Need help on correcting my dosing schedule

ksicard

New member
Alright so here's my situation, 3 weeks ago I had my tank very stable for about 5 months and my sps were all growing and healthily encrusting showing decent coloring. I then went on vacation for a week and a half, but I made a mistake. The day before I left I went to the LFS to pick up some food and what not to make sure my tank sitter had everything they would need, but this gorgeous sunset milli (maricultured mini colony) caught my eye and I had to have it. So I proceeded to buy it and I knew I would have to make the right adjustments to my dosing pumps in the short amount of time I had. I thought I was able to make the right adjustments but turns out I didn't, I came back and my parameters were all out of wack. 7.6DKH, 600+ ca, 1750+ mg. Also while I was gone, somehow my return hose seperated from my return pump for two days so I'm sure that had something to do with it since my dosing pump lines feed into the sump.

I lost a birdsnest which isn't a big deal and one of my mini colonies had started to stn from the bottom but only a little bit so I didn't have any huge losses just a bit of a set back. And of course my color has declined a good bit but PE is still very noticible.

I've been back for 9 days now and have done 2 water changes and cut off my dosing pumps except for alk so that I can bring my ca and mg down. Here's where my dillema is, I'm having a very hard time getting my dosing schedule correct so that my parameters remain stable. It seem's like my corals consumption has completely changed and my old dosing schedule that kept my tank solid doesn't work what so ever. I left my alk pump on since it was the only parameter that wasn't sky high and it seems like my corals are consuming significantly less alk than before. So I'm looking for advice on how to get my dosing stable in the quickest way possible so I don't have any more stn/rtn occur. The change in consumption seem's to be that my corals are consuming less than before even though I added a mini colony and I'm just trying to see if anyone has a better method than testing every 3 days and changing the dosing accordingly, since I'm having a good bit of trouble getting it right. It was much easier to get it right while stocking the tank when adding a few corals here and there instead of now when my tank is stocked fairly well.

It's a 75g tank with a 45g sump, BRS dosing supplements hooked up to a bubble magus dosing pump, nutrients are in check, plenty of flow and light, and ample filtration. I just need a little advice on getting the dosage correct, yesterdays parameters were 11 dkh, 490ca, 1680mg. The alk is the one causing the most trouble since the consumption has reduced by a good bit, I cut back my alk dosing since it went up so quickly and I'm leaving ca and mg pumps off untill it falls back into the normal range. I typically keep my tank at 9.5-10 dkh, 1400-1500mg, and 410-440 ca, which my tank has done very well at and is where I would like to get it back to.

So any experinced sps reefers that use liquid supplements for ca/mg/dkh please let me know if you have a efficent method for getting dosage amounts setup quickly. I apologize for the lengthy post, and thanks in advance.
 
I'll take a look at it, thank you! And it's not a giant problem, i'm just dissapointed that my tank isn't stable anymore and I think I may be chasing my old sps colors for a few months. I just want it to be corrected as fast as possible without shocking my tank to much. Thanks again
 
My guess would be that with the stress of the parameters swinging, the corals are not growing as fast as they were before. What are your targets for all of your parameters?

If you are significantly above your target parameters for all of your big three, I would personally stop all dosing and test every couple of days to get a new baseline for consumption. Then when you reach the target levels, you will have a good idea of how to set your dosing pumps again. It may still take some minor adjustments, but at least it should get you in the ballpark.
 
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