Balancing alk &iCal

Jlombardi29 · Jan 27, 2015

first off I'm using randys DIY two part and my first question is should it be doesed 1to1?
Right now I'm having a hard time balancing the two my alk is at 9 I'm shooting for 10 and cal is at 520 I'm shooting for 480
Right now I'm doesing 506ml's of alk to maintain it at 9 and 304ml's of cal putting me at 520 is this normal or is something up

mike007 · Jan 27, 2015

Are you sure you are dosing that amount? That is a large amount. What size tank do you have? You can lower your calcium additive until you get it where you want it. You don't have to do 1 to 1. You need to figure out what your daily consumption is before adding. When you figure this out then you can dose a small amount everyday to maintain parameters. Are you dosing manually are with a dosing pump?

Jlombardi29 · Jan 27, 2015

I have 160 gal Sps tank I'm using doesing pumps controlled by my reefkeeper it runs for 20 minutes every hour around the clock it seems like a lot to me to but even at that my alk never gets over 9

Zippy · Jan 27, 2015

Jlombardi29 said:
I have 160 gal Sps tank I'm using doesing pumps controlled by my reefkeeper it runs for 20 minutes every hour around the clock it seems like a lot to me to but even at that my alk never gets over 9

How are your corals? Why do you need alk over 9? If everything is growing nicely, leave it. All tanks are different.

Jlombardi29 · Jan 27, 2015

Corals are ok just not getting the color and growth that others get

mike007 · Jan 27, 2015

I have a 100 gallon sps dominant tank and I am dosing 60 mls. a day to maintain alk at 8. Are you sure you are dosing 506 mls. a day? That seems like that is way too much.

Jlombardi29 · Jan 28, 2015

Well I does 1.1 ml per min for 20 minutes every hour 23 hours a day =506ml every 24 hours so unless my pumps don't really do 1.1 mls a minute then I guess that would be right. But I see what your saying I don't understand why I need so much most of my corals are still small other than my large clam

Dan1789 · Jan 28, 2015

Jlombardi29 said:
Well I does 1.1 ml per min for 20 minutes every hour 23 hours a day =506ml every 24 hours so unless my pumps don't really do 1.1 mls a minute then I guess that would be right. But I see what your saying I don't understand why I need so much most of my corals are still small other than my large clam

I have a strong feeling you are dosing too much which is causing alk to precipitate out. Dosing too much can actually make you alk go down, it happened to me. I would highly suggest cutting back to at 5 min every hour for 8 hours a day alk(night) and cal(day) for a week and see what your numbers are like. Then increase from there as needed.

NanaReefer · Jan 28, 2015

Dan1789 said:
I have a strong feeling you are dosing too much which is causing alk to precipitate out. Dosing too much can actually make you alk go down, it happened to me. I would highly suggest cutting back to at 5 min every hour for 8 hours a day alk(night) and cal(day) for a week and see what your numbers are like. Then increase from there as needed.

I was thinking the same.

Jlombardi29 · Jan 28, 2015

Ok I'll give it a try and see what happens

UK_Pete · Jan 28, 2015

Are your containers of 2 part going down by that much? Half a litre a day? I would think if you were getting that much precip you would be getting a snow storm. Thats 43 grams of calcium carbonate a day, about an ounce and a half. Unless theres some serious build up on your heater or you have some serious SPS growth or something you would be seeing pure milk in the tank! Sounds to me like you are off by a factor of 10 and are actually dosing 50 ml a day. Perhaps the pump max speed is 1.1ml a minute but its running slower that full speed?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 28, 2015

In general, I'd dose equal amounts of both parts unless calcium is too high or too low.

Calcium often starts high because some mixes have a lot in it.

I'd just not dose calcium until it declines to where you want to maintain it, then dose equal parts (although water changes may keep pushing it up).