2 Part Consumption in your tank?

ReefEco

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Hey there, I'm just trying to verify that I'm not going crazy, and that my 2-part consumption is "normal" I have a ~380g display tank (600g with sump, etc.) that has been set up for about 6 months, and is very lightly stocked - about 10 torch/hammer frags with about 2-3 heads each, about 10 acro frags of ~1 inch, 10 acans of 2-3 polyps each, and about 10 other small frags of chalice, and other encrusters. So, basically everything is very small. Yet, I'm adding about 300ml of alk and CA a day (sodium hydroxide and calcium chloride), and a gallon of Kalk each day too. I have had to increase ALK/CA dose steadily every week for the last 3 months. I'll be switching over to a CA reactor eventually, but for the time being am using 2-part. I started with dry marco rock, which is now heavily encrusted with coralline, and have until now attributed the high consumption to that explosive coralline growth. Anyone else have a similar sized tank, and what is your 2-part consumption? I do have a little precipitation on heaters and a little clumping of some of the sand, but I'm not sure if that is a significant factor? Everything is dosed into the overflow, at alternative times - so very high flow. Tank is healthy otherwise, pH of about 8.1-8.2, ~8.5 Dkh, 425 CA, 1400 Mag. Acros haven't shown any real growth yet but I wouldn't expect it (only added those frags about 6 weeks ago), but all the LPS have. If this is the rate I'm going and it is normal, I might have to get that CA reactor sooner rather than later. Thanks for the help!
 
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AJsReef

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If you’re parameters are stable it’s usually the sign you’re in alignment. However, precipitate isn’t a great sign. Perhaps slowly reduce your overall dosing and see what happens to your parameters.

The precipitate may also mean you are dosing into and area without sufficient flow. Might be worth exploring putting a small power head near your dosing lines.
 

2una

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I'm mixing 425g NaOH to 1 gal & using 140ml/day on a 160G so i wouldn't consider what your dosing abnormal.
I'm higher Po4 @ 0.1 area & i know if i put gfo online i suddenly need to be dosing 200ml/day area for some reason so if your running gfo try turning that off for a day & see what happens.
 
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ReefEco

ReefEco

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If you’re parameters are stable it’s usually the sign you’re in alignment. However, precipitate isn’t a great sign. Perhaps slowly reduce your overall dosing and see what happens to your parameters.

The precipitate may also mean you are dosing into and area without sufficient flow. Might be worth exploring putting a small power head near your dosing lines.
Thanks AJ - the dosing lines are going into my overflow right now, so that is about 2000gph going through there - should instantly mix it especially since it is dosing at 1.1 ml/min on a BRS doser? I've tried not increasing the dosage, but my alk/CA keep dropping when I do. I've always gotten a little precip on my heaters over time, so I'm just going to hold steady on the current course. I've never had a system this large before, so don't have experience with this scale of consumption. Just seems like a lot (now up to 325ml/day) for a tank with so few corals. But, there is a lot of coralline - even in the sump in a separate fishroom with just the room lights. We'll see how it goes...
 
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ReefEco

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I'm mixing 425g NaOH to 1 gal & using 140ml/day on a 160G so i wouldn't consider what your dosing abnormal.
I'm higher Po4 @ 0.1 area & i know if i put gfo online i suddenly need to be dosing 200ml/day area for some reason so if your running gfo try turning that off for a day & see what happens.
Thanks 2una - yeah, maybe ~300ml isn't that crazy - we'll see. Not running GFO, but good to know in the future if I need to. I'm using Randy's recipe of 283g of NaOH per gallon - are you really able to increase the concentration like that, and how does that balance with your calcium addition? Just curious. That might be useful to bump up the potency of the solution...
 

2una

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Thanks 2una - yeah, maybe ~300ml isn't that crazy - we'll see. Not running GFO, but good to know in the future if I need to. I'm using Randy's recipe of 283g of NaOH per gallon - are you really able to increase the concentration like that, and how does that balance with your calcium addition? Just curious. That might be useful to bump up the potency of the solution...

Alk/Ca/Mag i just converted up in the same ratio.
Seen we're not using carb or bicarb we're not limited to the same solubility levels & that 283g figure of Randy's was only to equal the same strength as Recipe 1 as far as i'm aware.
 
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ReefEco

ReefEco

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Alk/Ca/Mag i just converted up in the same ratio.
Seen we're not using carb or bicarb we're not limited to the same solubility levels & that 283g figure of Randy's was only to equal the same strength as Recipe 1 as far as i'm aware.
Got it - that makes sense...
 
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