I thought Alk and Calc fluctuated

[BJrReef21]

I’ve had my current tank up and running for a little over 2 years now. 90 gallon tank 110 gal system. Started testing for Alk, Cal and Mg once I started to get the itch to add some corals. Everything was within normal seawater ranges. Had coralline growing in my tank, mainly on my glass and overflow, but seemed my tank was starting to come around. Got my first corals from a local friend, a small leather, some zoa’s and a red mushroom. Added them to the tank and watched them grow fairly well for the next few months. Did water changes once a month about 20% total water volume. Slowly added some LPS and even a plating monti. This was probably around the 9- 10 month mark from when I started up the tank. I was only testing once a week or even once every 2 weeks as my result were consistently always the same. (Salifert test kits). Figured it was because I didn’t have any SPS in my tank that would use up the available Alk and Calc as most people describe from what I’ve read. Well surly now that I had a decent size monti that would start lowering my parameters causing me to start dosing right? Wrong. I would still test weekly getting the same results time and time again. Monti was growing well too. Added a few easy Acropra frags one being a mini colony of garf bonsai. All growing over the next few months but no drops in parameters. This went on for a couple months and I eventually stopped water changes to see If I could get some sort of reaction but nothing. Left the tank on cruise control for a while without much maintenance as life got in the way and had some things suffer. Nutrients bottomed out and have had trouble keeping detectable nutrients in the system. LPS are dying zoas disappeared soft corals are fine and SPS have stalled a little. Current parameters are:
Alk- 8.9
Phos- 0
Nitrate- 5
Cal- 430
Mag- 1350
Can anyone explain why parameters that for most are hard to keep stable are not fluctuating any for me? What could be going on that I’m missing?

 

[blasterman]

A 100gallon tank has a pretty sufficient amount of dissolved calcium and mag in it. It will take a lot of fast growing SPS in it to dent calcium. A 20% monthly water change will easily replenish calcium with your coral load. If phosphate goes zero montipora will slow down and consumption slows down more.

0 phosphate is bad and can screw up corals in a young tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Can anyone explain why parameters that for most are hard to keep stable are not fluctuating any for me? What could be going on that I’m missing?

Perhaps fluctuating isn't the actual word you intended, but neither of the fluctuate on their own. They typically just drop. They may drop slowly or maybe not at all, or maybe fast, but it is unusual for them to rise on their own, and they never cycle up and down on their own.

Water changes, slow dissolution of calcium carbonate rock and sand , and falling nitrate can all serve to boost alk and calcium in a low demand scenario.

 

[BJrReef21]

Perhaps fluctuating isn't the actual word you intended, but neither of the fluctuate on their own. They typically just drop. They may drop slowly or maybe not at all, or maybe fast, but it is unusual for them to rise on their own, and they never cycle up and down on their own.

Water changes, slow dissolution of calcium carbonate rock and sand , and falling nitrate can all serve to boost alk and calcium in a low demand scenario.

You are correct I guess I really meant dropping as I haven’t seen them raise any.
Does it not seem odd that Alk would not drop any? Even over the course of 2+ months when I wasn’t taking care of my tank like I should have? I understand that my tank is far from overstocked but thought I would see some drop in at least Alk over that time span.
If my tank is just low demand is there any reason to be doing water changes as it’s hard to keep my nutrients above zero. I’ve tried dosing NeoPhos but after dosing it up to where it should read .02 it still reads 0. Didn’t want to over dose it.
In the grand scheme of things I just want to be able to keep the corals that I like which include LPS and SPS. Right now it’s hard to keep either. Not sure if I mentioned it in my original post or not but my plating monti’s died as well as a couple milli and acro frags I had gotten. Still have a few small acro colonies and some frags off of those that are doing well though. Hard to understand. Is there anything you could recommend that may kinda reset things or ideas to get me on the right track?

 

[arking_mark]

You are correct I guess I really meant dropping as I haven’t seen them raise any.
Does it not seem odd that Alk would not drop any? Even over the course of 2+ months when I wasn’t taking care of my tank like I should have? I understand that my tank is far from overstocked but thought I would see some drop in at least Alk over that time span.
If my tank is just low demand is there any reason to be doing water changes as it’s hard to keep my nutrients above zero. I’ve tried dosing NeoPhos but after dosing it up to where it should read .02 it still reads 0. Didn’t want to over dose it.
In the grand scheme of things I just want to be able to keep the corals that I like which include LPS and SPS. Right now it’s hard to keep either. Not sure if I mentioned it in my original post or not but my plating monti’s died as well as a couple milli and acro frags I had gotten. Still have a few small acro colonies and some frags off of those that are doing well though. Hard to understand. Is there anything you could recommend that may kinda reset things or ideas to get me on the right track?

You may want to send in an ICP test...but I would just up maintenance diligence and keep water as pristine as possible. You can also do several larger water changes over the next couple of weeks as well. Say 15-25% every week. Just make sure your ASW parameters are close to your tank parameters as you don't want to cause any swings.

Corals can take a long time to recover.

As for PO4, just up the feeding. Reef Chili, Reef Roids, or other coral food broadcast feeding is potentially a good way to go if you don't have fish or even if you do have fish.