Bad test result or crazy high alk?

gcrance · Oct 12, 2015

Had to get out the door shortly after the last post to get back on the road. So did not start the ca dose anyways., but last ca test was at the end of the firstweek of sept. Read at 410ppm. As per our above conversation i took the alk dose offline to let it fall back down. Since then i have continued with my mg dosing. Were about done with the mg boost. Tested the meter on a new batch of sw and came up with 415ppm. Boxed reef crystals. Purple box. So its def low. Just kinda wild with the ups and downs. Alk spike than low mg now low ca when everything is back up. Just gonna rename this tank the WTFreef

gcrance · Nov 1, 2015

Update:11/1/2015

kinda using this thread as a data log right now, if anyone knows of a decent logging program i could use to monitor the params and suggest adjustments that would be great.

so ive about chased the numbers to where i want my alk is still running a little bit high but is in the slow drop portion of this.
brought the dosing pump back on line to start slowing the fall to a stable maintenance dose. no dosing equal parts esv p1 and p2 at 21ml per 24hr cycle and have just a little bit left on the mg pump to run out before i drop that pump offline

so here is where im at now

Ca 428ppm
Ar 10.64dkh
Sal 1.025
Tmp 77.5f
pH 8.09
Mg 1290ppm
PO4 .09ppm (the high cap gfo has done a great job so far. stopped seeing much drop so i changed it out today hoping for a few months outta this batch)
NH3 0.0ppm

so would i be correct in getting my daily consumption for Ca and Alk if i test again against these number next weekend on the same day and take the difference between the two sets and divide by 7? the tank goes largely unmonitored during the week while im on the road aside from the reefkeeper which is now monitoring ph and tmp. don't have the sal or orp probe yet. so daily testing is almost impossible for me

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 1, 2015

It is much better to get consumption over a long period of no dosing (like the week you suggest) and divide by the days since test kits are not especially precise and reproducible.

But since you are dosing, all that tells you is how much more you need to dose to stabilize, and the amount needed to stabilize at 10.6 dKH will be more than the amount needed to stabilize at 7 dKH.