Hello All,
Been at this over a year and like to learn so I practically visit reef2reef daily. I have a question I haven't seen answered here.
I have for the last year had a 32 Gallon Refugium. It is a standalone and Macros such as Ulva, Chaeto, are growing well but I am not sure if this is a problem or not, thus I ask you for your guidance :0.
I dose nitrate, phosphate, iron, and all in one reef tropical (which is supposed to be a two part in one solution, a little expensive but I digress).
My nitrates are steady with daily dosing of 3ml of ESV Nitrate, at 3.
Phosphate with dosing is at 0.02, they were 0.01
Alk for the longest time was steady at about 7.5 but in the last month each week it has been falling although I am dosing.
Calcium is at about 400 it was at 420-460, but has been steady at 390-410 for the last six weeks (hanna checker).
I started dosing All in one reef and although I was dosing through a pump 12 times a day 10ml my alk keeps dropping.
My average alk is running now at 6.5 and to be honest I am still getting growth on the macro algae (this is a fishless system although Chaeto has slowed down).
I have no hair algae, etc, thankfully. So I upped my dose of All in One Tropic Marin to 12ml a day, and after a week my alk dropped another .01 to 6.4. (hanna checker ppm, did a salifert alk test to check and it was showing 6.2).
So the manufacturer rep I spoke to told me to do a dose of 15ml and my regular dose of 12ml. Not to exceed 30ml per day. They said do this for three days and it will make the alk will shoot up. I did this after three days basically doubling my dose the alk this morning is 6.5 (it moved up 0.1)
Any ideas what I should do? Is 6.5 Alk bad overall my understanding is I need to be 8 or above(I have no coral in the tank, there is some halimedia that is growing wonderfully)? Calcium is steady at 390-420 I don't do water changes as this is a macro only system. Magnesium is steady at 1250-1350 Red Sea Test Kit. I have read that perhaps increasing mg might help but like to get your thinking before I do something that will cause issues.
Should I try to up the dose some more or is there other limited factors. I have high intensity lighting on 16 hours a day and a blackout period of 8 hours.
Flow isn't an issue as I have a gyre going well. There is no film algae, no hair algae, no cyano. I would be open to dosing two part, I have no protein skimmer on the tank or filtration other than some filter floss once in a while. There is 25 pounds of live rock in the tank as well. I don't want to do water change as my ulva took off when I quit doing water changes. But I am out of balance for some reason. I read that carbon dosing is the way to go, but am concerned because I don't have a protein skimmer, randy or others do I need a protein skimmer to dose carbon?
Any thoughts are appreciated greatly.
Been at this over a year and like to learn so I practically visit reef2reef daily. I have a question I haven't seen answered here.
I have for the last year had a 32 Gallon Refugium. It is a standalone and Macros such as Ulva, Chaeto, are growing well but I am not sure if this is a problem or not, thus I ask you for your guidance :0.
I dose nitrate, phosphate, iron, and all in one reef tropical (which is supposed to be a two part in one solution, a little expensive but I digress).
My nitrates are steady with daily dosing of 3ml of ESV Nitrate, at 3.
Phosphate with dosing is at 0.02, they were 0.01
Alk for the longest time was steady at about 7.5 but in the last month each week it has been falling although I am dosing.
Calcium is at about 400 it was at 420-460, but has been steady at 390-410 for the last six weeks (hanna checker).
I started dosing All in one reef and although I was dosing through a pump 12 times a day 10ml my alk keeps dropping.
My average alk is running now at 6.5 and to be honest I am still getting growth on the macro algae (this is a fishless system although Chaeto has slowed down).
I have no hair algae, etc, thankfully. So I upped my dose of All in One Tropic Marin to 12ml a day, and after a week my alk dropped another .01 to 6.4. (hanna checker ppm, did a salifert alk test to check and it was showing 6.2).
So the manufacturer rep I spoke to told me to do a dose of 15ml and my regular dose of 12ml. Not to exceed 30ml per day. They said do this for three days and it will make the alk will shoot up. I did this after three days basically doubling my dose the alk this morning is 6.5 (it moved up 0.1)
Any ideas what I should do? Is 6.5 Alk bad overall my understanding is I need to be 8 or above(I have no coral in the tank, there is some halimedia that is growing wonderfully)? Calcium is steady at 390-420 I don't do water changes as this is a macro only system. Magnesium is steady at 1250-1350 Red Sea Test Kit. I have read that perhaps increasing mg might help but like to get your thinking before I do something that will cause issues.
Should I try to up the dose some more or is there other limited factors. I have high intensity lighting on 16 hours a day and a blackout period of 8 hours.
Flow isn't an issue as I have a gyre going well. There is no film algae, no hair algae, no cyano. I would be open to dosing two part, I have no protein skimmer on the tank or filtration other than some filter floss once in a while. There is 25 pounds of live rock in the tank as well. I don't want to do water change as my ulva took off when I quit doing water changes. But I am out of balance for some reason. I read that carbon dosing is the way to go, but am concerned because I don't have a protein skimmer, randy or others do I need a protein skimmer to dose carbon?
Any thoughts are appreciated greatly.
. I am using the Hanna Checker DKH and did do the Salifert. I might know what the issue is and like to get your direction. My PH which is measured with a Hanna Checker and I check it with the API kit they are close in results I am getting a PH of 8.8 with the lights on. A ph of 8. 7 with the lights off. Would that high of a PH throw the alk out of balance? I truly have nothing in the tank other than macros so it confused me why my alk would be low.
