reefkeeper78
New member
I'm having issues.... My tank went largely untouched for 6 weeks. No water changes, no dosing. I just kept the ATO full and fed the fish. My reasoning for not touching the tank was due to home renovations. While maintaining my 40h job, I was coming home and putting in another 50 plus hours at home trying to get the basement done so the disruption to home life could be kept to a minimal.
So.. first of two questions.
Why did my calcium go up to 620ppm from aournd 440-460ppm. I triple checked the results with LFS and bought a new test kit from API. All three results coincided with each other. The Alk was around 7dkh and mag around 1380 with SG at 1.026 and PH averaging 7.9. My calcium doser ran out the first week, and the alk doser ran out around the 4th week.
Second question, I've struggled to successfully keep fish long term. Mostly chromis, damsels and cardinal fish. My water parameters have been stable but the PH has always been low. Could my low PH be part of the cause. Does low PH indicate low oxygen content in the water column? I have already vented my skimmer outside and put an air boot on my furnace. These both make a big difference. When the skimmer is off for any length of time, the PH drops to around 7.6 ish until it comes back on. I have a wife and 4 kids plus two dogs in the house. Being winter here, the house is sealed pretty well. My water flow is between 900-1100gph with three power heads that flow aprox. 22gph. The surface of the water is agitated well both in the display and sump.
I don't currently add kalk to my top off but could. I've been nervous to add it as I'm not sure what it would do to my calcium or alk levels. I'm looking for advice on this topic. Also if I do add kalk, do I need to add it through a reactor or can I just saturate the top off water in my 5gal jug?
My tank profile is this, 120g display with 125g basement sump with super reef octopus skimmer vented outside, GFO/Carbon reactor, two dosing pumps dosing alk (baked baking soda) and calcium carbonate, 140lbs live rock, 3 inch fine sand, refugium with light on opposite schedule. The tank is lightly stocked
with fish (cuz I can' keep them alive) and mixed corals, softies, LPS and some SPS
Sorry for rambling on
So.. first of two questions.
Why did my calcium go up to 620ppm from aournd 440-460ppm. I triple checked the results with LFS and bought a new test kit from API. All three results coincided with each other. The Alk was around 7dkh and mag around 1380 with SG at 1.026 and PH averaging 7.9. My calcium doser ran out the first week, and the alk doser ran out around the 4th week.
Second question, I've struggled to successfully keep fish long term. Mostly chromis, damsels and cardinal fish. My water parameters have been stable but the PH has always been low. Could my low PH be part of the cause. Does low PH indicate low oxygen content in the water column? I have already vented my skimmer outside and put an air boot on my furnace. These both make a big difference. When the skimmer is off for any length of time, the PH drops to around 7.6 ish until it comes back on. I have a wife and 4 kids plus two dogs in the house. Being winter here, the house is sealed pretty well. My water flow is between 900-1100gph with three power heads that flow aprox. 22gph. The surface of the water is agitated well both in the display and sump.
I don't currently add kalk to my top off but could. I've been nervous to add it as I'm not sure what it would do to my calcium or alk levels. I'm looking for advice on this topic. Also if I do add kalk, do I need to add it through a reactor or can I just saturate the top off water in my 5gal jug?
My tank profile is this, 120g display with 125g basement sump with super reef octopus skimmer vented outside, GFO/Carbon reactor, two dosing pumps dosing alk (baked baking soda) and calcium carbonate, 140lbs live rock, 3 inch fine sand, refugium with light on opposite schedule. The tank is lightly stocked
with fish (cuz I can' keep them alive) and mixed corals, softies, LPS and some SPS
Sorry for rambling on