slowing Alk and cal consumption

diemaker · Feb 9, 2020

Hi Guy's

few weird things here I've noticed that my alk and cal cons has being slowing down over the last few weeks as my numbers have been moving up alk by as much as 2.5 DKH as per trident so I turn my doser off for a few days till it drops down and turn it back on. I'm using 2 part dosed in equal parts have being fro a few months (EVS)and its all the same batch as I buy 5 gallon pails at a time. I have been sick for a few weeks and not being taking full Care of my system in that time Frame my no3 has jump to 90 and my phos .156 I've always had very low numbers. Im not sure if the 2 items are related at all.

2 things worth mentioning are 3 ,months ago a changed my g4pros to run pretty much blue only and have seen decent growth and colour
The other thing is my tank is 1 year old and im running Marco rock with 4 large bio rocks in my sump

all testing has been done with either trident or hanna URL test kits feeding is the same food and amounts

P-Dub · Feb 9, 2020

Your corals are likely not happy with the high nutrient conditions and have not been utilizing the alk and ca available. Basically, they are on a growth strike likely due to the high nutrients and that would, logically, account for the increase in those levels. If you are adding them but they are not using them.... Make sense?

diemaker · Feb 9, 2020

P-Dub said:
Your corals are likely not happy with the high nutrient conditions and have not been utilizing the alk and ca available. Basically, they are on a growth strike likely due to the high nutrients and that would, logically, account for the increase in those levels. If you are adding them but they are not using them.... Make sense?

makes sense to me I just wanted to verify as I've never come across this before always learning lol

P-Dub · Feb 9, 2020

Fix the high nutrients and see if this helps. BE CERTAIN to report back as this is helpful for others that may be experiencing the same thing and come across this thread.

diemaker · Feb 9, 2020

P-Dub said:
Fix the high nutrients and see if this helps. BE CERTAIN to report back as this is helpful for others that may be experiencing the same thing and come across this thread.

I will report back for sure tomorrow I will do a light vacuum to my 2" sand bed and change 65 gallon of water
and see were I'am. I also should have mentioned about that I have slowly seen my ORP drop over the last few week from about 409 to 272 today.

P-Dub · Feb 9, 2020

You might have something dead that you didn't know you had in there that is causing both the high nitrate and lowered ORP. Good thing is your bacteria populations are handling the ammonia if this is the case. Any chance you can test for detectable levels of ammonia?

diemaker · Feb 9, 2020

P-Dub said:
You might have something dead that you didn't know you had in there that is causing both the high nitrate and lowered ORP. Good thing is your bacteria populations are handling the ammonia if this is the case. Any chance you can test for detectable levels of ammonia?

yes I can test for this I did do a count today and it appears all 33 fish lol are accounted for but you never know.
I have read some articles since building this system regarding high levels and Marco rock as well. As an added bonus I've ordered an extra 100lbs of Australian live reef rock that I will place in a holding tank for a few weeks with a skimmer power heads and heater before placing it in my sump.

diemaker · Feb 16, 2020

UPDATE well I vacuumed my sand bed and WOW lol was pretty nasty. I then did a 100 gallon water change and my numbers have fallen back in line and remained that way for 2 weeks now. I also add a ton of clew up crew. my sand bed is only 2" max in some areas so I should have known better.