Alk/Cal drop

[Britott]

Hi all,
Let's see if I can get this across without sounding to complicated or more so not making sense.

I have mostly a lps/sps dominated reef
I do 10% weekly water changes and dose Alk daily too maintain Alk levels, never needed to add extra cal or mag, the water change kept them in check.

Now my Alk has gone from 8.2 to 7.7
And Cal has gone from 400 to 365

Now only thing I did different in the past week (levels have been steady for months now) is I dosed iodine for the first time ever and this passed Friday I bought a large Maxima Clam.

Can any of these have caused such a drop or is it more than likely something else.

Any thoughts/advice will be greatly appreciated [emoji4]

 

[DharkaronReef]

In my experience (10+ years), clams consumes a lot of Nutrients (Alk, Cal and Mag). You’ll need to dose heavily to keep up with the Clam’s demand. I had a clam in my tank a few years ago and saw the same Alk, Cal and Mag drop.

 

[ZoWhat]

What salt are you using for waterchanges? Reg IO only mixes out to roughly 390 on calc.

I'd do a Calc specifically on a new batch of your SW mix.

Secondly.... what test kits are you using and what's their expiration dates?

Third. If you are dosing IODINE and not Iodide. STOP! I have a 300+ gal total water system and tried my hand at moldy dosing of Lugols Iodine. Wiped out all but 1 fish and did nothing but screw up my water parameters.

Iodine is like saying, " I have constipation so I'm going to swallow a tablespoon of Liquid Plummer every day until I "go"

Iodine is WICKED. DEVILS JUICE and has no biz being dosed in a reef
.

 

[Britott]

In my experience (10+ years), clams consumes a lot of Nutrients (Alk, Cal and Mag). You’ll need to dose heavily to keep up with the Clam’s demand. I had a clam in my tank a few years ago and saw the same Alk, Cal and Mag drop.

Thanks mate, thought that might of been the case

 

[Britott]

What salt are you using for waterchanges? Reg IO only mixes out to roughly 390 on calc.

I'd do a Calc specifically on a new batch of your SW mix.

Secondly.... what test kits are you using and what's their expiration dates?

Third. If you are dosing IODINE and not Iodide. STOP! I have a 300+ gal total water system and tried my hand at moldy dosing of Lugols Iodine. Wiped out all but 1 fish and did nothing but screw up my water parameters.

Iodine is like saying, " I have constipation so I'm going to swallow a tablespoon of Liquid Plummer every day until I "go"

Iodine is WICKED. DEVILS JUICE and has no biz being dosed in a reef
.

I'm using quantums sps salt mix and I am using salifert natural iodine tiny bit every 2 weeks, started first dose last Sunday, and will definitely keep an eye on the iodine dosing which I was recommend to try for an other issue I am having, which if needed will start another thread for that.

Thanks for the pointers mate, really do appreciate it

 

[Britott]

I'm using quantums sps salt mix and I am using salifert natural iodine tiny bit every 2 weeks, started first dose last Sunday, and will definitely keep an eye on the iodine dosing which I was recommend to try for an other issue I am having, which if needed will start another thread for that.

Thanks for the pointers mate, really do appreciate it

Oh and test kits are good till June 2022

 

[Britott]

Just checked the salifert iodine and it actually only mostly consists of iodate and some iodide if any of that makes sense lol