Reset dosing?

[Ktran350]

Hello. I’m a bit concerned on my tank’s uptake of Alk and Cal. I’ve added a BRS CO2 scrubber a few months ago and it has increased my Alk and Cal dosing by 3x. I don’t see any precipitating on my glass or walls. I am getting a little bit of sand clumping (not hard and can crush it with my fingers). PH swings from low of 8.10 to a high of about 8.26-8.3:


I am using Red Sea Reef Foundation A, B and C. Here is what my daily dosing looks like (3.612 ppm of Alk and 25.86 ppm of Cal per day). Dose Alk on even hours and Cal on odd hours. Daily dosing split over 24 hrs:


Picture of tank (mostly SPS):



Is this normal or should I be concerned? TIA.

 

[Ktran350]

Param:

Alk: 8.4
Cal: 420
Mag: 1350
No3: 5 ppm
PO4: .02

 

[Ktran350]

Duplicate post

 

[Ktran350]

Duplicate post

 

[Ktran350]

Today’s test:

Alk: 7.8 dkh
Cal: 415 ppm
Mag: 1350
Nitrate: 5 ppm
Phosphate: .03

I was looking and saw a video by BRS. Suggested to turn off doser and check levels again tomorrow to determine how much Alk and cal the tank is actually consuming.



Any suggestions?

 

[Reefs and Geeks]

Last time I had done this was fairly recently. I switched from using kalk to 2-part, and dosed manually one a day and check alk twice a day. I'd test in the evening just prior to dosing, then use a reef calculator to get the dose I need to bring my ca and alk up to where I wanted. I'd manually dose the calculated amount, then wait an hour for everything to mix well and tested again to see if the dose was correct. If needed, a correction dose was added. I'd then wait untill the same time the next day and repeat. If my initial test of alk was the same as the day before, than the tank would have consumed all of the alk I added over 24 hours. If it was lower than the previous day, than the tank is consuming more than I added, and of course if it was higher, than not all of the alk I added was consumed and my next dose would be reduced. I repeated this process for about 2 weeks untill I was consistantly adding the same amount of 2-part every day and getting the same readings every day.

If you're not comfortable dosing a full days worth of alk/ca at once, you can take the calculated dose and split it up into however many doses you want over the next 24 hours.

Doing this method I got 65ml dose of alk and 65 ml dose for ca from 2-part per day to keep up with consumption. my daily dose has been spot on for months now with only very infrequent corrections

 

[BeejReef]

If you're a fan of the BRS videos, I'm assuming you've seen the recent one where they advocate running higher ph.
Hopefully, it's not a problem at all and you're just one of the early adopters seeing increased alk/calc consumption (and presumably the beginnings of faster growth) by running higher ph!

What was your average ph before adding the co2 scrubs?

 

[Ktran350]

Last time I had done this was fairly recently. I switched from using kalk to 2-part, and dosed manually one a day and check alk twice a day. I'd test in the evening just prior to dosing, then use a reef calculator to get the dose I need to bring my ca and alk up to where I wanted. I'd manually dose the calculated amount, then wait an hour for everything to mix well and tested again to see if the dose was correct. If needed, a correction dose was added. I'd then wait untill the same time the next day and repeat. If my initial test of alk was the same as the day before, than the tank would have consumed all of the alk I added over 24 hours. If it was lower than the previous day, than the tank is consuming more than I added, and of course if it was higher, than not all of the alk I added was consumed and my next dose would be reduced. I repeated this process for about 2 weeks untill I was consistantly adding the same amount of 2-part every day and getting the same readings every day.

If you're not comfortable dosing a full days worth of alk/ca at once, you can take the calculated dose and split it up into however many doses you want over the next 24 hours.

Doing this method I got 65ml dose of alk and 65 ml dose for ca from 2-part per day to keep up with consumption. my daily dose has been spot on for months now with only very infrequent corrections

Thanks. I split my daily dosing for Alk every other hour in even hours and cal on every other hour on odd hours. Since I’ve added the co2 scrubber I’ve corrected my dosing at least once a week during WCs.

If you're a fan of the BRS videos, I'm assuming you've seen the recent one where they advocate running higher ph.
Hopefully, it's not a problem at all and you're just one of the early adopters seeing increased alk/calc consumption (and presumably the beginnings of faster growth) by running higher ph!

What was your average ph before adding the co2 scrubs?

Thanks. I’ve seen their investigation of running higher PH can increase growth but this was months ago so If they have a new video I haven’t seen it. My PH before the CO2 scrubber was about low of 7.7 and high of 7.99 ish. Since adding it I’ve see ALOT of growth. Just afraid my dosing is excessive

 

[BeejReef]

Hmmm.. now you've got me thinking. I hadn't seen that BRS video you linked. I'm seeing crazy high apparent alk/calc consumption myself and haven't been able to nail it down. I've got at least 30 baby snails growing shells, so I figured that must be it. In short though, I've had the same thing. An apparent tripling of my alk/calc consumption in the past week. I was at .5 tspn of kalk/gallon of rodi. Today, I'm barely able to make headway with fully saturated limewater. Granted, evaporation has slowed.

You mentioned your sand is a little clumpy? Does precipitation beget more precipitation? Is that what that video is saying?
Does this mean that if I clean up any little white deposits on my back glass, heater, and in the sump, I can reduce future precipitation and total apparent consumption?

Is it possible to do something similar with the sand bed?

 

[Ktran350]

Hmmm.. now you've got me thinking. I hadn't seen that BRS video you linked. I'm seeing crazy high apparent alk/calc consumption myself and haven't been able to nail it down. I've got at least 30 baby snails growing shells, so I figured that must be it. In short though, I've had the same thing. An apparent tripling of my alk/calc consumption in the past week. I was at .5 tspn of kalk/gallon of rodi. Today, I'm barely able to make headway with fully saturated limewater. Granted, evaporation has slowed.

You mentioned your sand is a little clumpy? Does precipitation beget more precipitation? Is that what that video is saying?
Does this mean that if I clean up any little white deposits on my back glass, heater, and in the sump, I can reduce future precipitation and total apparent consumption?

Is it possible to do something similar with the sand bed?

I think they’re just talking about general cleaning of precipitation off the heaters and pumps. I did see them recommending to test, stop dosing all together for 1 day and test after 24 hours and see how much consumption is. Than slowly dose up to your desired level. Only thing I’m afraid with this procedure is the possibility of your tank crashing especially in my tank where apparently a day of no dosing I can lose corals and such.