I've got a Red Sea Reefer 425XL (88gal display, 24gal sump) that's consuming what I think are crazy amounts of 2-part.
First, a little context... the tank is just under 1 year old. We started the tank with sterilized (bleached) rock, and "live" sand.
We've got a few fish:
- 2 medium clownfish
- 1 small mandarin
- 1 medium watchman goby
- 1 small hippo tang
There are a few inverts:
- 1 peppermint shrimp
- 1 blood fire shrimp
- 1 pistol shrimp
- 1 rock flower anemone
- 1 condy anemone
And we've got an assortment of coral, mostly frags
- Various polyps, most are still small colonies (< 5 heads), and one larger colony (a little smaller than a tennis ball)
- Lavender/green mushroom (a little smaller than a tennis ball)
- 4 or 5 tiny, miscellaneous mushrooms (all smaller than a quarter)
- Flower pot, on the smaller side (ping pong ball sized)
- Dendro, single head
- War coral, doesn't quite cover a single plug
- Orange/Green Blastomussa, doesn't quite cover a single plug
- Yellow/green trumpet coral with 6 small heads
- Purple/Green Blastomussa, doesn't quite cover a single plug
- ~5 small acans, each fits on a single plug
- 2 Hammer corals, one about the size of a tennis ball, one the size of a ping-pong ball
- 1 Stylophora Coral, about 3" tall, 2 "heads"
- 3 Birdsnest frags, all about 3" tall (and growing quickly)
- 1 purple montipora, about 2" in diameter
In the tank we run filter socks, an algae scrubber, a skimmer, and 2 powerheads. We use Red Sea Coral Pro salt, and change ~ 10% weekly. All the water is RODI.
We have coralline algae growing in the tank, primarily on the rocks in patches about the size of a quarter, and I'd guess its covering 10-15% of the visible rock surface (we keep the glass clean).
Now, to the most interesting bit.... I started with Kalkwasser in the ATO. After running that for 3-4 months, I concluded that it couldn't keep up with the demand, so we switched to 2-part. We use the BRS bulk stuff. The doser is a home-made rig using cheap dosing heads from Amazon and controlled by our Apex. I know what you're thinking, but so far this rig is working very nicely, and consistently puts out 1ml/sec (I test the output regularly since I know I'm using cheap parts). I mix the 2-part per the BRS instructions.
Here's where is gets strange... we've been trying to maintain Ca at 420, and dKH between 9.0 and 9.2. I'm dosing 10ml of Alk every 30 mins (480 ml/day) and 9ml of Ca every 30 min (432 ml/day) and I still need to top off manually every few days to get things back to the desired levels (they're off by about 10%). Each part is dosed 15 mins apart to minimize precipitation, and they're dropped directly into a powerhead so its pretty quickly dispersed. I haven't noticed and precipitation or build up in the display, but my heater (in the sump) does get buildup (Ca, I assume?).
For testing, I use a Hanna checker for dKH. I've cross checked it with another test, and they're pretty consistent. I also often check the dKH twice with the Hanna as I've read posts about it being inconsistent (FWIW, it reads the same on consecutive tests). And I use the Red Sea Pro for Ca. None of the test reagents are expired
So, thinking this through, I'm trying to identify the "problem". Here are potential sources and how I'm trying to eliminate them:
- My readings are off... This seems unlikely as I often test twice and get consistent results. And I occasionally use different test kits with similar results.
- My doser isn't working correctly. As mentioned above, I occasionally check it output. And, my reservoirs are emptying as expected in correlation with the amount I think I'm doing.
- The 2-part isn't as "potent" as it should be... This has been going on for ~6 months, so I've gone through several containers of 2-part powder, and the mixing instructions are pretty simple... 2-cups/gal for Alk, 2.5 cups/gal for CA. I've considered testing the potency of the solution by adding a few ml to a large volume of water and seeing if the numbers work out as expected, but haven't done it yet.
- Things are precipitating out... I'm not sure how to test this. I will say that when I top off manually, when I test the water 30 mins later, the numbers are roughly where I'd expect them to be. I'm not sure how long precip would take, though.
- Consumption rate... lastly there's the chance that the tank is actually consuming all this Alk/Ca. I've tested consumption in the past by getting levels to where I want them, and stopping dosing for a period an re-testing. These tests have indicated that the consumption is occurring. In fact, I topped everything off last night (dKH 9.4, Ca 400 at 11pm). When I tested Alk at 9am this morning, it was 8.2. I'll continue to test (with no dosing) for the next day or so, but I don't want to let the levels fall too far.
So, here are my questions:
1. Am I missing another source of "error" in all this?
2. What other tests should I be running
3. Is it possible that the tank is consuming this much? We only have a few hard coral frags... Could it be the coralline algae?
Thanks in advance.
First, a little context... the tank is just under 1 year old. We started the tank with sterilized (bleached) rock, and "live" sand.
We've got a few fish:
- 2 medium clownfish
- 1 small mandarin
- 1 medium watchman goby
- 1 small hippo tang
There are a few inverts:
- 1 peppermint shrimp
- 1 blood fire shrimp
- 1 pistol shrimp
- 1 rock flower anemone
- 1 condy anemone
And we've got an assortment of coral, mostly frags
- Various polyps, most are still small colonies (< 5 heads), and one larger colony (a little smaller than a tennis ball)
- Lavender/green mushroom (a little smaller than a tennis ball)
- 4 or 5 tiny, miscellaneous mushrooms (all smaller than a quarter)
- Flower pot, on the smaller side (ping pong ball sized)
- Dendro, single head
- War coral, doesn't quite cover a single plug
- Orange/Green Blastomussa, doesn't quite cover a single plug
- Yellow/green trumpet coral with 6 small heads
- Purple/Green Blastomussa, doesn't quite cover a single plug
- ~5 small acans, each fits on a single plug
- 2 Hammer corals, one about the size of a tennis ball, one the size of a ping-pong ball
- 1 Stylophora Coral, about 3" tall, 2 "heads"
- 3 Birdsnest frags, all about 3" tall (and growing quickly)
- 1 purple montipora, about 2" in diameter
In the tank we run filter socks, an algae scrubber, a skimmer, and 2 powerheads. We use Red Sea Coral Pro salt, and change ~ 10% weekly. All the water is RODI.
We have coralline algae growing in the tank, primarily on the rocks in patches about the size of a quarter, and I'd guess its covering 10-15% of the visible rock surface (we keep the glass clean).
Now, to the most interesting bit.... I started with Kalkwasser in the ATO. After running that for 3-4 months, I concluded that it couldn't keep up with the demand, so we switched to 2-part. We use the BRS bulk stuff. The doser is a home-made rig using cheap dosing heads from Amazon and controlled by our Apex. I know what you're thinking, but so far this rig is working very nicely, and consistently puts out 1ml/sec (I test the output regularly since I know I'm using cheap parts). I mix the 2-part per the BRS instructions.
Here's where is gets strange... we've been trying to maintain Ca at 420, and dKH between 9.0 and 9.2. I'm dosing 10ml of Alk every 30 mins (480 ml/day) and 9ml of Ca every 30 min (432 ml/day) and I still need to top off manually every few days to get things back to the desired levels (they're off by about 10%). Each part is dosed 15 mins apart to minimize precipitation, and they're dropped directly into a powerhead so its pretty quickly dispersed. I haven't noticed and precipitation or build up in the display, but my heater (in the sump) does get buildup (Ca, I assume?).
For testing, I use a Hanna checker for dKH. I've cross checked it with another test, and they're pretty consistent. I also often check the dKH twice with the Hanna as I've read posts about it being inconsistent (FWIW, it reads the same on consecutive tests). And I use the Red Sea Pro for Ca. None of the test reagents are expired
So, thinking this through, I'm trying to identify the "problem". Here are potential sources and how I'm trying to eliminate them:
- My readings are off... This seems unlikely as I often test twice and get consistent results. And I occasionally use different test kits with similar results.
- My doser isn't working correctly. As mentioned above, I occasionally check it output. And, my reservoirs are emptying as expected in correlation with the amount I think I'm doing.
- The 2-part isn't as "potent" as it should be... This has been going on for ~6 months, so I've gone through several containers of 2-part powder, and the mixing instructions are pretty simple... 2-cups/gal for Alk, 2.5 cups/gal for CA. I've considered testing the potency of the solution by adding a few ml to a large volume of water and seeing if the numbers work out as expected, but haven't done it yet.
- Things are precipitating out... I'm not sure how to test this. I will say that when I top off manually, when I test the water 30 mins later, the numbers are roughly where I'd expect them to be. I'm not sure how long precip would take, though.
- Consumption rate... lastly there's the chance that the tank is actually consuming all this Alk/Ca. I've tested consumption in the past by getting levels to where I want them, and stopping dosing for a period an re-testing. These tests have indicated that the consumption is occurring. In fact, I topped everything off last night (dKH 9.4, Ca 400 at 11pm). When I tested Alk at 9am this morning, it was 8.2. I'll continue to test (with no dosing) for the next day or so, but I don't want to let the levels fall too far.
So, here are my questions:
1. Am I missing another source of "error" in all this?
2. What other tests should I be running
3. Is it possible that the tank is consuming this much? We only have a few hard coral frags... Could it be the coralline algae?
Thanks in advance.
