Hi, anyone have a similar experience or something wrong? I have a 6 month old 90 gallon mixed reef tank with about 10 SPS and many zoas and a few LPS. I have recently ramped up my radions and my sps corals are starting to grow and look better. I was dosing 18 ml of Kalk a day, but my Alk started to drop. So I increaesd to about 24...it's still dropping the same, about .4 dkh a day. Is that normal to need to increase 33 % over a a week or two? I just increased it to 34. Also, for reference 18 ml a day replaced .3 dkh a day for 2 months. It was really stable at that amount. Any feedback welcome.
Kalkwasser consumption increassing dramatically
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Hey. From what I have heard you shouldn’t try to inc alk and calcium with kalkwasser. It should only be used to maintain it. How are you dosing kalkweiser. I have been dosing with auto top off but thing I need to start using 2 part because unable to keep up with the tank with just kalkweiser
mcarroll
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Double check your test results...maybe even double-check your kits by getting your LFS to test the same sample of water you test.
But...
If the tests aren't lying, then I'd keep doing what you're doing. It's normal for more growth to take more material. And it can be surprising. But in a good way!
Keep an eye on nutrients too....if growth is (and stays) rapid, nitrates or phosphate may run down to zero in the process if you don't do something to support them. Ideally feeding will take care of needs, but it can take time for you to get feeding into balance with the rest of the tank. Consider that the full net-effects from any nutrient change can take a month or longer to become apparent in the tank or as a trend in test results...."observable" in other words.
Also, as @Grsfish asked: How are you dosing kalk? How are you preparing it?
Yes, quite common. For example, I find that my aquarium's summer Kalkwasser usage is on average about 30% higher than in winter. I attribute this largely to an increase in temperature (76-77 F in winter and up to 82 F in summer) as the higher temperature increases metabolism/growth.
Great...discussion actually answered a bunch of follow up questions too. My tank's temperature has averaged about 2 degrees more this summer too, the increase in light intensity, maturing tank...etc...so many variables ! One thing I forgot to mention too is that my Magnesium had dropped to 1240 (from 1300). So that too, obviously, has had an effect. And to follow up on GrsFish, I should not use Kalk to increase alk and calcium, correct? I have not, but was wondering if that might add stability since it would increase in the same ratio it was lost, thereotically.
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Let's back up.
18 mL a day in a 90 gallon tank is teeny tiny (nano, to be scientific
). It won't accomplish anything. You need far, far more each day.
A 1 dKH boost takes 3 liters of saturated limewater in a 90.
18 mL a day in a 90 gallon tank is teeny tiny (nano, to be scientific
). It won't accomplish anything. You need far, far more each day.A 1 dKH boost takes 3 liters of saturated limewater in a 90.
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That is test error, not a real drop (at least not by consumption, might be salinity changes if you lower it a lot). Alk would need to drop by a massive amount to consume that much magnesium. More than a hundred dKH.
Ok...will test again. I have a lot of small corals that are just starting to grow. So, while it is a 90 gal, it is young and and not huge amount of coral. But, for what it's worth, for 2 monhs I mantained a stable 8.3 with 18 ml of kalk ( 3 tsp of mrs wages, 45 ml of vinegar and 1 gallon RODI). Ill post a picture to give a better idea.
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Which indicates the demand was very, very low. That’s also normal in a new tank.
One more follow up. So, going from 18 to 48 ml in a week is not such a big deal if the reason it was so low before was that it just was not consuming much at all. Ie, it it might have just been supplying the coraline algae and not I am getting actual coral growth. If you had to guess, how much kalk would you expect to be consumed in a 90 gallon tank with about 40 small lps and sps. I am just suprised at how quickly I have had to keep increasing kalk. (yes I had to increase from 24 to 48 since the beginning of this thread a few days ago). But honestly, the growth and color changes over last week are remarkable.
Going to follow up again....I increased to 58 ml 2 days ago, measured yesterday morning and again today. I am still losing alkalinity. I took all my readings today.
Alk 7.9
Calcium 380 (should be 410)
Mag 1260 (should be 1300)
Phosphates - 0.02 (should be .03-.05).
Nitrates - 12 (should be around 10)
I dose Kalk 8 times a day using the following formula - 3 tsp of Mrs Wages, 45 ml of Vinegar and 1 gallon of RODI. I am using a bubble magus to dose and it seems to dose pretty accurately (tested last week).
I have gone from 18 ml to 58 ml in about 2 weeks.
The only thing different about the current situation is that the Kalk container from which I dose has a little more precipate on the bottom than last round.
My question is, is this totally normal and I should be increasing as I witness coral growth? My small SPS frags look the best they have looked in a long time.
Any other suggestions?
Alk 7.9
Calcium 380 (should be 410)
Mag 1260 (should be 1300)
Phosphates - 0.02 (should be .03-.05).
Nitrates - 12 (should be around 10)
I dose Kalk 8 times a day using the following formula - 3 tsp of Mrs Wages, 45 ml of Vinegar and 1 gallon of RODI. I am using a bubble magus to dose and it seems to dose pretty accurately (tested last week).
I have gone from 18 ml to 58 ml in about 2 weeks.
The only thing different about the current situation is that the Kalk container from which I dose has a little more precipate on the bottom than last round.
My question is, is this totally normal and I should be increasing as I witness coral growth? My small SPS frags look the best they have looked in a long time.
Any other suggestions?
I will, but i feel that my hanna digital checker has been very good. If I run the BRS calculator and add the recommended ammount, it is ussually spot on when I check later..ie, it increased as it was expected to.
