Musicims
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2017
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 3
- What state or country do you live in
- Kansas
I have been dosing saturated Kalk from a brute in my basement through a peristaltic pump for about a year now on my 75g. Before my most recent purchase of frags about 3 months ago this was just fine keeping up with my levels. I was dosing about ~193mL of kalk per hour on the hour or about 1.2 gallons per day right into the return pump intake so it gets mixed up and this was working great, just little tweaks here and there on both alk and calc and it was just right under what my evap rate was. 1.2 gal is still more than what the reef chem calc states for my uptake (about 1.5 dKh per day I think?) but it was working.
Then I purchased a frag set ~6 little sps and I immediately starting falling way behind. I slowly upped my kalk dosing length while I was supplementing with sodium bicarbonate trying to reduce the 2-part while upping the kalk. It has been this way for a few months now and I've reached my peak for kalk. I'm at my limit for evaporation rate. I'm up to 232mL per hour so ~1.47 gal per day and STILL have to add ~160mL of sodium bicarbonate every morning when I check. My target is 8.4-8.5, in the morning its almost always down to 7dKh. I haven't checked at night in a couple weeks but its usually only down to ~8 around 9pm if I remember right.
I check my dosing pump output about every month. I've mixed new kalk about 1.5 months into the frag addition also so I don't think its the kalk. Its in a 32 gal brute with a lid on it, it makes a nice shell layer on top anyway in a few days after mixing. Calc is easy, I only use about 10ppm every couple days. Nitrates are right ~2-4ppm and phosphates don't show up on my red sea kit, I don't have a hannah I just control feeding and have an algae scrubber and skimmer.
Just seems like a LOT of alk take up for my tank and it's not letting up. I'm having a hard time not letting it swing so far. I'll attach pic for a stock idea. Big birdsnest, theres a tricolor acro behind him, octospawn, goni, few pocci, couple little acans, and a lepto. Frag rack has a pocci, and the rest are acros and millies.
Then I purchased a frag set ~6 little sps and I immediately starting falling way behind. I slowly upped my kalk dosing length while I was supplementing with sodium bicarbonate trying to reduce the 2-part while upping the kalk. It has been this way for a few months now and I've reached my peak for kalk. I'm at my limit for evaporation rate. I'm up to 232mL per hour so ~1.47 gal per day and STILL have to add ~160mL of sodium bicarbonate every morning when I check. My target is 8.4-8.5, in the morning its almost always down to 7dKh. I haven't checked at night in a couple weeks but its usually only down to ~8 around 9pm if I remember right.
I check my dosing pump output about every month. I've mixed new kalk about 1.5 months into the frag addition also so I don't think its the kalk. Its in a 32 gal brute with a lid on it, it makes a nice shell layer on top anyway in a few days after mixing. Calc is easy, I only use about 10ppm every couple days. Nitrates are right ~2-4ppm and phosphates don't show up on my red sea kit, I don't have a hannah I just control feeding and have an algae scrubber and skimmer.
Just seems like a LOT of alk take up for my tank and it's not letting up. I'm having a hard time not letting it swing so far. I'll attach pic for a stock idea. Big birdsnest, theres a tricolor acro behind him, octospawn, goni, few pocci, couple little acans, and a lepto. Frag rack has a pocci, and the rest are acros and millies.
