Alk will not go up. I'm lost here.

J.guokas · Feb 5, 2014

I recently set up my dosing pumps for calcium and alkalinity and everything but my alk will not stabilize. My calcium is 500+ and mag is at 1300 my alkalinity keeps dropping no matter how much I dose. I tested a week ago and it was 9.5 so I bumped my dosing up. I tested last night and it is now 6.4dkh. I have my calcium pump set to be on for 1 minute so it doses 1.1 ml a day and my calcium stays put at around 500. My alk pump is set to about 15 minutes so it's dosing 16.5 ml a day. I have checked heaters and pumps and there is no precipitation. I'm lost help me out here.

ReefPiracy · Feb 5, 2014

What sized tank? I dose 140 mins a day on a 120 gallon system.

Reefing Madness · Feb 5, 2014

Dose more a day.

J.guokas · Feb 6, 2014

SloppyWhenWet said:
What sized tank? I dose 140 mins a day on a 120 gallon system.

It's a 30 gallon.

Pete polyp · Feb 6, 2014

What are you dosing?

KoleTang · Feb 6, 2014

Make sure you don't have a faulty test kit. If the test kit is correct, then just dose more.

Reefermadness73 · Feb 6, 2014

Bring your calcium down..when it's that high it will drop your ALK

Singlefin · Feb 6, 2014

+1 for faulty test kit. What kit are you using? Also for calcium? Salifert goes up to 500ppm. You may be way over 500. I would do a big water change and start testing daily. What is your daily consumption? My 40b would drop 1dkh a day and 10ppm ca. If I can remember correctly. How much livestock do you have?

KoleTang · Feb 6, 2014

Singlefin said:
+1 for faulty test kit. What kit are you using? Also for calcium? Salifert goes up to 500ppm. You may be way over 500. I would do a big water change and start testing daily. What is your daily consumption? My 40b would drop 1dkh a day and 10ppm ca. If I can remember correctly. How much livestock do you have?

Just make sure your salt mix doesn't have a calcium higher than 500.

rock_lobster · Feb 6, 2014

You need to dose more per day on the alkalinity and turn down the calcium just that easy. and test your freshly mixed water for alkalinity and calcium to make sure your kit is properly calibrated.

Pappy · Feb 6, 2014

+1 on bringing calcium down you will never get alk to raise with it that high ime.

Koaboy · Feb 6, 2014

I had the same problem. I understood that raising the alk slowly would cause the ca to be used a little more (to a point). I was doing 10% water changes weekly. Couldn't get the ca down, even though my alk was going up. Changed my water change routine to 10% at two weeks, and the ca would start to drop from 500+ to 450-ish when I dosed alk. Now it's all about balancing alk and ca.

Dan1789 · Feb 6, 2014

1 ml of CA and 15 ml of all seems way off. I good place to start is finding your daily consumption. Here's what I did. Stop dosing. Do a water change and test your levels of alk and ca. Bring them into balance manually (check internet for CA to ALk ratios), check and record levels, don't dose for 7 days and check again. Divide the loss by 7 and you have an average daily consumption. Just my 2 cents.

reeffirstaid · Feb 6, 2014

Are you using Bio-Pellets or any type of nitrate/phosphate liquid, to control nitrates and phosphates. Nowadays, most of those additives are carbon sources that feed anaerobic bacteria, which can greatly effect alkalinity stability.