No alk consumption

[zoanutty]

I’ve been going out of my mind the last couple of months trying to figure out what’s going on and why my tank is no longer consuming alkalinity. A little background:

Tank: 210 + 120 gal sump
Age: 4 years
Calcium: 470 (dosing 150 ml/day)
Alkalinity: 8.3 (not dosing)
Magnesium: 1220 (dosing 50 ml/day)
PH: 8.0-8.2
Phosphate: 0.16
Nitrate: 20
Temp: 76-78
WC: sporadic, last one was 50 gal 2 weeks ago using Red Sea salt (blue bucket)

My nitrates & phosphates have always been this level (and sometimes higher), since I feed fish heavily every other day.

Testing is done via Trident & ReefBot and dosing dome via 2 DOS. I was doing Trident controlled dosing but I stopped when I noticed that alk was not being consumed & would go as high as 10. I have always used Reef Pro with good results but I switched over to ME Corals 3 part about 3-4 months ago. but in trying to figure out the problem, I ended up switching back to Reef Pro a couple of weeks back.

SPS were doing great but since the problem began I’ve had lots of them die. Colonies I’ve kept for years have now all but died and I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong, or what is happening.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I would pick up a test kit or Hanna to verify you're seeing real numbers for alk. Alk consumption just doesn't stop.

 

[zoanutty]

Both the ReefBot and the Trident have confirmed there is minimal consumption (I guess I shouldn’t have said there is none), especially when compared to Calcium.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Both the ReefBot and the Trident have confirmed there is minimal consumption (I guess I shouldn’t have said there is none), especially when compared to Calcium.

Calcium cannot be consumed without alk being consumed in a ratio of about 2.8 dKH fir each 18-20 ppm calcium.

If calcium is really dropping and not just test error, maybe other things are maintaining alk, such as tap water for evaporation, water changes with s high alk mix, addition of nitrate or pH additives, etc.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

And, given what you have at stake (lots of SPS), getting a decent manual alkalinity test such as a Red Sea or a Salifert and verifying that nothing's wrong with your two automated systems would be a good (and cheap) troubleshooting addition.

 

[zoanutty]

Most of the sps are now gone and some of my LPS and softies are slowly going also. Some are doing great, so I’m honestly not sure what is happening as parameters have not really changed. My Alk is now at 8.2 (verified by RedSea Pro test done manually). I am still not dosing anything and I topoff using RO/DI only. My ICP test results that I sent out a couple of weeks ago are still not back. So confused...

 

[Dkeller_nc]

What are you using for top-off water, and when you say you "switched back to Reef Pro", are you talking about Red Sea's Foundation Elements for Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium?

 

[zoanutty]

What are you using for top-off water, and when you say you "switched back to Reef Pro", are you talking about Red Sea's Foundation Elements for Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium?

Topoff comes from my RO/DI which I test before I fill the 50 gal container to make sure it is zero TDS.

When I say I switched back to Reef Pro, I mean just that. I use a 2-part brand called Reef Pro. It is NOT a RedSea brand.

 

[BeejReef]

IMHO, discontinue automated testing and dosing for a week.
Discontinue all dosing for a day or two, test manually, see where you're at.
Run it by hand for a week.

So many variables between dosing brands, auto testers, auto dosers. The glitch is in there somewhere. I believe RHF when he says calcium cannot be consumed independent of alk.

Could it be as simple as a dosing tube in the wrong reservoir or a clogged dosing tube? If your corals are doing as poorly as you describe, one would expect to see alk and calc consumption come to a crawl.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Could pH be out? At higher levels (8.4+) calc. would precipitate out but not sure if it would be measured as such. Let me know what you find.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Topoff comes from my RO/DI which I test before I fill the 50 gal container to make sure it is zero TDS.

When I say I switched back to Reef Pro, I mean just that. I use a 2-part brand called Reef Pro. It is NOT a RedSea brand.

Ah - I found the description here. There is a LOT of different things in this particular calcium and alkalinity product, specifically in the calcium part. This might, or might not, be a contributing factor into your coral's decline. Specifically, many of the trace elements in that mix are necessary for the health of reef organisms in small amounts, and toxic in higher amounts. Whether or not they would build to toxic concentrations would sensitively depend on the rate of the calcium component that's dosed to the tank and the rate/amount of water changes done to the tank.

My personal opinion would be to substitute a DIY calcium/alkalinity 2-part solution immediately (i.e., without any added trace elements), and do several 30% water changes over the course of a week or so. The intent is to restore the tank's chemistry to something approaching natural seawater, at least as far as trace elements are concerned. If you really want to nail down whether or not this is the cause of the coral decline, an ICP test might be in order.

 

[Deanza07]

I’ve been going out of my mind the last couple of months trying to figure out what’s going on and why my tank is no longer consuming alkalinity. A little background:

Tank: 210 + 120 gal sump
Age: 4 years
Calcium: 470 (dosing 150 ml/day)
Alkalinity: 8.3 (not dosing)
Magnesium: 1220 (dosing 50 ml/day)
PH: 8.0-8.2
Phosphate: 0.16
Nitrate: 20
Temp: 76-78
WC: sporadic, last one was 50 gal 2 weeks ago using Red Sea salt (blue bucket)

My nitrates & phosphates have always been this level (and sometimes higher), since I feed fish heavily every other day.

Testing is done via Trident & ReefBot and dosing dome via 2 DOS. I was doing Trident controlled dosing but I stopped when I noticed that alk was not being consumed & would go as high as 10. I have always used Reef Pro with good results but I switched over to ME Corals 3 part about 3-4 months ago. but in trying to figure out the problem, I ended up switching back to Reef Pro a couple of weeks back.

SPS were doing great but since the problem began I’ve had lots of them die. Colonies I’ve kept for years have now all but died and I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong, or what is happening.

The alk consumption stoppage has happened to me twice. It happened when dosing any chemicals. It will come back to normal. Sometimes it can take 3 months or less.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

It happened when dosing any chemicals.

What chemicals are you referring to?

 

[Deanza07]

What chemicals are you referring to?

Chemiclean is one. Every time I dose it stops my alk consumption. There was one time it stopped for 3months .

 

[L2Dekko]

Chemiclean is one. Every time I dose it stops my alk consumption. There was one time it stopped for 3months .

Dude that makes so much sense to me now, will loads of small wc fix this or I have just to wait till it goes around with half my corals dead in a period of 3 months? I’m on week 2 now and I see some sps dying

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don't if the antibiotic in chemiclean itself causes a problem, or if toxins from dead cyano do the job, but when wiping out cyano with an antibiotic, it is not surprising other organisms such as corals might respond negatively (such as by reducing calcification).