Night drop in alk

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Ok I’m wondering if there’s any benefit in mixing bacteria/food with a flocculent like calcium carbonate, especially with SPS.

Wouldn’t that make the organic particles bigger, thus making it larger than what SPS can chew?

I guess I need to get some Calcium Carbonate and play with it myself haha

It is an interesting question whether the two together vs separate might be acting a bit at cross purposes.

Presumably some of the dosed bacteria bind to the CaCO3 surfaces.

Is that desirable because a coral consumes the whole particle, digests off the bacteria, and spits of the CaCO3?

Or is it undesirable because those bacteria are lost from being a food, and at the same time, detract from the CaCO3 ability to take up organics because they are taking up surface space?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for asking.

I wonder a bit about the curves. I see it is two days from 28th to 30th of January but there are four swings of alkalinity and only two of pH. :face-with-raised-eyebrow: So alkalinity swings are not day - night related but there are depressions at midday and midnight. How often is alkalinity measued?

Ok, if we say the midday low is due to highest calcification, the midnight low still needs to be explained. Both swings reach the same low level. Is the midnight low also due to some calcification process oder is it a low in conversion of formate to bicarbonate, maybe due to lower oxygen?

Or does low pH influence the alkalinity titration? Or the conversion of formate to bicarbonate?

I will think about it and try to find it out. At the moment I do not have a good explanation at hand.

Thanks.

I have a hard time viewing these sorts of small graphs without grids, and seeing if the effect is reproducible day to day, and exactly every 24 h is clearly key.

It also may just be test error or a small pH effect on the method used (as you suggested).

 

[Troylee]

Thanks for asking.

I wonder a bit about the curves. I see it is two days from 28th to 30th of January but there are four swings of alkalinity and only two of pH. :face-with-raised-eyebrow: So alkalinity swings are not day - night related but there are depressions at midday and midnight. How often is alkalinity measued?

Ok, if we say the midday low is due to highest calcification, the midnight low still needs to be explained. Both swings reach the same low level. Is the midnight low also due to some calcification process oder is it a low in conversion of formate to bicarbonate, maybe due to lower oxygen?

Or does low pH influence the alkalinity titration? Or the conversion of formate to bicarbonate?

I will think about it and try to find it out. At the moment I do not have a good explanation at hand.

Hey Hans… the alkalinity is measured every 6 hours per the trident log. Midnight, 6am, noon and 6pm. I’m not sure if I could pull up a bigger graph on a pc with more data or not. The log you see is from the app on my phone.

 

[Troylee]

Ok I’m wondering if there’s any benefit in mixing bacteria/food with a flocculent like calcium carbonate, especially with SPS.

Wouldn’t that make the organic particles bigger, thus making it larger than what SPS can chew?

I guess I need to get some Calcium Carbonate and play with it myself haha

So here’s the thing! I don’t know the science behind it, but for sure my experience with it, it works and works great! I used sunny x extreme water clarity and cyano eradication… the recipe calls out carbonate, zeobak and coral amino “mix for 5 minutes and dose” and the theory behind it is to coat the surfaces with good bacteria that is coated onto surfaces via the carbonate. For sure it keeps everything clean and algae free! My observations while using this.. now user “the coral reef tank” who is a top notch sps keeper is mixing up a stew that’s similar with more food products and letting it marinate over night and build up biofilms in the container before feeding his sticks.. I started playing with the Sunny’s recipe and had a few things on hand that I’ve been working with and seeing some crazy results! This is what I use in my stew “gut loaded bacteria” I let it sit for 30 minutes myself before feeding. There’s all kinds of reactions and smells when you mix this up! Haha

 

[Troylee]

Sorry we’re off the original topic here but here’s the feeding response you get long after the smoke clears. 1st picture..most of my acros have the feeders out for a couple hours after dosing.. the next 3 pictures are 1 months growth of a transhipped acro that was cut day 1 and didn’t even hesitate to captive life!

 

[Hans-Werner]

Hey Hans… the alkalinity is measured every 6 hours per the trident log. Midnight, 6am, noon and 6pm. I’m not sure if I could pull up a bigger graph on a pc with more data or not. The log you see is from the app on my phone.

Thanks, the size is absolutely ok, don't worry!

This means there was a constant up and down and rounded curves are provided by the programm. This is what I wanted to know. The graph means just midnight low - 6am high - noon low - 6pm high alkalinity every day.

I already suspected, this is what the Alkx4 in the display means.