I have a 220G tank with maybe a medium low to medium SPS load. Back in December I was dosing about 100ml of BRS calcium and alkalinity a day to keep my calcium at about 460 and my alkalinity at about 8.6. I use the trident for my calcium and alkalinity testing and a DOS for dosing. I use the trident controlled dosing, so my daily dose goes up and down a little, but it was averaging around 100ml a day. My pH would range daily from about 7.95 to about 8.1.
At that time I started playing around a bit with dosing lye for alkalinity and also using a CO2 scrubber to raise and stabilize my pH. Over time I raised my pH to a daily range of about 8.15 to 8.3 and naturally this increased my calcium and alkalinity demand, but I feel like it has increased it well beyond what it should have. I’m now dosing about 600ml of calcium and alkalinity a day with very little increase in the coral load. I can’t imagine that a slight increase in pH would increase my calcium and alkalinity demand 6 fold, but I’m not really sure what’s happening or where it’s all going.
Other than a little cloudy water right where the alkalinity drips in, which dissipates immediately, I’m not getting any precipitation when the calcium or alkalinity is added. However, if I don’t scrape the tank glass I get a white calcium build up on the inside of the tank glass within a week or two. My return pumps will also stop running with an overcurrent warning about every 2 or 3 weeks. When I disassemble them to clean them I find the impellers nearly seized with calcium buildup. I use acid to remove it, but a few weeks later it’s back and the pumps stop again.
If I try scaling back a bit on my calcium and alkalinity dosing the calcium and alkalinity levels in the tank drop, so I think that indicates that something is using it and that it’s not just precipitating out somewhere, but I’m kind of at a loss as to what to do. I’m dosing both soda ash and lye, using the apex to pick one of the other, based on the current pH level. The apex also controls the use of the CO2 scrubber based on the pH level, so I tried adjusting the programming to drop the pH level down a bit, so now it’s ranging between about 8.05 and 8.2, but I’m still using 600ml of calcium and alkalinity a day.
I calibrate the trident every time I change the reagent and it’s never been off by much when it gets calibrated, so I don’t think that my calcium and alkalinity are too far off from 460 and 8.6dKh, but I did order salifert test kits for calcium, alkalinity, and pH just to make sure that the levels really are where I think they are. Those should be coming in the next few days.
Any other thoughts on what might be going on here or what I can do to get things back to normal in the mean time?
At that time I started playing around a bit with dosing lye for alkalinity and also using a CO2 scrubber to raise and stabilize my pH. Over time I raised my pH to a daily range of about 8.15 to 8.3 and naturally this increased my calcium and alkalinity demand, but I feel like it has increased it well beyond what it should have. I’m now dosing about 600ml of calcium and alkalinity a day with very little increase in the coral load. I can’t imagine that a slight increase in pH would increase my calcium and alkalinity demand 6 fold, but I’m not really sure what’s happening or where it’s all going.
Other than a little cloudy water right where the alkalinity drips in, which dissipates immediately, I’m not getting any precipitation when the calcium or alkalinity is added. However, if I don’t scrape the tank glass I get a white calcium build up on the inside of the tank glass within a week or two. My return pumps will also stop running with an overcurrent warning about every 2 or 3 weeks. When I disassemble them to clean them I find the impellers nearly seized with calcium buildup. I use acid to remove it, but a few weeks later it’s back and the pumps stop again.
If I try scaling back a bit on my calcium and alkalinity dosing the calcium and alkalinity levels in the tank drop, so I think that indicates that something is using it and that it’s not just precipitating out somewhere, but I’m kind of at a loss as to what to do. I’m dosing both soda ash and lye, using the apex to pick one of the other, based on the current pH level. The apex also controls the use of the CO2 scrubber based on the pH level, so I tried adjusting the programming to drop the pH level down a bit, so now it’s ranging between about 8.05 and 8.2, but I’m still using 600ml of calcium and alkalinity a day.
I calibrate the trident every time I change the reagent and it’s never been off by much when it gets calibrated, so I don’t think that my calcium and alkalinity are too far off from 460 and 8.6dKh, but I did order salifert test kits for calcium, alkalinity, and pH just to make sure that the levels really are where I think they are. Those should be coming in the next few days.
Any other thoughts on what might be going on here or what I can do to get things back to normal in the mean time?