New Tank Help

onetootreefor · Mar 28, 2019

I'm in the process of moving one of my old tanks to my new tank...it's been about 7 years since I started a new tank so I am a bit hazy on the beginning...

Anyway, My new tank is cycled, I have 3 fish (fairy wrasse, and 2 marroon clowns), and a few pieces of coral in (purple stylo, tiny ora birds of paradise frag, 3 heads of an acan, 1 inch frag of cyphastrea, tiny Monti frag, and a small frag of pink lemonade). All frags came out of my old tank and from their mother colonies.

Well my question is, right now (just in this last week) I am starting to have to dose .493 dKH everyday to maintain 8.2 alkalinity. That seems like quite a lot for the small amount of coral I have in there. Also, my calcium has sat at 518-520 since day 1 I set up the tank. It hasn't dropped at all. Is this normal for a new tank to lose this much alk?

Right now I am just dosing, by hand, Part 2 Reef Fusion skipping Part 1 because my calc doesn't move. If it keeps up at this pace ill have to move my doser or buy a new one for the new tank. I also want to start moving all of my colonies over to my new tank, but I can't imagine the demand on Alk if I'm already losing .5 dKH in a day?

It is a waterbed 130.4 platinum so it's a 48x24x22 size tank roughly 130 gallons of water. Cycle finished about 2 weeks ago. been monitoring levels since day 1 before cycle started. Used CaribSea purple Life Rock, please let me know if you need any other info.

Thanks in advance!

P-Dub · Mar 28, 2019

onetootreefor said:
I'm in the process of moving one of my old tanks to my new tank...it's been about 7 years since I started a new tank so I am a bit hazy on the beginning...

Anyway, My new tank is cycled, I have 3 fish (fairy wrasse, and 2 marroon clowns), and a few pieces of coral in (purple stylo, tiny ora birds of paradise frag, 3 heads of an acan, 1 inch frag of cyphastrea, tiny Monti frag, and a small frag of pink lemonade). All frags came out of my old tank and from their mother colonies.

Well my question is, right now (just in this last week) I am starting to have to dose .493 dKH everyday to maintain 8.2 alkalinity. That seems like quite a lot for the small amount of coral I have in there. Also, my calcium has sat at 518-520 since day 1 I set up the tank. It hasn't dropped at all. Is this normal for a new tank to lose this much alk?

Right now I am just dosing, by hand, Part 2 Reef Fusion skipping Part 1 because my calc doesn't move. If it keeps up at this pace ill have to move my doser or buy a new one for the new tank. I also want to start moving all of my colonies over to my new tank, but I can't imagine the demand on Alk if I'm already losing .5 dKH in a day?

It is a waterbed 130.4 platinum so it's a 48x24x22 size tank roughly 130 gallons of water. Cycle finished about 2 weeks ago. been monitoring levels since day 1 before cycle started. Used CaribSea purple Life Rock, please let me know if you need any other info.

Thanks in advance!

I would raise your Alk to get better in balance with your relatively high Ca. Also, how is your coralline algae growth? Coralline algae growing well can easily account for the drop. The high Ca also can push down your Alk. I'm unclear as to what you mean "you dose .493 dKH". What is the volume in ml that you dose? If you can clarify the actual volume of Alk supplement and more specifically what particular Alk supplement you are using, this would help in better tackling your situation. Alternatively, keep doing what you are doing till the Ca finally lowers itself over time and adust dosing to meet demand.

onetootreefor · Mar 28, 2019

P-Dub said:
I would raise your Alk to get better in balance with your relatively high Ca. Also, how is your coralline algae growth? Coralline algae growing well can easily account for the drop. The high Ca also can push down your Alk. I'm unclear as to what you mean "you dose .493 dKH". What is the volume in ml that you dose? If you can clarify the actual volume of Alk supplement and more specifically what particular Alk supplement you are using, this would help in better tackling your situation. Alternatively, keep doing what you are doing till the Ca finally lowers itself over time and adust dosing to meet demand.

I’m dosing about 20ml of part 2 Seachem reef fusion... (mentioned in OP) as per the instructions for 130 gallons which is roughly adding 0.176 meq/L (.493 dKH) of alkalinity.

I’m adding .493 dKh per day is what i meant by that.

No coraline growth yet. Just finished cycling about 2 weeks ago.

My curiosity for the post is why I’m losing so much alk on such a new tank with almost no coral in the tank.

P-Dub · Mar 28, 2019

onetootreefor said:
I’m dosing about 20ml of part 2 Seachem reef fusion... (mentioned in OP) as per the instructions for 130 gallons which is roughly adding 0.176 meq/L (.493 dKH) of alkalinity.

I’m adding .493 dKh per day is what i meant by that.

No coraline growth yet. Just finished cycling about 2 weeks ago.

My curiosity for the post is why I’m losing so much alk on such a new tank with almost no coral in the tank.

All seems fine. Likely, you relatively high calcium is driving down your alk a bit. Let thing ride. Add only alk as needed to maintain current levels or bring up all a bit to balance with ca.

onetootreefor · Mar 28, 2019

P-Dub said:
All seems fine. Likely, you relatively high calcium is driving down your alk a bit. Let thing ride. Add only alk as needed to maintain current levels or bring up all a bit to balance with ca.

Thanks! Appreciate it!