

[jimsplace]

Sounds way too much. I've had a similar problem in that with serious overdoses, the alk and cal precipate out and leave your numbers on the low end. I have a 90 too you can look at my pic's @ my home page which were taken prior to my tank crashing due to the overdose. I was dosing about 180ml/day of alk and cal. I am currently repopulating my tank with primarily sps and am only dosing about 70-80ml/day. I think the rule of thumb is something like 1ml/gallon. I would cut your dosing way back, give it a few days to stabilize and check the numbers again. I did that until my numbers dropped and then let it sit before trying to raise the numbers. How long have you been dosing at this level?

 

[rad1687]

what are your magnesium levels?

 

[barjam]

Yes you are overdosing for sure. Heavy sps tanks will be in the ~1-2ml/gallon range.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Do you see precipitation, such as on heaters and pumps? Some is normal, a lot forming rapidly is not.

You may also have a testing issue.

The calcium will have to be brought up by adding just the calcium part, not both parts equally. Do a few large doses of calcium only based on this calculator to go from the 320 (if you believe it is accurate) to 420 ppm in a couple of days:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[jimsplace]

I forgot to mention earlier that the "look" of your rock work looks just like mine did. I would do some water changes after blowing the rockwork off with a power head or turkey baster. Randy has a good point on the testing issue, but I suspect the quanities you are dosing are precipating out. I overdosed for months and wound up with a phosphate problem in my rockwork.

 

[mtaswt]

I was having the same issue that you are. I was dosing over 260ml a day on my 156 gallon and I was struggling to get my alk above 9 and my calcium above 380. I eventually turned off my dosing pumps for 3 days and let things settle. I was worried about my corals, but everything faired pretty well and then I resume with my dosing, although at a MUCH LOWER rate. I am now dosing at approximately 160ml day and my numbers are right where I would like them. So you may want to try and shut things down temporarily and see if that works? Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[barjam]

I was having the same issue that you are. I was dosing over 260ml a day on my 156 gallon and I was struggling to get my alk above 9 and my calcium above 380. I eventually turned off my dosing pumps for 3 days and let things settle. I was worried about my corals, but everything faired pretty well and then I resume with my dosing, although at a MUCH LOWER rate. I am now dosing at approximately 160ml day and my numbers are right where I would like them. So you may want to try and shut things down temporarily and see if that works? Good luck and keep us posted!

Yes, the exact same thing happened to me. I couldn't keep alk up. Cut the dose in half and it started to rise. I settled on ~1/3 of the dose I was before.

 

[James77]

Do you see precipitation, such as on heaters and pumps? Some is normal, a lot forming rapidly is not.

Also check your sand bed, when I had a similar problem it was binding several large areas of my sandbed into rock like patched I had to smash off rocks with a hammer. I use caribsea seafloor special grade, and a couple others reading into it had similar problems. I ultimately switched to recipe 2 and the problem went away. I think I am back with recipe one thouhg.....I only mix every 4 months and I forget