I wanted to provide a quick update on my water chemistry. It hasn't gone as well as I had hoped. I was able to keep the alkalinity up close to 9 dKH for almost 2 weeks. Unfortunately, it dropped to about 7.5 dKH near the end of the 2 weeks pretty suddenly and I am only slowly able to bring it back up to around 8 dKH now. I am at a loss as to why it dropped so suddenly when I though I was getting close to stability.
Alkalinity Dosing
My measurements and dosage of Red Sea Reef Foundation B is shown below. I am trying not to overreact and bring up my alkalinity too quickly - a frequency mistake in the past. Is there a good rule of thumb on how much to increase the Alk dosage in mL to raise the Alk? I have been roughly increasing the dosage at 2mL every 2 days. Is that about right or should I do more/less?
Nitrate (ppm) & Phosphate (ppm)
At the same time I was trying to get my alkalinity stable, I was also trying to get my NO3 up to 2ppm and PO4 up to 0.04ppm. I have a Red Sea test kit and have just about concluded that I cannot tell the difference between 0, 0.02 or 0.04ppm. I think I am going to have to switch PO4 measurements to Hannah test kits. Anyway, back to the point, my NO3 was climbing about 5ppm and I started dosing NO3PO4-x from Red Sea on 30 Dec. I started at 2mL/25gal and my NO3 dropped from 5ppm to 2ppm in 2 days - so I halved the dosage. At this point, I had to go on a business trip and did not get to measurement my parameters until today. When I tested today, I read absolute 0ppm NO3 and 0ppm PO4 - argh! I have shut off the NO3PO4-x and my skimmer and have fed 3x today. Here are my NO3 & PO4 measurements over the same period.
Calcium Measurement
As you might recall, my Calcium went sky high when I started dosing it in equal parts with the Alkalinity. I have simply quit dosing Calcium and have been patiently waiting for it to get back to reasonable levels. Below is the progress that I have been making.
Triton Error Correction
I received my Triton tests this past Friday. I had high levels of Tin (red on Triton results). Based upon Randy's advice, I have performed a 15% WC this past Saturday with my Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. I am going to do a 15% change weekly until I have completed 4 water changes. At this point, I will send another Triton test in to see if I have resolved the Tin issue.
Coral Progress
Well the corals are not doing quite as well as I have been hoping. However, I hardly have a stable system at this point. I did notice for the nearly 2 weeks when the Alkalinty was mostly stable at 9ppm and I had measureable NO3 and PO4 the Monti Setosa colored up substantially and so did my Psammacora. I am convinced I will have good results if I can just get my critical 4 parameters stable - Alk, Cal, NO3 & PO4. My struggles continue.
Questions
1) Is it just a coincidence the NO3PO4-x addition caused a substantial Alk drop?
2) Is the calcium drop due to the Alk drop or is this also attributed to NO3PO4-x dosing?
3) Since I have stopped my NO3PO4-x dosing, how long until I can expect my NO3 & PO4 to start climbing?
