Trying to get balance

[lboud39]

So ever since July I’ve been trying to crack down and get alkalinity and calcium stable and in harmony. I’ve read pretty much all of Randy’s articles and tried a few different products with no success of getting alkalinity on point. After daily testing I have nailed down that my tank uses 30ppm of calcium a day. My testing of alkalinity has been all over the place, ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 dKh a day. According to articles this is out of balance for biological use and I’m not seeing large buildup of precipitate.

Currently my Mg has been high for about a month now and I’m letting it come down by itself slowly over time. I read that different corals use Mg at different rates but Ive had the alk problem before when my Mg was at a normal range.

At first I was trying to manually dose with Seachem calcium and reef builder independently. After no real success I read into two part systems and they seemed so easy so I purchased Reef Fusion 1 and 2. I tried to dial in the balanced dosage and after a few days my levels started to drift south. So I went to the reef calculator and calculated out the needed dosage. I’ve made cheat sheets with level to dose for 1 and 2 and have been dosing independently and still seeing swings in alkalinity usage.
So after rereading some articles and further confusing myself I’m deciding to try to finish off the two part system again and then evaluate wither I want to stay with it or switch to a Kalk ATO.

So I guess my question pertains to both 2 part and Kalk, when using a calculator for dosing what perimeter should I use to adjust my dose? Since cal and alk are not currently aligned the two dosages to bring me back up to level are different depending on what perimeter I look at.

 

[thegrun]

When you dose you should drip in in slowly in a high flow area or you will have some precipitation. If you use kalk you still need to get your parameters in balance, kalk will only maintain the current levels, not bring them into balance. What levels are you shooting for? If you are looking for high numbers (calcium at 440+, alkalinity above 9.5 dKh) it becomes difficult to keep things stable without using a doser making multiple doses throughout the day.

 

[lboud39]

I've rigged up a bottle with a air valve and use that to drip into a powerhead. What im shooting for is 10.5 dKh (to allow it to drop to 9.5 in a 24 hour period) and 440 cal. I understand that Kalk is for maintenance but if I cannot get consistency to begin with still going to be allover the place if I do switch to Kalk.

 

[lboud39]

Also with that big of swing of Alk, I cannot dost enough Kalk using ATO to maintain.

 

[Sk8r]

Is this a 10 gallon tank? 50? 200?

 

[lboud39]

55g, my dosing is bases on 53G.

 

[lboud39]

Might as well provide all my details. Someone might see a problem and point it out.

Running since 12/13
55G tank
60lbs CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Reef Sand, Fiji Pink
60ish Lbs rock
Reef Octopus HB-100 skimmer
Cascade 700 Canister with 500ish grams of carbon
two little fishes GFO reactor with 150G of GFO
2 T5 bulbs
1 48" Orbit USA LED fixture
2 50W heaters
1 Hydor Koralia Evolution 1050/1150 Aquarium Circulation Pump 1050-1150 GPH
1 Hydor Koralia Evolution 425

I use RODI water for salt mixes

1 Blue Damsal
1 Coral Beauty Angle
1 emerald crab

3 small Monti caps
1 medium Moti digi
1 golf ball sized birdsnest
1 4 in Acro plug
10 head frogspawn
2 head hammer
1 1 head duncan
8 head candycane
1 8in slipper/tongue
few colonies of assorted zoas
20 or so assorted mushrooms
and im sure other things im missing

 

[lboud39]

Last try.

 

[danil]

Part of the issue could be your method of testing. Measuring value of Alk is not the same during 24h cycle. So you have to run your tests at the same time. Our test kits are not the same as in chemical labs so some deviations are normal. Though Alk is one of the easiest test to run it's still better to have good test kit for it or even use Alk Hanna checker for better consistency. Also I would stop trying to correct levels changing dosing amount every day... stick with the same dosage for few days - then correct it a bit.
GL

 

[edinphilly]

Part of the issue could be your method of testing. Measuring value of Alk is not the same during 24h cycle. So you have to run your tests at the same time. Our test kits are not the same as in chemical labs so some deviations are normal. Though Alk is one of the easiest test to run it's still better to have good test kit for it or even use Alk Hanna checker for better consistency. Also I would stop trying to correct levels changing dosing amount every day... stick with the same dosage for few days - then correct it a bit.
GL

+1 on method of testing

For whatever reason a lot of us end up with API kits as our first and they end up being very hard to get accurate and consistent readings with.

 

[lboud39]

I understand. I usually test and dose within about a two hour period with Red Sea Pro testing kits. Thursday I started noting the exact time to try to get a actual rate of consumption for when I eventually suck it up and purchase a dosing pump.

I guess one last question. While only testing before and after dosing this two hour period doesn't reflect the actual rate of consumption by coral. I'm guessing corals don't consume calcium and alk at the same rate throughout the photic and aphotic cycle. With this being said do people with dosing pumps on timers choose not to dose at night or am I looking too much into this and should dose equally throughout the 24h period?

 

[Mark9]

I've read that generally people dose for kh at night, ca during the day.
It's what I do.
For you, i'd use 48 gallons in your calculations (rock/sand displacement).
Do a correction in the evening to get your levels where you want them, ie kh 8.4, ca 420.
Don't dose anything and check your kh in 24 hours.
It should be lower.
If it's 8.0, use the calculator to find the ml needed to get back to 8.4, dose that same amount for kh & ca.
Don't do anything for 3 days or so, then re-test kh.
If it's a bit low, up the dosage (of both) a bit until you find equilibrium.
When it's stable, you can then do a final adjustment of both kh & ca to get to the level you want, or if it's acceptable, leave it.
You basically want to find daily usage of kh then dose equal parst kh & ca..

 

[lboud39]

Thanks for the input.