Having trouble getting alk steady.

[Naiad]

I am having an awful time keeping my alk steady. I either dont dose enough and it drops or to much and its too high. I cant get it stable. I just did a wc yesterday and was hoping if I posted my levels over the next few days you guys could help me fig out what I am doing wrong.

 

[cdness]

Before getting too deep into it, can you give us some more info:

Tank Size:
Total Water Volume:
Coral Description (as in what do you have in the tank using ALK):
Picture of the tank showing stock levels:
Salinity Level:

Target ALK:
Target Calcium:
Target Magnesium:

Actual ALK:
Actual Calcium:
Actual Magnesium:

How are you dosing: Manual, Dosers, Reactors, etc
How much daily are you dosing?
What product are you using to raise the alkalinity?

 

[Naiad]

The tank is a 120 the total water 150. As far as corals using alk I have 2 sps frags, a hammer, a frogspawn, trumpet, duncans, a plate and brain, the last two are dying. I also have a clam and flame scallop.

 

[Naiad]

My calcium is at 440 and mag is 1400. I am happy with those but alk is running 7.0 to 7.8. DKH I would like to keep it at least at 8. But my biggest concerns are the swings. I am manually dosing with kents superbuffer dkh. I follow the directions adding a teaspoon a day for each 30 gal until it was at 8 then switch to every two weeks.

 

[Naiad]

Here is the tank as of this morning. Sry I didn't finish scraping the coraline algea off.

 

[rworegon]

I don't see a lot of alk consuming organisms there. Especially for a 150. What are you doing for top off? I would stop with the Kent superbuffer. I was using that before I started topping off with Kalkwasse. Since I started that my levels have been rock steady.

 

[Naiad]

Today after a 20 percent wc the dKH is 8.3 if I wait two weeks to dose the buffer like instructed the dKH is down into the 7.6 range.

Normally though I do 10 percent weekly wc but am going out of town for a while so did a larger one this week.

 

[beaslbob]

Today after a 20 percent wc the dKH is 8.3 if I wait two weeks to dose the buffer like instructed the dKH is down into the 7.6 range.

Normally though I do 10 percent weekly wc but am going out of town for a while so did a larger one this week.

Sounds like a pretty normal alk drop to me.

I would just follow the diy two part and be done with it.


my .02

 

[Naiad]

So today without adding any buffer we are at 5.6.... HELP

 

[Naiad]

Well I added buffer even though it wasn't two weeks. I will test this evening. I tested twice and still got around 5.5 dKH. I hate these swings... my sps are not happy

 

[ritter6788]

I dose soda ash (baked baking soda) with a bulkreefsupply dosing pump on a timer (reefkeeper lite). I have it set to slowly drip every hour over a 24 hour period. I only test once or twice a week now and adjust the timer as needed. My tank was using 1 dkh per day before I started regular dosing.

Are you dosing anything else?

 

[Naiad]

No I just dose alk buffer at the moment. It is the only thing out of whack. Ohh and mb7 but I dont think that would impact alk.

 

[Naiad]

I dose soda ash (baked baking soda) with a bulkreefsupply dosing pump on a timer (reefkeeper lite). I have it set to slowly drip every hour over a 24 hour period. I only test once or twice a week now and adjust the timer as needed. My tank was using 1 dkh per day before I started regular dosing.

Are you dosing anything else?

How do you set it up to auto dose? I have a spare pump and timer.