brand new 150 gal tank sucking up the alkalinity and calcium

[petemichelle]

say I just put water in my 150 as well, and trying to get me levels stable is being a pain. I use the brs calculator to figure out how much alkalinity and calcium to put in and the levels initially come up if I test a hour or so after I put it in. then a bout 5 hours later the levels are back down to 8 and 9 dkh, from the 12.2 that I adjusted them to. also the calcium the same. I add about 1000ml of each each day in 3- 5 hour periods. I don't have anything in here but live sand from Oceans Live, and dry rock. I was wondering if your or anybody else is having this issue. it's as if i'm pouring the stuff down a black hole. Maybe because it's a brand new tank and the dry rock is sucking up the alkalinity and calcium??? i've got 150lbs of aquaMax dry rock from marine depot. give a shout out if you've run across this. or are going through the same thing. i've already gone through a gallon of each...


the magnesium is at 1400 and stable, the salinity is at 1.024 and also stable. ph is 8.3

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[JSaquatics]

If it's a new tank set up I wouldn't be dosing anything yet because your tank is going to go thru a few cycles and yes your measurements will be out of whack also are you using Rodi water

 

[petemichelle]

Yes I am using Rodi water. I started with red sea pro salt. I'm going to start using my doser. my thought is that maybe if I brought up the alkalinity by adding the soda ash gradually throughout the day. I'm going to start with 300ml of soda ash split up into 24 doses during the day. same with the calcium 300 ml split up into 24 doses. one will dose on the hour and one will dose 10 minutes after that. I couldn't figure out a way to make the bubble magus doser dose on the hour and on the half hour as the minutes are not adjustable for the time start. anyway, I've got my fingers crossed. any suggestions please let me know.

 

[petemichelle]

i'm having no luck at all. I started out dosing 300ml day broken into 24 doses which means it does on the hour every hour for alk. then 10 minutes later it does the calcium, every hour. after a day the readings were 9.8 alk and 400 cal
I bumped it up to 500ml a day same cycling. after 24 hours it was 9.8 alk and 400 cal. I then bumped it up to 700 a day and after a day the readings were 9.8 alk and 400 cal. I'm going to start backing off until it drops from 9.8 and 400. anything extra is just not taking effect. I mean I can dump in some red sea alk and raise it to 11.8 after one hour, but 6 hours later it's back down to 9.8. I see the stuff dissolve and I get the higher reading initially so all of it can't be precipitating. seems like something is just sucking it out of the water. maybe because the tank is going through its initial cycling.

I'm going to try another tack. I'm just going to start backing down until i see a drop and then leave it there until it finishes it's cycle.

I do have a request. can anybody who has a tank volume around the same as mine (135 gal of water total in tank and sump) in a 150 display, and using the BRS 2 part respond and tell me what their levels are, and how much they are dosing. it would be a great help because at this point my head is spinning and I don't know what the norms are.

 

[petemichelle]

there's nobody out there using BRS 2 part chemicals willing to share what their daily uptake is for alk, and cal. wow, I would've thought that a lot of people would be using their chemicals. I still can't believe that there is NO ONE using it. Just take a minute please and share how much you dose your system daily.

 

[reefpeeper]

The smartest thing to do is just wait until your tank is cycled. Right now there is no point of adding anything at all because no coral is in tank. U are just wasting additives. Get levels correct a few days before livestock addition then see what uptake is like.

 

[Jon Warner]

these guys are 100% right.... just don't mess with it. Run the tank as-is for a few weeks and don't put any critters in it!! Test it then. By dumping in Sodium Carbonate you're wreaking havoc on your Calcium/Alk balance.

 

[kschweer]

I agree with others. Don't try to chase numbers. Just keep things stable. You alk and cal are within acceptable ranges so I wouldnt be worried especially in a cycling tank. I keep both my frag tank and display at 8.4 dkh and 420 cal. So like I said your numbers fall in line.

 

[petemichelle]

I agree with others. Don't try to chase numbers. Just keep things stable. You alk and cal are within acceptable ranges so I would be worried especially in a cycling tank. I keep both my frag tank and display at 8.4 dkh and 420 cal. So like I said your numbers fall in line.

thank you for your reply, is there a reason you and others are hesitant to share with me how much your average daily dosing is????? thank you for your levels.

 

[kschweer]

The only reason I didn't is because I do not use the BRS cal/alk and I'm not sure if the "concentration" of the 2 products are the same. Don't want to confuse things anymore. Are you seeing any precipitation when dosing? For what it's worth I'm using brightwell code a and b for my cal and alk. For my frag system 40g total water volume I'm dosing 8ml code a (cal) and 10ml code b (alk) daily. For my display 70g total water volume I'm dosing 14ml code a and 18ml code b. What are your mag and salinity levels?

 

[evan.lundberg4]

I agree with others. Don't try to chase numbers. Just keep things stable. You alk and cal are within acceptable ranges so I would be worried especially in a cycling tank. I keep both my frag tank and display at 8.4 dkh and 420 cal. So like I said your numbers fall in line.

+1 on this. Stability within acceptable range is all that matters. However I can tell you that until your tank has been running a while and things cycle and settle out your wasting your time checking abs adjusting parameters. Best thing you can do is let it sit and run for a month and then see where you're at.

 

[Jon Warner]

thank you for your reply, is there a reason you and others are hesitant to share with me how much your average daily dosing is????? thank you for your levels.

Easy answer.

Some people dose 5ml of Ca/Alk per day and have stable parameters and other people dose 200ml per day. It all depends on your particular bio-load.

 

[petemichelle]

okay, stopped dosing as everyone suggested. I actually dropped it to 150ml for 2 days and the alk went down to 7.6 cal at 410. I started seeing a white building up on the glass and equipments, so I just threw my hands up and shut off the doser completely. Started cleaning the equipment. my question is, when the tank finishes cycling and I gert 0 ammonia, and 0 nitrites, I'll do a 40% water change to get rid of the nitrates, then what. I'll still be in the same boat as now only the readings will be really low since I haven't been keeping them up. do I just start the dosing all over again with the same issues? If it doesn't take now or if something is soaking up the alkalinity now, then won't it just do it then, only I'll have fish in there to worry about. or do you think the water will act differently once it goes through the cycling phase?

anybody out there with a deep sand bed? how long before I start seeing the air bubbles in my sand bed?

thanks to all who have contributed and tried to help...

 

[PatW]

I think you are getting a calcium carbonate precipitation out of your salt water. Calcium carbonate is super saturated in sea water. The high magnesium levels in seawater prevent calcium carbonate from precipitating. If I am right, you need to check your magnesium levels. I think I remember this being discussed in the BRS videos on 2 part dosing.

 

[cginter]

There is no need to be dosing if you have no corals in your tank. Your pre salt mix should be all you need for your tank to start and thrive as a fish only tank. Your doing more harm by dumping additives to your tank when there's no need.

 

[jcdeng]

how much flow do you have in your tank? if theres minimal flow the alk and cal might just settle to the bottom and bind with each other and ppt out.

 

[petemichelle]

I think you are getting a calcium carbonate precipitation out of your salt water. Calcium carbonate is super saturated in sea water. The high magnesium levels in seawater prevent calcium carbonate from precipitating. If I am right, you need to check your magnesium levels. I think I remember this being discussed in the BRS videos on 2 part dosing.

magnesium level is 1400 the calcium is 430 and the alkalinity is what keeps getting sucked out of the water. or precipitates .

 

[petemichelle]

how much flow do you have in your tank? if theres minimal flow the alk and cal might just settle to the bottom and bind with each other and ppt out.

I have to mag 6 for the return pumps. also there are 3 mp40's in the display tank. I have it in nutrion transport mode. I don't see any dead spots. I ghost fee every day.