@Randy Holmes-Farley
I've read quite a few threads about this topic and many of Randy's articles on reefkeeping.com and other places online. I fee like I've got a pretty good handle on this, but my levels just aren't making sense. I would really appreciate any advice you can give (and thank you for your time).
New tank started 10/10/2020. Started with "real reef" rock (supposedly pre-cycled) and then added 4 bags of live sand (Caribsea). Cycle completed 11/15/2020. I wanted to get my levels up and steady before adding fish, so I started dosing two-part from ESV. Doing so, I got my Alk to around 8.5 and pretty stable, but my calcium started dropping. I started adding calcium in much higher ratio then my Alk to balance. Keep in mind, there are no corals at all in this tank. I then added two tangs to help get me through the ugly stage. After several weeks, I finally started to see some diatomatious algae (brown), so I used my rake so mix up the sand. I found the entire sandbed was covered in rock-hard sand clumping. I researched your articles and realized by aggressively dosing two-part with no corals (little or no take-up), I believe I created the clumping since the super-saturated solution had nowhere to go but into solid form. (I THINK this is correct, but for reference my levels were CA = 440 and Alk = 8.5). After reading your posts about sand clumping, I turned off the two part and planned to turn it back on after corals are introduced in a few months.
But now my levels are plummeting. My Alk is now about 6.5 and my Calcium is below 300. I'm lost. Do I turn the dosing back on at a much slower rate? Water changes? I know fish aren't as sensitive, but i want fairly stable levels that are in-range. Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Other parameters:
Salt = 1.026
Nitrate = 1.0ppm
Phosphate = 0.02
I've read quite a few threads about this topic and many of Randy's articles on reefkeeping.com and other places online. I fee like I've got a pretty good handle on this, but my levels just aren't making sense. I would really appreciate any advice you can give (and thank you for your time).
New tank started 10/10/2020. Started with "real reef" rock (supposedly pre-cycled) and then added 4 bags of live sand (Caribsea). Cycle completed 11/15/2020. I wanted to get my levels up and steady before adding fish, so I started dosing two-part from ESV. Doing so, I got my Alk to around 8.5 and pretty stable, but my calcium started dropping. I started adding calcium in much higher ratio then my Alk to balance. Keep in mind, there are no corals at all in this tank. I then added two tangs to help get me through the ugly stage. After several weeks, I finally started to see some diatomatious algae (brown), so I used my rake so mix up the sand. I found the entire sandbed was covered in rock-hard sand clumping. I researched your articles and realized by aggressively dosing two-part with no corals (little or no take-up), I believe I created the clumping since the super-saturated solution had nowhere to go but into solid form. (I THINK this is correct, but for reference my levels were CA = 440 and Alk = 8.5). After reading your posts about sand clumping, I turned off the two part and planned to turn it back on after corals are introduced in a few months.
But now my levels are plummeting. My Alk is now about 6.5 and my Calcium is below 300. I'm lost. Do I turn the dosing back on at a much slower rate? Water changes? I know fish aren't as sensitive, but i want fairly stable levels that are in-range. Again, any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Other parameters:
Salt = 1.026
Nitrate = 1.0ppm
Phosphate = 0.02