Water displacement & dosing issues?? SPS

[spawn2]

Is it possible in a 55 gal setup with this much sps, to reach a point where the corals demand for supplementation of Ca & Alk & Mg can no longer safely be met by dosing? I have reached a point where I cannot elevate current levels or maintain anything. Reason being is that the salinity keeps going up due to the amount of sups. going in. I'm pretty much at my wits end, as I have been struggling with this since late july of this year. All tests are new elos or hanna, & the refrac is calibrated per checking. so the results are good & have been compared. The tank levels are in a bad pattern of weekly swings in salinity & paras. the corals seem to be alright still.
Ca 350
alk 8
Mg 1400
k 380
When suggested to drop the dose rate to 1.25 ml per gal per day to see if that helped, ( in case it was precipitating out) the levels fell to 320 & 5.6 in 24 hours, Mg was steady @ 1400.

Now I'm wondering if the rapid coral growth could cause enough water displacement to actually negate a drop in the dose rate? because the water volume in the tank has been rapidly decreased? I'm theorizing that it is precipitating out because too much is going in to an already small total volume which has rapidly decreased because of the rapidly growing coral

 

[spawn2]

Nobody has any thoughts on this? Common?

 

[Waterobert]

Wow! Your tank looks great!!!
No expert here, however have one question. Are you dosing calcium and alkalinity at the same time? Some people dose them close together and have precipitation. I dose cal in the morning and alk at the evening.

 

[spawn2]

Thanks. No I use a profilux doser to dose around the clock

 

[spawn2]

ok how much does everyone dose per gal per day. & I know there are more packed tanks than mine out there. Thanks

 

[ReefHoboBum]

It's possible, but I don't think you have too little water volume (but you didn't state what size sump you have either). But if you are in doubt, then trim down your sps to allow for the demand you can keep up with.

 

[spawn2]

This setup is the rsm 250, so the sump is in the back section of the tank. it's rated at 65 gal. I've got about 70lbs of rock, 2-2.5" sand bed & have always thought I had about 54-55 gal of water total. So with the rapid growth I've had this year I' now thinking the water volume has obviously decreased, so ther is now too much 2 part going into to little water causing precip? But yes I will likely have to lose some coral starting soon. That being said, that's not an easy task to set out on either. Trying to figure out how much to get rid of to be able to maintain paras

 

[Crypsis]

My tanks around 160g with sump. I add 17ml x 24 doses per day of both Kh and Ca and 3ml x 14 doses of Mg. This keeps my levels around 450 ppm Ca, 8.5 dkh and 1400 ppm Mg. I try and do 25% water changes every two to four weeks. At the moment it's been five weeks and my Sg is at 1.028 with corals looking fine. I mix my new water to 1.023 to help balance out all the two part I add and so far it's working great for me. Also I'm using the Randy Holmes-Farley two part recipe 1a.

My tank
<a href="http://s1179.photobucket.com/albums/x394/calireefer/?action=view&current=IMG_9207.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1179.photobucket.com/albums/x394/calireefer/IMG_9207.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[spawn2]

thx crypsis. I have been at as high as 3.5 ml per gal this summer. I think I'm going to try a larger % Wc routine going forward. your tank looks great, the similarity that I see between yours & mine is the lack of Coraline, due to the corals using all the supps. although the pic I have posted doesn't really show that that well.maybe it can be seen better in this one. I havent got many good pics, because i just have a cell phone camera.

 

[CUZ]

tagging along!!!

free bump

 

[chrishayes]

Good God that thing is packed. Id say you are in need of an upgrade or some serious thinning. I cant see any room for your coral to grow. Im not surprised to see you up against the wall with your cal and alk. That much going in is gonna wreak havoc on your salinity. I would think for a tank as packed as yours youre either gonna want to switch to a cal rx or really dial in the specific gravity of your waterchanges which is no easy task.

Overall, your system looks incredible but I think your against the "too much coral, too little space" wall. Your only at minicolony levels too. so your corals are gonna want to grow even more to the point where you are gonna lose half your diversity to those that can grow the fastest and win the chemical wars. You have some decisions to make for sure!

 

[spawn2]

I have a 150 with a 60 gal sump in the basement, which is not quite finished being renoed yet, but we're hoping to have it near enough to finished in the late winter or early spring as to the point I can set up the tank. & It has been my goal to make this tank as ridiculously packed as possible. This is my first SW setup ever so I'm quite happy with the progress despite being super discouraged to the point of thinking of getting out, because of the amount of time involved & personal challenges & losses through out the year. Thankyou for all the compliments. Here is a pick of it on May 12 2011

 

[TreyK]

May 12th = my birthday lol

 

[karsseboom]

Simple answer...switch to a calcium reactor, that's the problem with dosing high amounts of 2 part.