3A and 3B precipitation

[Pete_the_Puma]

Hello,


I have a fairly new tank. 140Gal Red sea 650 Peninusla. It is a barebottom tank that will be all SPS. It was set up about 2 months ago now with rock that had been curing/cycling for months. It now has a number of fish and 4 small hardy SPS frags (birdsnest, stylophora, montipora and one green slimer). Everything is looking great except from the slight "new tank" variation I am going through (just finished a bacterial bloom now looks like slight "brown rock" starting)

It is set up using the "full Triton" method with Cheatomorpha in the sump.

I had set up automatic dosing for the 4 elements (1,2,3a,3b). My initial Alkalinity was 8.4 (starting with TM pro reef salt, I'm assuming that's where it mixes) so I was dosing only 1ml of each solution to get things going until my Alk started to drop. Unsurprisingly my alk started rising slowly and after about a week reached 8.8, I decided to lower the dosing to 1ml every 5 days just to keep it going (I assume part of the solutions is Iron and other things to help the cheatomorpha grow...).

Yesterday I looked at the dosing containers and saw there was slightly more in the 3a and 3b reservoirs. I tried to run the dosing pumps in manual mode and found that there was no output. Careful inspection of the dosing reservoir found that the 3a and 3b solutions had precipitated with a heavy deposit of white powder at the bottom of both (more in 3a) that likely plugged the input hose...


Is precipitation of these normal and expected? Is this unusual? Is it because of my infrequent dosing? Should I just stop dosing altogether until my ALK starts to drop? Do you guys somehow regularly "stir" the 3a and 3b components?

Before anyone asks I did reconstitute those solutions with pure RO/DI water tested at 0 TDS to total 1000mL of solution (950mL to start then filled to 1000mL once dissolved).

Any input is appreciated, especially from Triton.


Thanks

 

[Pete_the_Puma]

Anyone else have precipitation in these if not dosed for 4 days?

 

[Pete_the_Puma]

Well its even worse than I thought...

The 3b solution could be reconstituted with some vigorous mixing. The 3A solution is basically a white brick sitting at the bottom of the dosing container... No amount of prodding could convince it to dissolve again.

I have one of these

And so I see no way of cleaning just one chamber (likely I will need vinegar to dissolve that brick) without loosing 990mL of all 4 of the components....

@Triton did I do anything wrong? I'm ok ordering another set of Core7 additives but if this happens again I might get a little ticked.

 

[UnbalancedNights]

Try heating it with some warm water

 

[Tombones]

I would check to see if the chambers are leaking into each other. It appears the calcium and alkalinity chambers are next to each other. Just a thought.

 

[Pete_the_Puma]

Yes good idea I though about that. I think it is unlikely given there seems to be no calcium solution "missing". It would take a substantial amount to precipitate the whole thing no? I begrudgingly ordered another set of Core7 supplements and will be cleaning this out and replacing the solutions when it gets here later this week. I will check for "inter compartment" leaks.