Question about Alk consumption.

Fenzinna · Jan 23, 2017

So, I have a tank that is 120 gallons total water volume. It's an SPS dominated tank. Normally I aim for a low seven alkalinity but I would away on vacation and over that timeframe my alkalinity drifted to a 6.4.

Yesterday is when I tested the alkalinity to find the 6.4. So I added an additional 25 ML or so on top of the 15 ML that I normally dose per day. I know that the amount is low that I dose but this seems to be where the tank was stable.

Today I retested the tank to find that the parameters were once again 6.4. I thought that maybe my alkalinity test was bad so I added additional 25 ML to the tank and waited 20 minutes to test. This time when I tested the all of the test rose approximately .4.

So my question is is it possible that after all this time only dosing 15 ML that my tank was prepared to except an additional 25 ML without interrupting my daily test and giving me a fluctuation?

Diesel · Jan 23, 2017

25 ml a day is nothing.
On one point I was dosing 340 ml a day.

Fenzinna · Jan 23, 2017

Diesel said:
25 ml a day is nothing.
On one point I was dosing 340 ml a day.

I understand it's nothing but would the tank be able to go from using 15 to 45 with no ramp up.

Diesel · Jan 23, 2017

Yes it could.
Your corals will consume, as your coralline algae, not forgetting your inverts and your skimmer is taking part in removal too.

LakeCityReefs · Jan 27, 2017

How many days were you away?
Was your tank getting any alk while you were gone?
Where are your mag and ca levels at?

I have a 50 Ga cube and dose 55 ml of alk/ca every day.

Fenzinna · Jan 27, 2017

LakeCityReefs said:
How many days were you away?
Was your tank getting any alk while you were gone?
Where are your mag and ca levels at?

I have a 50 Ga cube and dose 55 ml of alk/ca every day.

I'm positive I'm just under dosing. I was away five days. For about three days I was dosing 75ml by hand and my alk was barely rising.

As for your parameter question, my calc was at 320 and my mag was 1350ish. I hit my tank with three days of 350ml of calc to raise it. I'm currently around 400.

I set my apex dos to run 50ml of each calc and alk to see where this gets me and I'll raise it again in a week.

I upgraded my skimmer after returning from vacation and I think that a falling po4 is responsible for the increasing consumption.