My 2-part dosing voume seems odd

[mahi03]

For context: 80g DT / 30g sump, not sure about net water, maybe 80-90g. Mixed reef, a few SPS colonies, some mini-colonies, but otherwise heavy LPS.

3 months ago I transitioned from the hybrid balling method to a CaRx. At the time, I was dosing about 110ml of each component (BRS liquid soda ash / calcium / mg / part C).

Once I fully transitioned to the Dastaco C2, I went from 20% effluent to 100% over the course of three months to maintain Alk levels. I purchased a new CaRx to upsize, but while waiting for the unit to arrive, the Dastaco stopped working. To bridge the gap, I went back to 2-part while waiting for the new CaRx to arrive.

To maintain stability, I'm having to dose 400ml+ per day of each part. Is this right??? Initially the soda ash was precipitating out, so I attributed the high volumes to the precipitation and made some DIY sodium bicarbonate, but that was also precipitating out. I went back to soda ash and for no rhyme or reason it was no longer precipitating, but I'm still having to dose 400ml/day to maintain stability. Testing is done via trident ACM and Hanna. I'm not seeing spikes in Ca either.

This seems a little absurd, is there anything else that could be "going on" or is my alk consumption really that high? Seems a bit ridiculous for this size tank.

Corals look "ok" for the most part, I did lose a new acro frag (paled out not rtn) but that was likely due to shipping stress.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’m not sure in understand the 20% to 100% comment. Is that a flow rate through the reactor?

Do you see any signs of precipitate, such as hardened sand or deposits on pump impellers?

 

[mahi03]

I’m not sure in understand the 20% to 100% comment. Is that a flow rate through the reactor?

Do you see any signs of precipitate, such as hardened sand or deposits on pump impellers?

The Dastaco is an automatic calcium reactor, controlled by a digital/electronic head unit. The 20% to 100% is the effluent rate - it controls how often/much the peri pump is running. The PH is held constant at 6.0 via float tube. I never measured the dKH of the effluent.

I don't see any signs of precipitate - no hardened sand or deposits

 

[mahi03]

I’m not sure in understand the 20% to 100% comment. Is that a flow rate through the reactor?

Do you see any signs of precipitate, such as hardened sand or deposits on pump impellers?

I don't know if 20% to 100% actually equates to 5x flow through the reactor but I might assume so. I also don't know for sure if the dkh of the effluent is the same given the higher flow rate. If both "questions" are true, then I suppose going from 120ml to 400ml would make mathematical sense, but still seems ridiculously high. I'm mixing a new gallon of liquid soda ash almost weekly...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Hiw long ago did you switch to the calcium reactor? Could corals have grown a lot in that time?

Do you know how much alk, in dKH, that 400 mL translates to in your system?

 

[mahi03]

Hiw long ago did you switch to the calcium reactor? Could corals have grown a lot in that time?

Do you know how much alk, in dKH, that 400 mL translates to in your system?

About 3 months ago. Corals have grown some, but they can only grow so much in 9 months. I think the most notable measurable effect during that period is that I had to increase the effluent output from a “level 20” to “level 100”. Again, not sure if that actually equates to a 5x consumption level but working with limited quantifiable data here to draw conclusions.

ChatGPT suggests that 400ml of BRS liquid soda ash daily in 90g of water represents a daily dkh consumption of 7.4.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That is a serious overdose in nearly any tank. Are you sure you followed the recipe correctly? You’d likely see a lot of precipitation dosing that much.

FWIW, I don’t trust ai answers without double checking although this one is fairly close. You are adding about 6.2 dKH.

Forget ai and just use a calculator. BRS uses my recipe 1

https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalcnew.html