Chase the alk?

Rick.45cal

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FWIW, I know that with constant dosing 24/7, my tank has a daily alk swing of 0.2-0.3 dKH that lags behind the photoperiod by about two hours. It basically swings from a high of around two hours after "lights on" to a low of about two hours after "lights out" (due to consumption), then swings back up all night (due to dosing when consumption is basically zero). I changed my dosing schedule to dose twice the rate as the 24/7 rate, but only during the period starting two hours after "lights on" until two hours after "lights off", and my alk readings leveled out quite nicely. Not perfectly flat, but just about.

This is pretty much exactly my observations in my system. I may give your dosing tweak a shot. I've definitely noticed accelerated growth since things have become more stable in my system thanks to the alk monitor providing me more information than I previously had.
 

Joe Batt

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I dose throughout the 24hrs using the DOS, and test at the same time daily using the Hanna checker. I try to be precise with the test and never touch the vial except with a glasses cleaner cloth. My results are very consistent, usually +- 0.056 daily (1 unit on the checker). I don't know if they are accurate but I think they are consistent in their inaccuracy which means the reef Kh is stable, within the 0.056 typical daily variances.

There will be variances in Kh during the period and hence the consistent timing of tests, I doubt that these slight variances in the 24hr cycle will make any difference.
 
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justingraham

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This is pretty much exactly my observations in my system. I may give your dosing tweak a shot. I've definitely noticed accelerated growth since things have become more stable in my system thanks to the alk monitor providing me more information than I previously had.
Thanks for joining sir.

So as of right now u are doseing for 24 hrs?

What kind of lights do u have?

And have u noticed the same thing as Jim has with alk consumption? Two hours after lights out?

Also @JimWelsh is this two hours after darkness or do u think it's a certain amount of time after peak lighting? Like shot how do I explain it six hours after ur lights are on 100% the alk stops and it's just a coincidence that it is also two hours after ur last light goes out. Hope I explained that right.

Thanks for keeping this thread going

Justin
 
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justingraham

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Thanks again guys I think when I get back from vacation I'll adjust my doser
 

saltyfilmfolks

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Thanks again guys I think when I get back from vacation I'll adjust my doser
Hey bud. I think we did pretty well for a couple of newbs.

Good thing I listened to Jim and Randy.


I will say when I met Jim at macna I had no Idea who he was and we just talked about my scotch and the wine fields in NorCal and his tanks though.
 
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justingraham

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Hey bud. I think we did pretty well for a couple of newbs.

Good thing I listened to Jim and Randy.


I will say when I met Jim at macna I had no Idea who he was and we just talked about my scotch and the wine fields in NorCal and his tanks though.
Yea I would say so
April 27th
IMG_1403.JPG
IMG_1353.JPG

Two mins ago
IMG_2433.JPG
IMG_2434.JPG


Not bad for the slowest growing coral known to sps tanks
 

Rick.45cal

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The peak consumption in my tank is a couple hours before the lights go out, and several hours after they are off. I'm testing every 4 hours with my machine and the last two tests at night are always the lowest. I just dose consistently and continuously all 24 hours. My consumption continues to increase so I know things are appreciating it. I'd tweak my dosing but it's working so well already I just try and keep my hands off/out of it as much as is possible.

For lights I run a 60" 8x80watt ATI powermodule with 4x75watt led's. I have an insane amount of PAR and a ludicrous amount of flow. My photo period is from 9 am to 9 pm with 2 hours of gradual increase in lighting to 8 hours of full intensity, then 2 hours of decreasing intensity to darkness. Everything seems to be happily growing, it's all starting to grow like weeds, and everything is covered in purple coraline so everyone is clearly happy!
 

saltyfilmfolks

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The peak consumption in my tank is a couple hours before the lights go out, and several hours after they are off. I'm testing every 4 hours with my machine and the last two tests at night are always the lowest. I just dose consistently and continuously all 24 hours. My consumption continues to increase so I know things are appreciating it. I'd tweak my dosing but it's working so well already I just try and keep my hands off/out of it as much as is possible.

For lights I run a 60" 8x80watt ATI powermodule with 4x75watt led's. I have an insane amount of PAR and a ludicrous amount of flow. My photo period is from 9 am to 9 pm with 2 hours of gradual increase in lighting to 8 hours of full intensity, then 2 hours of decreasing intensity to darkness. Everything seems to be happily growing, it's all starting to grow like weeds, and everything is covered in purple coraline so everyone is clearly happy!
I don't belive you. We will need photographic evidence.
 
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justingraham

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The peak consumption in my tank is a couple hours before the lights go out, and several hours after they are off. I'm testing every 4 hours with my machine and the last two tests at night are always the lowest. I just dose consistently and continuously all 24 hours. My consumption continues to increase so I know things are appreciating it. I'd tweak my dosing but it's working so well already I just try and keep my hands off/out of it as much as is possible.

For lights I run a 60" 8x80watt ATI powermodule with 4x75watt led's. I have an insane amount of PAR and a ludicrous amount of flow. My photo period is from 9 am to 9 pm with 2 hours of gradual increase in lighting to 8 hours of full intensity, then 2 hours of decreasing intensity to darkness. Everything seems to be happily growing, it's all starting to grow like weeds, and everything is covered in purple coraline so everyone is clearly happy!
So what's several hours after lights out? I find this interesting cause I think I still have consumption 3-4 hours after lights out but jim said his is two.

Also with all this consumption after lights being on all day what time would u recomend to test alk to get a consistant result?
 

Rick.45cal

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If I only tested once a day it would be 2 hours after lights out every day. That would be my low point. If you want to know your high point it is usually an hour or so after the lights start coming on. (At least in my system).
 
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justingraham

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If I only tested once a day it would be 2 hours after lights out every day. That would be my low point. If you want to know your high point it is usually an hour or so after the lights start coming on. (At least in my system).
I also saw that when u clean the tank alk drops a little

Knowing this would u recommend one big clean up or small cleanups every day?

Thanks again for all ur help and show salty ur skimmer
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I also saw that when u clean the tank alk drops a little

Knowing this would u recommend one big clean up or small cleanups every day?

Thanks again for all ur help and show salty ur skimmer

I'm not sure why that would be, so would be wary that it might not be a general effect.
 
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justingraham

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I'm not sure why that would be, so would be wary that it might not be a general effect.
Well @JimWelsh i sat in at a speech by Joe (I'll just butcher his lasts name so I won't try it starts with a c tho) from unique corals at rap ny and he sad u noticed the same thing when u performed maintance on ur tank alk uptake suffered a little is this true?
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Well @JimWelsh i sat in at a speech by Joe (I'll just butcher his lasts name so I won't try it starts with a c tho) from unique corals at rap ny and he sad u noticed the same thing when u performed maintance on ur tank alk uptake suffered a little is this true?

If alk uptake suffered, alk should rise (with unchanged dosing) , not fall. :)
 
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justingraham

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If alk uptake suffered, alk should rise (with unchanged dosing) , not fall. :)
I meant that I typed it wrong. Made sense in my head tho to be fair.
So I will try that again
when u clean the tank alk will rise so would it be better to do one massive cleaning or smaller ones.
 

JimWelsh

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Well @JimWelsh i sat in at a speech by Joe (I'll just butcher his lasts name so I won't try it starts with a c tho) from unique corals at rap ny and he sad u noticed the same thing when u performed maintance on ur tank alk uptake suffered a little is this true?
Yes, in those anecdotes, alk consumption was reduced.
 

Joshua Warne

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What are your guys thoughts on alk fir maximum growth? From what I've read here it's 7.5, but others have recorded double the CA/ALk consumption with DKH lvls of 10.
 
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