DOS Setup

[Davisc1293]

I'm still having a heck of a time getting this chemistry stuff down. If you've seen my other posts my 2 part consumption has increased upwards of 400% and something feels off. I setup my DOS to dose 48ml a day and the levels were still dropping at the end of the dosing period, so i incresed to 60ml. mind you I was doing just 12 ml a few weeks ago before making some changes so while an increased uptake is expected...400%???? And on the other hand its still dropping pretty drastically between doses. I had it dosing 12 hours alk 12 hours ca but when testing alk befrore the dosing started it was almost 2dkh low so i cut back the ca dosing to just 6 hours and dose alk the rest of the day but still dropps about a dkh in that 6 hour window that its doing ca and the lights aren't even on. i got the DOS for stability and I'm not seeing stable lol Please help.

 

[phillygeeks]

I had something similar happen years ago. For whatever reason there was abiotic precipitation of the sand bed. Essentially my sand bed turned into a solid piece of rock. I was using sodium carbonate based 2-part at the time. I switched to a sodium bicarbonate 2-part with a lower dKH goal and that seemed to fix things. Maybe this will give you a clue into your issue

 

[homer1475]

I had something similar happen years ago. For whatever reason there was abiotic precipitation of the sand bed. Essentially my sand bed turned into a solid piece of rock. I was using sodium carbonate based 2-part at the time. I switched to a sodium bicarbonate 2-part with a lower dKH goal and that seemed to fix things. Maybe this will give you a clue into your issue

Same thing happened to me. My entire sandbed turned into a rock.

I'll bet something similar is going on with you too.

 

[Davisc1293]

Same thing happened to me. My entire sandbed turned into a rock.

I'll bet something similar is going on with you too.

how did you address that?

 

[homer1475]

Removed my sandbed, and tested before I dosed.

Test for a couple days, figure out how much alkalinity is dropping, divide by number of days, and thats your daily consumption.

Then go to a reef calculator, and figure out how much you should be dosing.

I personally use this calculator:

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[phillygeeks]

I peaked at your other thread. It looks like you are using Sodium Carbonate (soda ash). Randy recommended years ago to switch to sodium bicarbonate. It fixed the issue for me

 

[homer1475]

Yes forgot to mention, I also switched to sodium bicarbonate.

Funny thing though, is I now use sodium hydroxide.

 

[Davisc1293]

After reading your post i felt around the sand bed and found numerus chunks some could be squeezed and broken back into sand while some larger ones are solid as a rock and can barley even make out the individual grains. What should i do. ill sift the chunks out but i cant remove all of the sand.

 

[phillygeeks]

After reading your post i felt around the sand bed and found numerus chunks some could be squeezed and broken back into sand while some larger ones are solid as a rock and can barley even make out the individual grains. What should i do. ill sift the chunks out but i cant remove all of the sand.

I ended up leaving a lot of chunks in there if they were too adherent to the live rock. Once I switched to sodium bicarbonate based 2-part the process stopped. I would recommend you continue to stir frequently until the process stops

 

[homer1475]

For now. just stop dosing. Let the alkalinity drop.

What do you have in the tank for corals?

 

[Davisc1293]

I peaked at your other thread. It looks like you are using Sodium Carbonate (soda ash). Randy recommended years ago to switch to sodium bicarbonate. It fixed the issue for me

I do have both on hand I've just been using the soda ash because thats whe only way i can get my ph above 8 but i suppose not having a cement filled reef tank probably outweighs that benefit. lol

 

[Davisc1293]

For now. just stop dosing. Let the alkalinity drop.

What do you have in the tank for corals?

i have about 25 small frags I'm not too sure what they all are some zoas some montis and others i have no idea about other then they looked cool

 

[phillygeeks]

For now. just stop dosing. Let the alkalinity drop.

What do you have in the tank for corals?

This also. It's been years but I think I did stop dosing for a period to break the precipitation process and then when I restarted I went slow with a goal of no more than 8 dKh

 

[homer1475]

Completely stop dosing everything. Let the alkalinity drop, so the precipitation stops.

 

[homer1475]

This was my sandbed when I removed it. No thats not rocks, thats rock hard sand!

 

[phillygeeks]

I do have both on hand I've just been using the soda ash because thats whe only way i can get my ph above 8 but i suppose not having a cement filled reef tank probably outweighs that benefit. lol

I am no expert but based on my experience I like dKh around 8 when getting a tank started and I didn't chase pH. I was doing well with a pH around 7.7-7.9

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks to have calcified due to elevated disbursement.

@Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Davisc1293]

Thank you guys so much I appreciate your input. As much as I hate making multiple threads on the same issue my gut was still telling me something was off even though I wanted to just believe the frags were just happy with the changes.

 

[Davisc1293]

This was my sandbed when I removed it. No thats not rocks, thats rock hard sand!

WOW! So thankful you guys got me on the right track before i ended up there. Thankfully there's only some nickel and quarter sized clumps.

 

[Davisc1293]

As you guys have suggested I have turned the doser off line for now. for how long should I let the tank stabilize before testing and re starting the DOS. And whats your recomndations when re starting. should i bring back alk or ca up first and over how long? It appears my problem startted from dosing from 7dkh straight to almost 9 in like a 15 minute time frame then using the dos to maintain that.