Excessive 2-part consumption

[Ruu]

My pH has been hovering around 7.8 / 7.9 for the last 24 hours. I pulled the pH probe from my older apex and added it into the new tank right next to the old one, then re-calibrated them both to ensure I am getting accurate readings. I can live with 7.8.

I took the opportunity to do a pretty big water change today (60 gallons - about 2 hours of fun), and my parameters are looking pretty good, if a tiny bit high for me - 450 and 9.6.

I'm going to back off the dosing to sane levels for a while, and we shall see if baking soda does better for this tank than carbonate.

Dave

 

[bertoni]

It'll be interesting to see how the tank responds. I'm not sure what was happening yet.

 

[Ruu]

I'll do a bunch of testing this evening and see where things lie. Previously, when I backed off dosing by this much for over 24 hours, there would be a big noticeable drop in Ca and Alk. Hopefully not this time - pH is at least sitting pretty stable (at about 8 right now), so fingers crossed.

I will say that whatever the problem is, it appears to be occurring in the sump. There isn't that much noticeable precipitation in the main tank itself (and no sandbed hardening), but there is some pretty noticeable precipitation across any flat surface in the sump. I moved all dosing up to the main tank, and increased flow through the sump by about 30%, so maybe it is a combination of that plus baking soda? Just one of those? Neither? Science is hard.

Dave

 

[HBtank]

I had the same issues with my tank. Got rid of two parts and went with Cal reactor, problem solves.

That's not solving the problem.... that's avoiding it.

 

[Ruu]

Calcium is at 460 and alk is at 8.6. I think I've been dosing about 80 per day of each, and it seems as though there is a little bit more alk consumption than calcium right now (although that's not accounting for carbonate vs bicarbonate, when I think about it).

I'm going to dial back calcium to 40, and see where alk is tomorrow before I turn that down any more, but parameters seem at least within spitting distance of being normal so that's good.

Dave

 

[bertoni]

Okay, that sounds like good progress!

 

[Ruu]

Calcium was 450 tonight (at the new 40ml per day dosing) - that's within the margin of error for steady state, but alk has dropped to 7.7 dkh in a day (from 8.6 at the same point yesterday), even dosing 80ml. I've increased dosing to account for that, but it looks like I am still consuming quite a bit more alk than calcium.

Hopefully things are just in the process of calming down - at least the calcium side of the equation has stopped going crazy (for now).

Dave

 

[bertoni]

If you are using the same calcium chloride solution as before, the consumption ratio should be two parts alkalinity supplement to 1 part calcium supplement. The baking soda solution is very dilute.

 

[Ruu]

If you are using the same calcium chloride solution as before, the consumption ratio should be two parts alkalinity supplement to 1 part calcium supplement. The baking soda solution is very dilute.

Yup - I think that right now I am dosing the equivalent of 40ml per day of calcium (vs 240 before) and 80ml per day of alk (vs 240 before). It's still somewhat high for a new tank, but we have at least left the "danger zone".

Actions taken so far (in case anyone is going through this later on):

• Relocated dosing out of sump and into main tank
• Switched from soda ash dosing to sodium bicarbonate
• Increased flow through the sump
• 30% water change
• Drunk a lot of beer

I don't know that I am going to do much else just yet beyond daily testing. Everything in the tank is looking pretty happy, so things haven't gone too far off the rails.

Dave

 

[bertoni]

Okay, well, hopefully, the consumption will be reasonable going forward.

 

[Ruu]

Had a 14 hour power outage which threw a bit of a wrench in the careful monitoring plan. Aside from a bit of a ph drop from running gas fireplaces for over 12 hours that bit went pretty smoothly though I think. I'm holding pretty steady at 430 and 8.6 at current dosing levels with my pH between 7.8 and 8.

Current plan of do nothing and drink beer seems to be working.

Dave

 

[bertoni]

I like your plan. Those numbers all are fine.