My alk consumption is rising higher than ever
- Thread starter Tommy's Reef
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Opus
2500 Club Member
Why would it do it at 11dkh? I've had mine get up to 14dkh and no precipitation.
happyhourhero
Burner of the Tips
I want to know what your alk consumption per day is. My 65 is pretty sps heavy and the highest I have ever had to does is 60ml.
OP
OP
Tommy's Reef
Valuable Member
do u manually dose? I do. It goes from about 10.5 dkh to 7 within 24 hours
OP
OP
Tommy's Reef
Valuable Member
I set my doser up. Testing it for 48 hours before I hook it up to tank. I've got it running into a measureingredients cups to see the accuracy over 48 hr.
6 times a day 33ml each time, ALk and Cal every hour from each other/ every 4 hours
6 times a day 33ml each time, ALk and Cal every hour from each other/ every 4 hours
OP
OP
Tommy's Reef
Valuable Member
on top of this to though I have about 125 pounds of rock in my 65 and coralline algae demand like crazy
happyhourhero
Burner of the Tips
Thats insane. At least if mine ever gets that bad, I have this to look to as a guide lol.
Robink
2500 Club Member
I would initially start with a lower dose on the pumps just to see if it was precipitation. You can always increase the amount.
I just did an experiment with my tank ( as I also am currently manually dosing). I was dosing about 140 mls of each, calc and alk, split into 2 x daily.
Since I've divided the dosing into at least 5 doses of each daily, it's down to 100 mls of each spread out during the day and my dkh is holding steady at 8.5.
Just some food for thought. I have mostly sps, mostly frags a few that are starting to take off or are small colonies.
I just did an experiment with my tank ( as I also am currently manually dosing). I was dosing about 140 mls of each, calc and alk, split into 2 x daily.
Since I've divided the dosing into at least 5 doses of each daily, it's down to 100 mls of each spread out during the day and my dkh is holding steady at 8.5.
Just some food for thought. I have mostly sps, mostly frags a few that are starting to take off or are small colonies.
OP
OP
Tommy's Reef
Valuable Member
yeah it's pretty crazy, but the health and growth of the corals are perfect, so this would be a perfect guide to this kind of problem lol
OP
OP
Tommy's Reef
Valuable Member
Nice, good idea. I know it will drop but this way I can get my Cal and alk more up at the same time. I test alk every day of my life. Since alk swings have killed me in the past
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If u dose what ur doseing right now thruout the day properly ur alk is going to be up in the 15 dkh range. There is no way ur consuming that much and ur prolly precipitating out at least half of what ur doseing. I wish u luck but I would do this on the weekend and test ur alk every hour so u don't nuke ur tank.
I bet u only need maby 80 ml a day so just be careful.
I bet u only need maby 80 ml a day so just be careful.
I have an 85g total water volume system and I'm dosing 116.4ml of alk and ca (BRS 2-part) per day. I have it automated by a doser. I'm still working on it but right now I dose 12 times of each per day. Alk on even hours for 30min and then followed by Ca for 30min the NEXT hour on odd hours.
I'm pretty sure its on the high end for my system. I'm sps dominant with about 7 full colonies and a lot of frags/mini. 116.4ml is about 2dkh consumption/day. Im contemplating on switching to 8 doses of each per day allowing a full hour in between each dose.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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FWIW, even a softy coral tank can take up to 2 dKH per day. I don't consider 3.5 dKH per day to be excessive, especially starting at higher alkalinity which makes demand higher, but the exact amount needed may drop if you maintain a lower but steady alkalinity.
