My DT has been using approximately 1.65 dkh of alk and 11 ppm of cal per day by dosing .66 gallons of saturated kalk at night and 100 ml each of BRS Soda Ash 2 part (Randy’s Recipe 1 I believe) and 200ml of Tropic Marin Part C during the day. I am concerned that 1.65 dkh of Alk is high consumption with the low coral load and only a tiny amount of coralline. I have had some clumping of my sand, which I assume is due to precipitation, but only a small amount of buildup on heaters and return pumps. The sand clumps break apart easily and are not the “Concrete” hard kind which I had in other tanks many moons ago.
While I am getting a ph bump at night from the .66 gallons of kalk, I am still losing about .25 dkh of alk at night which gets made up during the day by the 2 part.
About the System
130 Gallons of water volume with 4 fish and 2 corals. DT has had water in it for about 10 months and fish for about 1 month. I had fish in it previously but due to disease and fallow period it has been 1 month for this go round. The 2 corals have been in the DT for about 4 months. I am running a lifegard pro-max uv sterilizer - 55 watt at 325 gpm for fish disease. My skimmer is plumbed to draw air from the outside and I have an ERV on my HVAC system which keeps indoor CO2 down to 600 to 800 ppm (as opposed to over 1,000 without the ERV)
Parameters as of this morning with no dosing last night or today
I stopped dosing the 2 part, TM Part C and Kalk last night due to my concerns about precipitation. Do you think I should keep the dosers off for now to see if things stabilize or turn them back on because the volume I am dosing is acceptable for my system? On a side note, I turned off my ReefMat last night to try to get my nitrates up and maintain po4 at an acceptable level.
FTS
While I am getting a ph bump at night from the .66 gallons of kalk, I am still losing about .25 dkh of alk at night which gets made up during the day by the 2 part.
About the System
130 Gallons of water volume with 4 fish and 2 corals. DT has had water in it for about 10 months and fish for about 1 month. I had fish in it previously but due to disease and fallow period it has been 1 month for this go round. The 2 corals have been in the DT for about 4 months. I am running a lifegard pro-max uv sterilizer - 55 watt at 325 gpm for fish disease. My skimmer is plumbed to draw air from the outside and I have an ERV on my HVAC system which keeps indoor CO2 down to 600 to 800 ppm (as opposed to over 1,000 without the ERV)
Parameters as of this morning with no dosing last night or today
- Alk 7.84 dkh (Neptune Trident)
- Cal 402 ppm (Neptune Trident)
- Mag 1417 ppm (Neptune Trident)
- PH 8.24 fairly constant by dosing the kalk at night (8.08 this morning since stopping dosing)
- PO4 .08 ppm (Hanna ULR)
- NO3 0.0 (Hanna)
- Salinity Normally 1.025 but have been slowly raising to 35ppt (Increasing Salinity so my water change salt mix mixes to 9dkh and 450 cal)
- Salt mix was using Tropic Marin Pro but switched to HW-Marinemix Reefer because it mixes closer to the parameters I am targeting 9, 425~, 1380 - 1400
- 2 Mocha Gladiator Cowns approximately 2 inches and 1 ½ inches
- 1 Ruby Longfin Wrasse approximately 3 inches
- 1 Marine Betta approximately 1 ¼ inch
- Ora Duncan approximately 9 heads
- Blastomussa approximately 5 heads
I stopped dosing the 2 part, TM Part C and Kalk last night due to my concerns about precipitation. Do you think I should keep the dosers off for now to see if things stabilize or turn them back on because the volume I am dosing is acceptable for my system? On a side note, I turned off my ReefMat last night to try to get my nitrates up and maintain po4 at an acceptable level.
FTS
