Hello,
I have had a 60 gal mixed reef tank for some 4 years. It used to consume to consume about 30 ml daily of BRS two-part Alk and Ca dosed by the BRS pumps. Earlier this year I upgraded to a Trident alk, ca, and Mg testing unit. At the same time, I also started using better saltwater (Red Sea Pro), started doing 10% weekly water changes, and started dosing Red Sea's Reef Trace Elements. As time passed, corals started looking better, and consumption of Alk and Ca increased substantially, probably because corals started reacting positively to improved water quality. Some three months ago, I purchased a DOS dosing pump, and programmed it to do automatic dosing using data from Trident.
Despite the marvelous engineering of a Trident controlled dosing, I have not had success with it. At first, dosing was being done in the Sump, and I had to constantly increase alk and ca dosing to maintain them at reasonable levels (8 dkh for alk, 460 ppm for ca). I had to increase the daily dosages so much that I got to dose about 180 ml of alk and ca daily. As I understand that dosing of alk and ca greater than 2 ml per gal a day is probably too much, so that I was probably overdosing. I stopped dosing for two days and observed the decline in Alk and Ca. I estimated that my tank consumed about 90 ml of Alk and Ca daily, so I reset the dosing amounts, but with no success. Alk and Ca kept declining, and again I was increasing the daily dosages to try and maintain alk and Ca at resonable levels. The results was that soon I was dosing about 180 ml of each again, daily.
I could not understand what was going on. I figured that maybe my flow in the sump was not enough and Alk and Ca were precipitating (though I believe my sump has plenty of flow). So I changed the tubing to dose in the main tank, right on top of a powerhead. It has been dosing there for about a month now, and now the system is dosing about 80-90 ml of Ca daily but Ca is a bit high, nearing 500 ppm. Alk is being dosed at 150 ml daily and the system seems to be unable to get it to a dkh of 9, which is my target. I did the thing of stop dosing and estimating the decline in alk and ca to calculate consumption. Again, my estimate was of a consumption of about 80-90 ml daily of each.
I have looked for signs of precipitation in my tank, and did not find. The only noticeable thing is that the back wall has become whiteish.
Sorry for the long, winding message, but I am at loss here in this puzzle. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do to better control my dosing? I am frustrated that in all this I would like to have dkh at 11 (to speed up coral growth), but don't seem able to do so. Also, based on my understanding, alk and ca should be dosed at roughly the same amounts. I read other threads here about unequal dosing of alk and ca, and all cases there of unequal dosing do not include dosing of alk at two times the amount of ca dosing, so I figure something is odd in my tank.
Specs of my tank are as follows:
Salinity: 35
ORP: 360
pH: 7.2 (varies by 0.05 daily)
Mg: 1350
Tank has cheatomorpha in sump, a skimmer rated for 220 gal, and two 360 kessils. All the other chemicals (phosphates, amonia, nitrates, etc) are all zero and have been zero for years now. I have some 7 small fish.
Many thanks for those patient enough to read all this!
I have had a 60 gal mixed reef tank for some 4 years. It used to consume to consume about 30 ml daily of BRS two-part Alk and Ca dosed by the BRS pumps. Earlier this year I upgraded to a Trident alk, ca, and Mg testing unit. At the same time, I also started using better saltwater (Red Sea Pro), started doing 10% weekly water changes, and started dosing Red Sea's Reef Trace Elements. As time passed, corals started looking better, and consumption of Alk and Ca increased substantially, probably because corals started reacting positively to improved water quality. Some three months ago, I purchased a DOS dosing pump, and programmed it to do automatic dosing using data from Trident.
Despite the marvelous engineering of a Trident controlled dosing, I have not had success with it. At first, dosing was being done in the Sump, and I had to constantly increase alk and ca dosing to maintain them at reasonable levels (8 dkh for alk, 460 ppm for ca). I had to increase the daily dosages so much that I got to dose about 180 ml of alk and ca daily. As I understand that dosing of alk and ca greater than 2 ml per gal a day is probably too much, so that I was probably overdosing. I stopped dosing for two days and observed the decline in Alk and Ca. I estimated that my tank consumed about 90 ml of Alk and Ca daily, so I reset the dosing amounts, but with no success. Alk and Ca kept declining, and again I was increasing the daily dosages to try and maintain alk and Ca at resonable levels. The results was that soon I was dosing about 180 ml of each again, daily.
I could not understand what was going on. I figured that maybe my flow in the sump was not enough and Alk and Ca were precipitating (though I believe my sump has plenty of flow). So I changed the tubing to dose in the main tank, right on top of a powerhead. It has been dosing there for about a month now, and now the system is dosing about 80-90 ml of Ca daily but Ca is a bit high, nearing 500 ppm. Alk is being dosed at 150 ml daily and the system seems to be unable to get it to a dkh of 9, which is my target. I did the thing of stop dosing and estimating the decline in alk and ca to calculate consumption. Again, my estimate was of a consumption of about 80-90 ml daily of each.
I have looked for signs of precipitation in my tank, and did not find. The only noticeable thing is that the back wall has become whiteish.
Sorry for the long, winding message, but I am at loss here in this puzzle. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do to better control my dosing? I am frustrated that in all this I would like to have dkh at 11 (to speed up coral growth), but don't seem able to do so. Also, based on my understanding, alk and ca should be dosed at roughly the same amounts. I read other threads here about unequal dosing of alk and ca, and all cases there of unequal dosing do not include dosing of alk at two times the amount of ca dosing, so I figure something is odd in my tank.
Specs of my tank are as follows:
Salinity: 35
ORP: 360
pH: 7.2 (varies by 0.05 daily)
Mg: 1350
Tank has cheatomorpha in sump, a skimmer rated for 220 gal, and two 360 kessils. All the other chemicals (phosphates, amonia, nitrates, etc) are all zero and have been zero for years now. I have some 7 small fish.
Many thanks for those patient enough to read all this!