trying to dose, not working too hot

[justin_freebords]

So I have low alk, about 6, i started dosing recipe 1 of randys to increase it. Ive only been increasing it by 1dkh but due to the tank load (10 gallon, 3 sps and some lps) it drops about 1dkh a day. Ive been able to get it to 7dkh but i have to dose 6ml a day to keep it there. My problem is my chalice seems really unhappy since i started dosing (i dosed because my dkh was at 6 and my chalice started to receed, dosing seemed to help though until now) every other perameter is great i will post if needed. my ph is at 8.4 so is it possible that the swing in ph is messing things up? I dose when lights are on. I plan to increase my dose because i want alk around 9 or 10, at that point i will begin using kents nano reef two part to keep the dkh up, i just find it more cost effective to use the homemade to raise alk. Any suggestions? my warcoral also randomly receded 1 eye. ugh frustrating. Sorry if this is confusing im rushing out of the house but wanted to get it posted before people went to bed. Thanks guys, if you need more info ask

 

[cveverly]

Are you dosing all the alk increaser at one time? If so I suspect you are creating a pretty radical swing in alk since the tank is 10 gallons. Maybe try to dilute the additive and drip it in or spread it out some. I mix my alk additive with ro/di water and drip it in over a couple hour period.

Just a guess.

 

[crewchef]

I'm just getting back into the hobby after a long lay off so this is not expert opinion just what I've read as I've worked on something similar.

Dose late evening after lights have been off for 3/4 hours or early morning before lights on. Dose slowly, i.e. one drop per second. I was dosing with lights on and to quickly and it caused my corals to pull in some. Try to estimate what your daily dosing requirements are just to maintain current level. Then figure out how much you need to dose to raise it by x dkh, divide by 4 (or more) to spread it out some. Add those two together to get what you need to dose to raise dkh. Once it's up to the level you want drop back to your daily and test to make sure it's stable, may have to adjust a little to keep it dead on.

 

[Oimate84]

Justin,
Is there any way you can stick a pH monitor in the tank whenever you dose your normal dose of alk? I suspect its causing too much of a swing on the pH being its a small system and your adding it all at once. Spread out to dose as others mentioned. Also, strive for consistancy in alk rather then a target #. You can keep SPS just fine at a consistant 8 DKH.

 

[beaslbob]

So I have low alk, about 6, i started dosing recipe 1 of randys to increase it. Ive only been increasing it by 1dkh but due to the tank load (10 gallon, 3 sps and some lps) it drops about 1dkh a day. Ive been able to get it to 7dkh but i have to dose 6ml a day to keep it there. My problem is my chalice seems really unhappy since i started dosing (i dosed because my dkh was at 6 and my chalice started to receed, dosing seemed to help though until now) every other perameter is great i will post if needed. my ph is at 8.4 so is it possible that the swing in ph is messing things up? I dose when lights are on. I plan to increase my dose because i want alk around 9 or 10, at that point i will begin using kents nano reef two part to keep the dkh up, i just find it more cost effective to use the homemade to raise alk. Any suggestions? my warcoral also randomly receded 1 eye. ugh frustrating. Sorry if this is confusing im rushing out of the house but wanted to get it posted before people went to bed. Thanks guys, if you need more info ask

What are your values of magnesium, calcium, as well as alk?

I use recipe 2 on my tanks with just straight baking soda for the alk part. Certainly you cannot be saying that is too expensive.

If your mag is 1300ppm or so you should be able to raise alk from 6dkh to 10dkh with no problem. Calcium may drop if it was initially high like over 400ppm or so.

JMHO

Worth at most .02

 

[justin_freebords]

thanks for the posts so far guys. My Ca was 480 then down to 440 but its pretty good it never gets a chance to dip below 400 due to waterchanges. I dose randys homemade which isnt expensive. I used a reef calculator to figure out how many ml to add to increase dkh by 1. I used the salifert magnesium test kit 2 ml dropper to make sure i add the exact amount and i just do a quick drip, 2 ml at a time. mg tested good at 1320 but that was like a week ago, although i dont see why it would change due to me dosing alk and ive kept up with usual waterchanges.


The goal of my dosing is to increase dkh to test at 8 before i dose. I want the drop each day to go no lower than 8 that way if i am unable to dose for a few days, the drop wont mess things up like it originally did when i left for the weekend last week. At the point that im at about 9ish i will start using nano two part from KENT to keep the level stable everyday

Also, i just finished my summer job yesterday so i should (once i get home from tahoe this weekend) be able to start dosing the tank prior to lights on. Thanks for the help, if you guys have any other info to add im down to hear it.


My sps are doing great, its the lps that im confused about

 

[justin_freebords]

here ill try and clean this post up a bit

Alk: low 7 (after some dosing ive been doing)
Ca: 440-480
Mg: 1300-1320
Sg: 1.025 (with my new refractometer, my hydrometer was dead on though heh)
Ph: 8.4


I used the online reef calculator to figure out i need to add 6.4ml of randys recipe 1 to increase my dkh by 1.

On average id say my dkh drops by about .5-.75 a day i think. Im basing this off the fact that i dose just under 6ml and my levels have been slowly rising since i started dosing. So I'm able to keep up with what is being lost on a daily basis and also still slowly increase it so each day 24 hours after dosing the test yields a result a tiny bit higher than the day before.

My goal is to continue this process until alk is at 8 or 9. I do not want a alk of 10, however if it was at 10 i wouldnt be mad, its just a lot more effort than i wish to put forth when an alk of 8 or 9 will suffice.

My problem, ive been dosing while lights on. This, I believe, has been the cause of my LPS problems. Duncan and micromussa are 100% good. War coral and Chalice are the ones that are being weird and stressed. I want to attribute this to the ph swings i believe are happening, My solution is to now dose PRIOR to lights on. It is an easy fix, especially once i get back to school because I have classes every day (but friday-sunday) before 1pm when lights on occures.

I use the salifert magnesium test kit dropper thing to make sure i dose PERFECT levels, no guessing, i know exactly how much i am adding to my tank.



Im looking for input on what the cause may be for the crappy lps health. Nitrates and all that jazz are good, the problems started when i came home to find my alk at about 6.

If you have any other suggestions as to dosing im all ears. Im still trying to understand how it works and so far ive had succes in reefing using trial and error so hopefully that works again here haha.

First things first i need to get my Alk up to the level i want it which is 8 or 9.

 

[beaslbob]

From this calculator:

Reef Chemistry Calculator

starting alk 6 dkh, final 10dkh, baking soda, 10g.

add: 4.5 grams, .9 tsp, .1 oz balanced ad 432 ppm calcium

So if you add a teaspoon of baking soda you will raise the alk but also drop the calcium down. Betch ya if you do two days in a row calcium will be ~400 alk ~10dkh.

Then do the 1 gallon solutions and add equal amounts of calcium and alk when alk drops down to 9 dkh. Which is extremly easy to measure with the api kh test kit. Just a 9 drops. if blue don't dose. If yellow dose.

my .02

ps a little kalk in top off water would help also.

 

[gilmour01]

what test kit are you using to check your alk? if your pH is 8.4, i have a hard time believing that your alk is only 6.

 

[customcolor]

now you know why people go with larger tanks for coral...sorry i wish i could help you...
dosing at lights off is a good idea cuz the lights raise the ph when there on.

 

[justin_freebords]

yeah i wish i could have a larger tank but given what i have i feel like i am doing a pretty good job. 10 Gallon with sps lps and softies and i move it once in august, then december, then january, then may, then august, repeat. So yes i wish i could have a large tank but college doesnt really allow that for me.

im using the API test kit. I think im going to do what beaslbob suggested.

 

[DaveA]

Here's a thought. 10 gallons with sps, lps, and softies. It's possible the corals are stinging each other or that there is chemical warfare (allelopathy) occurring. In such a small system with so many different kinds of coral, I'm guessing that might be the cause. Could you name the specific corals you have in the tank? Maybe running some carbon would help? A pic would help too.

 

[justin_freebords]

I run carbon

kenya tree (not in touching range of any coral)
acro
garf bonsai
birdsnest
war coral
chalice
micromussa
ricordia
zoa's and palys
duncan


pictures suck but here

middle of my tank

right side

top middle


chalice is on the left with nothing but zoas and a ricordia near it


the thing that makes me think it isnt chemical is the fact that EVERYTHING but the chalice and warcoral are 100% fine and either always happy looking or growing. My birdsnest is growing great my acro is encrusting more and more and i can see new polyps coming in at the base where its encrusting. My bonsai looks the same but its kinda new. My micro which has always been trouble with me is always puffed up and happy now, my duncan opens up huge every day (it looks small because i just did a water change so its kinda shrunk in)

the problem is with my chalice. It was doing great finally and grew a ton and covered almost the whole plug. Now it just doesnt puff up like that anymore and just looks un happy. My war coral one day lost an eye in the middle but has since began repairing itself and looks totally happy and puts out its feeders and stuff when food is in the tank. I just dont get my chalice which is why i wanted to dose to increase my alk because i was told that low alkalinity really causes problems with chalices

 

[justin_freebords]

well incase anyone is curious i finally got it all figured out. Im dosing with the kent nano two part vs the homemade just because i wanna get into the swing of things and figure out how much i need to add to do each thing. I got it down to about 20 drops to maintain my levels each morning prior to lights on. However ive been adding 20 drops before lights on around 10am, then 10 drops after lights on (1pm) at about 5pmish, then finally 10 more drops after lights off (11pm) around 1230 or 1am depending when i go to sleep. Its been working well im slowly increasing my alkalinity which is what i wanted to do, i dont want a large drastic leap.

 

[Yellowtang]

It's always fun when it works.

JR,

 

[GMaquarium]

In 10 gallon tank you will always have an uphill battle trying to get the parameters right. I do not dose anything into my small tanks. Just do a water change. When you have a fully dissolved salt mix in water the parameters would be right, if you keep up with 3-5 gallon changes your water will be much better.