125 Gallon Mixed Reef

[jtcplumb]

I started my tank in June of 2015 and have done many upgrades and changes. I added apex doser three months or so after setting up. Then added 55 gallon refugium with live rock and sand bed. Over time my calc and alk was dropping. I was doing 20-30 percent water changes every two to three weeks and cleaning sand. My dose at its peak for a while went over 300 ML each daily. My sand in both tanks turned to hard cement like blocks. I have about 13 small reef fish and mixed soft LPS mostly and couple acro corals. maybe 15 total. Over the course of time up until today my corals do good for weeks months or even a year with some dying sooner. My parameters are always on target. I took off 55 gallon refugium and took out all sand in 125 gallon and replaced with new sand. I have a eshopp sump in basement RS-300 and mini 180 royal exclusive protein skimmer.i installed a new ATI 60" 4x75" LED and T5 light last winter. and I am at 80ML daily dosing now and still having issues with corals. Did not lose one fish. I have a salt water maintenance guy taking care of my tank every two weeks which we changed to three now. He seems to know what he is doing and has many other clients and pictures of tanks he takes care of. He has spoken to owner of ESV which is additive I dose daily and several other people in field. I have 2- MP 40 power heads in tank and dual over flow boxes with 4- return spouts pushing water with plenty of live rock in tank. We are at a point where we have tried so many different things that he know feels that I may have dosed too early and dumped so much into water table all these years that it could be something out of whack in water and decided to completely drain all my water and start from scratch with new water and go through new cycle. What is your opinions on this therory and plan of attack. It is getting frustrating and expensive. I have spent so much and have the best equipment apex gold controller watching everything cameras online so i can view everything alarms to trip to avoid crash no expense skipped and still cannot keep corals alive please help my fellow reefers before I throw in the towel >>

 

[Smo]

What test kits are you using and are you sure they are accurate? Have you taken a water sample to a LFS and have them check? What are your parameters: Mg, Ca, Alk, NO3, and PO4?
Regret--I am not familiar with ESV. I use 2-part from BRS.
A large water change may be in order and I would stop dosing until you can establish a trend. You should not have to recycle your tank.

 

[jtcplumb]

Test kits are accurate red sea and hanna all come out the same
alk 7.6 calc 460 mag 1250 nitrate 5.0 nitrite o ppm phos 0.10 did not bring sample to LFS. ESV i buy from bulk reef supply. 2 part dose.

 

[Smo]

Interesting. I am doing essentially the same thing as you but not having the same problem. Just to restate the problem--something is driving your alkalinity down requiring excessive dosing?
Could there be something with the sand you are using that is causing the Ca and carbonates to precipitate out?

 

[Smo]

My experience with the Red Sea Pro test for alkalinity is the color change is very subtle. You have to sneak up on it. But I suspect you get similar results with the Hanna?

 

[USMA36]

What’s your Ph? If you have a sealed up house low ph due to high co2 may be part of your issue. You can also use Red Sea pro salt. That has a higher dkh from the get go.

 

[jtcplumb]

Interesting. I am doing essentially the same thing as you but not having the same problem. Just to restate the problem--something is driving your alkalinity down requiring excessive dosing?
Could there be something with the sand you are using that is causing the Ca and carbonates to precipitate out?

Sand is all new sand we took all the old sand out so it's not that

 

[jtcplumb]

What’s your Ph? If you have a sealed up house low ph due to high co2 may be part of your issue. You can also use Red Sea pro salt. That has a higher dkh from the get go.

Ph is 8.11 more or less. Tank is in my plumbing office house is 70 yrs old not tight and people coming and going all the time.

 

[jtcplumb]

My experience with the Red Sea Pro test for alkalinity is the color change is very subtle. You have to sneak up on it. But I suspect you get similar results with the Hanna?

Yes it's spot on between Red Sea and Hanna test kit