Is my Alk drip precipitation?

[Ken S]

Hello, I'm back in the hobby after a 15 year absence. My first tank was a 200g reef as is my new tank. I bought a doser & have started dosing about a week ago. I was previously dosing by hand. Tank is about 7 mos old but I cured all my live rock for 8 mos in a barrel with powerheads & lights before it went in the tank. The tank is lightly stocked with about 20 coral frags, mostly SPS, a couple LPS, one Ritteri anemone, and about 10 small fish. Everything is doing great, good coral growth & polyp extension, anemone is growing, fish all look great as well as the tank.

I noticed this morning that it seems the Alk drip may be precipitating. See attached video. When I'd slowly pour it in the tank last week by hand into a powerhead, it would immediately dissapate. But now the drip seems to be turning to lumps when it hits the water. You can see the small "lumps" get sucked up by the return pump. I was not expecting this & was expecting to see a small cloud quickly dissapate like when I poured it into the tank by hand. I don't see anything at all blowing into the tank through the return lines. I just want to make sure this is, or isn't, precipitate and if it is, how to correct it.

Params all tested yesterday evening.
Alk 9.3 dosing 100ml/day
CA 380 dosing 120ml/day
MG 1270 dosing 100ml/day
Meersalts dosing 100ml/day (double concentrate) Balling method
All BRS products with Tropic Main K+ & A- trace elements
PH drops to 8.1 at night & tops out at 8.3 under full lights (recirc C02 scrubber thru the skimmer, an octo 250)
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
Salinity 1.024
Temp 76.4 F
All Salifert test kits
All dosing is spread out through the day 6hr increments each
I do have a fuge - lights on 12 hrs, off 6 hrs

Longtime lurker & reader here, only second time posting. Thanks so much in advance for any help. This is a great & well informed community.
Thanks,
Ken

 

[Ken S]

Here is a much better video. I turned up the doser a bit. Definitely seems like something is amiss.

FYI the green line dripping into the sump in the video is an auto water change (5g/day). I am not dosing two of the 4 parts at the same time. As mentioned, everything is spread out over 6 hrs each.

 

[Garf]

Here is a much better video. I turned up the doser a bit. Definitely seems like something is amiss.

FYI the green line dripping into the sump in the video is an auto water change (5g/day). I am not dosing two of the 4 parts at the same time. As mentioned, everything is spread out over 6 hrs each.

So, is that sodium hydroxide? Assuming it is, I'd just try and find an area of turbulent or faster flow to drip it into, if it concerns you. It's just creating a temporary magnesium hydroxide cloud which is generally harmless.

 

[Ken S]

So, is that sodium hydroxide? Assuming it is, I'd just try and find an area of turbulent or faster flow to drip it into, if it concerns you. It's just creating a temporary magnesium hydroxide cloud which is generally harmless.

The product is BRS soda ash. I don't believe it is the exact same as sodium hydroxide.

 

[Garf]

The product is BRS soda ash. I don't believe it is the exact same as sodium hydroxide.

Yes that will do a similar thing, just not as severe as sodium hydroxide.

 

[Ken S]

Garf, thank you so much for taking the time to reply!

Can you help me with another question? I've been trying to raise CA slightly by raising the CA drip by 20ml/day over the last several days but it never seems to go up. It's always around 370-380. Trying to get it up to 420 or at least 400. Should I just be patient and it will get there?

 

[Garf]

Garf, thank you so much for taking the time to reply!

Can you help me with another question? I've been trying to raise CA slightly by raising the CA drip by 20ml/day over the last several days but it never seems to go up. It's always around 370-380. Trying to get it up to 420 or at least 400. Should I just be patient and it will get there?

That's what I would do, yes. I'd probably check the calibration on my dosing pumps first however. Calcium tests generally are a bit clunky, in that it's very difficult (impossible) to detect small changes. What test kit do you use?

 

[Ken S]

I just installed and set up the dosing pumps about a week and a half ago and calibrated all at that time. It doesn't take long I'll do them all again tonight just to make sure they're on point.

All Salifert kits, except ammonia which is API & a Hanna Nitrate checker on top of Salifert Nitrate as well. I have yet to record anything but 0 Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Phosphate, Silicate since the cured rock has been in the tank. I test all params every single day in the am & write it down. 3 or 4 times/week I test in the pm too & record that as well. I've been increasing CA slowly by 20ml/day the last 4 days but CA won't budge much. Last 7 days are 370, 365, 365, 375, 380, 375, 380. I do realize these hobbyist grade test kits are not spot on perfect and super reliable. So looking at the last seven days I would say that my calcium levels are basically unchanged even though I've been slightly increasing the dose every day.

I'll be patient & see what happens. The tank is looking really good, all inhabitants seem healthy & happy, water is crystal clear, coralline breaking out everywhere & spreading very rapidly.

I do have a few small patches of cyanno. I mentioned it to the lfs that is helping me with the tank and he pointed to his display that also has them. Then he told me it seems to happen around this time every year to his tanks. And thinking back to 32 years ago when I started my first tank I do recall something similar happening in the fall of every year, small patches of cyanno would break out. There are three patches about the size of my fist on various rocks right now. I'm just going to ride it out see what's happens, I'm thinking they're just going to go away on their own. But it always blows my mind how it can even start when all of my nutrient parameters like silicate, Phosphate, nitrate are all at zero every single time I test. Obviously something is not at zero if I have cyanno growing, agreed?

 

[bobnicaragua]

I have a little powerhead in the sump under my dosing lines. It doesn’t take much to really churn the water up in such a small area.

 

[Ken S]

I have a little powerhead in the sump under my dosing lines. It doesn’t take much to really churn the water up in such a small area.

Yes I am going to get a cheapo off of Amazon tonight. Thank you!