Don't know what I'm doing wrong!

Jeromeit · Jun 21, 2017

Hi all,

I have an aquarium that has been up for roughly 6-8months now and even though I have only a few lps in the tank, I can't seem to keep up with calcium and alkalinity demands.

I literally have 7 small corals in the tank and I can't seem to keep my calcium and alkalinity stable at 7dkh and 410ppm. I have even lost a chalice and zoanthid colony due to this. I dose 5000ml of kalkwasser from my kalkwasser reactor daily and I still can't keep the levels up. Any thoughts?

GrizFyrFyter · Jun 21, 2017

What's your magnesium at? If it's low, cal and Alk will precipitate out of the water.

Jeromeit · Jun 21, 2017

Mag is at 1500

Jeromeit · Jun 21, 2017

Btw the aquarium is a 200 gallon system. I am vinegar dosing (only 6ml a day) no3 and po4 is very low.

anthonys51 · Jun 21, 2017

Why are you vinegar dosing.

Let us see a picture of your tank

Jeromeit · Jun 21, 2017

Vinegar dosing since I was showing signs of gha 4 months in. Had a good amount of po4 and no3 as well at that time.

anthonys51 · Jun 21, 2017

Witch tank you talking about

anthonys51 · Jun 21, 2017

Honestly a tank at 3-4 months shouldn't need vinegar dosing. Plus your fish load doesn't look that big. Just add clean up crew some algae eating fish and do water changes. Should of been enough

Jeromeit · Jun 21, 2017

Tank on the left. Do you think the vinegar dosing is the culprit?

anthonys51 · Jun 21, 2017

I think your new and learning. You want to do things slow abd natural in this hobby. Think the more things you do to your tank the more out of Wack things can get. You don't have a high fish load. I see now reason to dose vinegar.

Also what test kits are you using

Ty Hamatake · Jun 21, 2017

Seeing as you don't have much to lose at far as corals go, I would stop dosing the kalkwasser and see what happens. How did you end up getting to 500ml a day? The only reasonable answer is that it is precipitating out of the water. Do you have white build up on your heater and/or powerheads?

It's early enough in the game for you, that I would honestly go back to square one. Stop dosing everything you are dosing now, do a few large water changes in a reasonable amount of time, and start consistently testing for anything that you are worried about.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 21, 2017

Jeromeit said:
Tank on the left. Do you think the vinegar dosing is the culprit?

No, vinegar is not any problem.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 21, 2017

I'm not really seeing any problem. 5,000 mL of limewater daily to a 200 gallon tank is not much. Only 0.8 dKH per day.

When you say unstable, what exactly are you seeing?

anthonys51 · Jun 21, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I'm not really seeing any problem. 5,000 mL of limewater daily to a 200 gallon tank is not much. Only 0.8 dKH per day.

When you say unstable, what exactly are you seeing?

Randy. There is no coraline algae no corals to speak of. What do you think is using up the alkalinity in your opinion. You think such little corals and Coraline is using that much ?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 21, 2017

Precipitation of calcium carbonate (not unusual) and a small amount of consumption likely account for it.

I can't see any ordinary instability in alk and calcium being a cause for zooanthid issues, but can you further explain what you mean by unstable?

TheLadyCrash · Jun 22, 2017

A few thoughts on this:

I don't think seeing some GHA at 4 months is that out of the norm. It could just be part of the "ugly" phase with starting up a new tank.
I would stop dosing any carbon source (vinegar, vodka, sugar, whatever) and let the tank be for a bit. Add extra CUC if necessary.
The rocks look really really clean. Were they dry rock and if so, did you fully cure them before using? Uncared dry rock can be notorious for leeching phosphate.

Best Fish-Jake · Jun 24, 2017

What salt mix are you using, @Jeromeit?
I would also discontinue dosing altogether at this point.. As a friend in the hobby once told me, "Dosing is for people that are too lazy to do waterchanges"

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jun 24, 2017

Best Fish-Jake said:
What salt mix are you using, @Jeromeit?
I would also discontinue dosing altogether at this point.. As a friend in the hobby once told me, "Dosing is for people that are too lazy to do waterchanges"

Don't dose what? You can't maintain alk in a tank with fast growing corals and coralline algae unless you change 20-50% daily.