I test my dKH fairly often, every 5-7 days. Since it's such a critical parameter, I have to ensure it doesn't get too high or too low. Usually this isn't a problem, my dosing pumps do all the work. Typically I just increase the dosing every month or so as my corals get larger and demand increases. Every so often something goes astray, either the tube intake for my 2-part somehow goes above the water line in my 5-gallon dosing buckets, my solution runs out, or my litermeter pump slows to a crawl because it needs oiled (they are 6+ years old).
Lately growth has been exploding in my reef and demand for alkalinity has gone up tremendously, coupled with that my intake for 2-part came up out of the water, and my dosing pump slowed way down. Somewhere between Sunday and Thursday this occurred. I tested on Sunday and I was right around 8 dKH. I tested again on Thursday and I'm down to 4.5 dKH. This parameter has never goes this far low! I was shocked so I decided to double-checked with another test kit, sure enough!
I couldn't believe it because everything looked happy and normal.
I figured the time period where I had sub 7 dKH was fairly short, so I dosed about 270mL of solution into my 150g reef and brought everything right back up to 8 dKH within a couple hours. Everything is still doing perfectly fine! Everything from big colonies to small frags didn't have the slightest issue.
Every time something like this happens I figure out a way to ensure it never happens again, I should have fixed this problem before, since I knew it had previously occurred. The first step will be to glue the intake for my 2-part to the bottom of the bucket. The second will be to set reminders on my phone to oil my dosing pumps every 6 months.
I have three pumps setup to dose using Randy's two part (both the high-strength solution). Even if I miss one day of dosing it can throw my reef way off. Test your pumps and keep them maintained!
250mL - Alkalinity
220mL - Calcium
150mL - Limewater
Lately growth has been exploding in my reef and demand for alkalinity has gone up tremendously, coupled with that my intake for 2-part came up out of the water, and my dosing pump slowed way down. Somewhere between Sunday and Thursday this occurred. I tested on Sunday and I was right around 8 dKH. I tested again on Thursday and I'm down to 4.5 dKH. This parameter has never goes this far low! I was shocked so I decided to double-checked with another test kit, sure enough!
I couldn't believe it because everything looked happy and normal.
I figured the time period where I had sub 7 dKH was fairly short, so I dosed about 270mL of solution into my 150g reef and brought everything right back up to 8 dKH within a couple hours. Everything is still doing perfectly fine! Everything from big colonies to small frags didn't have the slightest issue.
Every time something like this happens I figure out a way to ensure it never happens again, I should have fixed this problem before, since I knew it had previously occurred. The first step will be to glue the intake for my 2-part to the bottom of the bucket. The second will be to set reminders on my phone to oil my dosing pumps every 6 months.
I have three pumps setup to dose using Randy's two part (both the high-strength solution). Even if I miss one day of dosing it can throw my reef way off. Test your pumps and keep them maintained!
250mL - Alkalinity
220mL - Calcium
150mL - Limewater
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