Dosing Alk and Calc - ever increasing demand?

[beefybear]

Hi! Thanks for the responses everyone, I too have had the same issue but kinda knew it was a precipitate issue which seemed to really ramp up when I swapped to soda ash per winter when my ph falls. However... my alkalinity falls FAST, and I mean really fast. I have a roughly 50 gallon (water portion) bare bottom anemone tank with one tiny mushroom.

I first started dosing BRS two part when small little patches (of what I thought to be coralline came in, they’re literally white and ALLLL over my rocks growing very quickly). Over the months I’d needed to ramp up dosing ever so slightly but when I switched to soda ash not long ago the ramping was quick and I knew I had to cut things off. Pre stopping dosing my ph has always been very stable, 8-8.1 in winter and 8.2 in summer. It’s been a day since stopping, ph is just below 8. Before stopping I intentionally let my calc drop a tad to try and help the situation but my alk last night was 5.8, woke up this morning and tested 5.5, dosed up to around 6.5+, tested 10 hours later and its at 5.2. Going to test again later tonight. Ultimately I’m hoping to just reset everything and all this precipitation gets covered over / I can try and remove any visible crystals. My calc is around 380 atm and my mag is 1550. How long does precipitation take to cover/ should I keep alk in the 6’s? My anems seem to be doing great tho. Also, over the past year I can see little white specs on the bare bottom and in the sump assuming they’re precipitation which have grown significantly more since dosing soda ash. (The soda ash did pump my ph up from 8 to 8.2 just from the sheer volume I was ramping up to keep numbers in line)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hi! Thanks for the responses everyone, I too have had the same issue but kinda knew it was a precipitate issue which seemed to really ramp up when I swapped to soda ash per winter when my ph falls. However... my alkalinity falls FAST, and I mean really fast. I have a roughly 50 gallon (water portion) bare bottom anemone tank with one tiny mushroom.

I first started dosing BRS two part when small little patches (of what I thought to be coralline came in, they’re literally white and ALLLL over my rocks growing very quickly). Over the months I’d needed to ramp up dosing ever so slightly but when I switched to soda ash not long ago the ramping was quick and I knew I had to cut things off. Pre stopping dosing my ph has always been very stable, 8-8.1 in winter and 8.2 in summer. It’s been a day since stopping, ph is just below 8. Before stopping I intentionally let my calc drop a tad to try and help the situation but my alk last night was 5.8, woke up this morning and tested 5.5, dosed up to around 6.5+, tested 10 hours later and its at 5.2. Going to test again later tonight. Ultimately I’m hoping to just reset everything and all this precipitation gets covered over / I can try and remove any visible crystals. My calc is around 380 atm and my mag is 1550. How long does precipitation take to cover/ should I keep alk in the 6’s? My anems seem to be doing great tho. Also, over the past year I can see little white specs on the bare bottom and in the sump assuming they’re precipitation which have grown significantly more since dosing soda ash. (The soda ash did pump my ph up from 8 to 8.2 just from the sheer volume I was ramping up to keep numbers in line)

If you problematic abiotic precipitation, the ways to stop it are:

1. Stop dosing alk for a bit and let it decline.
2. Reduce pH by switching to a low pH alk mix like sodium bicarbonate, or a calcium organic such as Tropic Marin All for Reef. Stop any other means of trying to raise pH.
3. Ensure magnesium is normal to high.
4. Keep organics and phosphate on the high side.

After a few days of not dosing alk, restart slowly, adding additives to a very high flow area so it mixes in fast. Keep aalk at 7 dKH, not higher.

 

[beefybear]

If you problematic abiotic precipitation, the ways to stop it are:

1. Stop dosing alk for a bit and let it decline.
2. Reduce pH by switching to a low pH alk mix like sodium bicarbonate, or a calcium organic such as Tropic Marin All for Reef. Stop any other means of trying to raise pH.
3. Ensure magnesium is normal to high.
4. Keep organics and phosphate on the high side.

After a few days of not dosing alk, restart slowly, adding additives to a very high flow area so it mixes in fast. Keep aalk at 7 dKH, not higher.

Thanks! I also just want to say I know you help so many people directly Randy but (unless someone else from the shadows has said this) the amount of people you help that haven’t ever conversed with you is probably off the charts. I greatly appreciate your response and have read this same response before in other threads since you were so kind to help them too. HUGE help to many of us out there, I really hope you take pride and appreciate just how much you’re doing!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks very much. I appreciate it.

 

[beefybear]

Thanks very much. I appreciate it.

Know you’re probably busy but if have time I have one more identifying question. I have white encrusting spots coming in quick ALL over the lighted / semi lighted parts of my rocks. In between are little white looking veins if you will connecting everything on the rocks as the dots grow. However they are as white as white can get, from the first dot until now. I just assumed it was a form of algae but no one ever talks or has experienced white (other than dying). My next thought it does calcium precipitate encrust?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

New coralline algae growth is white. Growing coralline is often covered in white spots and lines. it might be that.