Alkalinity going down

[sfin52]

Yes, coraline is growing a lot. Anything new gets coated within a few weeks, and it is hard to keep the glass clean.

Thats where you alk and calcium is going. The more you dose the more it's going to grow. Welcome to the pia if coraline.

I suggest a rock boring urchin. They love coraline. I haven't see it pick anything up and carry it off. I have loose frag plugs and shells. Never carried one off.

 

[sfin52]

I have not see it plow down corals in fact I've never seen it on the rocks. It keeps my glass free of coraline.

If you have an acrylic tank this isn't the urchin for you.

 

[davidwillis]

There are various methods for maintaining tank stability and I don't use the soda ash or vinegar methods. I just like to keep things simple with easy 2 part esv bionic dosing. Alk during the day, calcium overnight. I use a fuge with chaeto to keep my PH consistent overnight and provide natural filtration. Magnesium only depletes at 1/10th the rate of alk and cal so I simply hand dose that weekly.

What salt mix are you using and what is the alk number there?

I have used both a refugium with Caeto, and an algae scrubber, and didn't notce any impact on ph with those. They just were a pain to keep clean, so I don't use them. I dose vinegar for the nitrate reduction, but it does have a large effect on ph, so I dose it during day hours.

I use instant ocean salt, but am moving away from water changes (just do very small daily changes of less than 1%), so it probably has very little effect.

I only very rarely have to add magnesium (once every 6 months or so). I am not sure why, but it goes up and down even though I don't add any. Probably just the inaccuracy of the testing.

 

[davidwillis]

I have not see it plow down corals in fact I've never seen it on the rocks. It keeps my glass free of coraline.

If you have an acrylic tank this isn't the urchin for you.

Yes, my tank is acrylic.

 

[sfin52]

Yes, my tank is acrylic.

I'm not sure how to reduce coraline growth.

 

[Lavey29]

I have used both a refugium with Caeto, and an algae scrubber, and didn't notce any impact on ph with those. They just were a pain to keep clean, so I don't use them. I dose vinegar for the nitrate reduction, but it does have a large effect on ph, so I dose it during day hours.

I use instant ocean salt, but am moving away from water changes (just do very small daily changes of less than 1%), so it probably has very little effect.

I only very rarely have to add magnesium (once every 6 months or so). I am not sure why, but it goes up and down even though I don't add any. Probably just the inaccuracy of the testing.

Well sounds like you are on top of things and diligently checking the boxes. I think the minor fluctuations are irrelevant in the overall tank condition and your systematic approach will probably determine the root cause at some point. I still think alk should be dosed during the day and calcium overnight though which is opposite of your method approach.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

sorry, maybe I was not clear on what I was trying to say. I mean the alk will go up or stay the same all day when I am not dosing, but then go down at night when I do dose. Then when I increased the dosing amount, it went down even more. So it seems like dosing soda ash actually lowers the alk.

For example, I check alk at 7am, 5pm, and 1am, and dose alk between 5pm and 7am. From 7am to 5pm (no soda ash dosed), the alk stays the sam, or sometimes goes up. However between 5pm and 1am (while dosing), the alk goes down, and also from 1am to 7am (also dosing soda ash), the alk goes down.

Maybe it is just the inaccuracy of the trident, and just a coincidence that it always shows that it goes down after dosing. I just wanted to check and see if I was doing something wrong before increasing the dosage again.

Yes, I would not try to interpret small alk changes in a device like the trident.

I don’t believe you are doing anything wrong nor do I think dosing is likely the causative factor in the observed alk declines.

 

[davidwillis]

Yes, I would not try to interpret small alk changes in a device like the trident.

I don’t believe you are doing anything wrong nor do I think dosing is likely the causative factor in the observed alk declines.

I think you are right. I dosed soda ash all day today at double the normal nightly dose, and got a nice rise in alk (up to 8.08).

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sounds good.

Happy Reefing!