Way too much Alkalinity!!

[Zeeter]

180g tank with 40g sump.

From the 21st of February to the 2nd of March my Alkalinity was hovering about 8.0 to 8.4, with a couple of dips here and there. I confirm the Alkatronic results every couple of days with a Hanna checker. I had been dosing around 200ml a day of kH until the 2nd.

I set up a Dosetronic at 2:00 PM on the 2nd and by 8:00 AM on the 4th it has dosed over 1800ml, yet the alkalinity has stayed fairly stable.

Just today, from 1:43AM to 7:43AM it has dosed 582ml with no dips in kH other than the last couple of checks as my Alk reservoir ran out overnight..

As for corals, I have about 15 frags - all SPS or LPS and none any larger than a frag plug.

My calcium is at 401 and the DT has dosed 220ml of that since the 2nd. I'm no expert but this seems ok.

What could be the cause of the tank apparently needing so much alkalinity recently? Is it possible that I'm missing something else and it's consuming the alk to compensate?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What size tank and what product are you dosing?

 

[Zeeter]

What size tank and what product are you dosing?

180 with 40g sump.

Using FM Balling.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

OK, so FM says:

Balling Light Set - Fauna Marin

www.faunamarin.de

"ALK/KH 10ml/100 L + 0,5 dkH"

In 200 gallons (757 L), adding 582 ml will boost alk by 3.8 dKH.

"CA 10 ml/100 L + 11 mg / L"

Adding 220 mL of the calcium part will boost calcium by 32 ppm.

That is actually a little overbalanced to too much calcium relative to YOUR alk dosing.

This product is not a 1:1 additive.

Can you describe the tank so we can assess the demand, and do you see any precipitation of calcium carbonate on pumps, sand, etc?

 

[Zeeter]

About 15 corals frags, mix of LPS and SPS with a couple of zoas.
About 15 fish, mostly small.

No noticeable precipitation.

Current state has very low Nitrates at 2.21 but phosphates are good at 0.045.

I'm running a Kalk reactor along with 2part.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

About 15 corals frags, mix of LPS and SPS with a couple of zoas.
About 15 fish, mostly small.

No noticeable precipitation.

Current state has very low Nitrates at 2.21 but phosphates are good at 0.045.

I'm running a Kalk reactor along with 2part.

Seems like an excessive demand for that tank. Check the sand for any hardening.

 

[Zeeter]

Seems like an excessive demand for that tank. Check the sand for any hardening.

I'm not sure what you mean by hardening. I have no problems stirring it, if that's what you mean. It's crushed coral and not sand, btw; not sure if that makes a difference.

I have no coralline algae that might be consuming it. I doubt this matters, but I had an outbreak of cyano a couple of weeks ago and used chemi-clean to clear it up.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm not sure what you mean by hardening. I have no problems stirring it, if that's what you mean. It's crushed coral and not sand, btw; not sure if that makes a difference.

I have no coralline algae that might be consuming it. I doubt this matters, but I had an outbreak of cyano a couple of weeks ago and used chemi-clean to clear it up.

Yes, it can become hard like a stone, cementing the different grains together.

If you see no precipitation anywhere, then the pumps may just be dispensing less than you think, or the product is more dilute than normal for some reason.

 

[Zeeter]

At around 3:00 yesterday I received a new bottle of reagent concentrate. Mixed that up very carefully and ran a test.

15.09 dKH.
Recalibrated everything and got 14.89.

I believe this to be accurate based on how much alkalinity the Dosetronic added over the weekend. Clearly, both the Hanna checker and the earlier Alkatronic readings were wrong.

I looked at the reagent for Hanna and it said it expires in April, but it's been open for several months and I read somewhere today that it expires about a month after opening.

For the Alkatronic, I was using the same reagent I used with the Hydros IV. While I can't remember the date of mixing it, it was not recent as the IV wasn't used for a couple of weeks due to my frustrations with it.

I'm running another test with the Alkatronic right now with a 50ml mixture of reagent in a test tube, but I was pretty exact when mixing it in 2.5L container last night.

Testing overnight, it's dropped and is now at 12.17, which is a little high, but not as dramatically so. Obviously I haven't been dosing over this period.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ok, that’s interesting. Let us know how the demand changes after restarting dosing.

 

[Zeeter]

Ok, that’s interesting. Let us know how the demand changes after restarting dosing.

Currently I'm at 11.14, which is in acceptable range but a little higher than I like. The rate of the drop has slowed since turning the kalkwasser back on last night. I'll probably start dosing again - slowly - when it drops below 9.