struggling to maintain Alk/Calcium etc...

[dburnsworth]

Hello,
I am struggling to maintain Alk and Ca. I was hand dosing these untill a month ago and bought a doser and have been dosing about 5-7 ml of all-for-reef/day. I had a calcium spike a week ago (550) while PH stayed about 8.2. Today, Ca is 450, and Alk was at 7.5. Also testing for 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates, have been for some time. Mostly softy, LPS 60 gal tank. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated!

 

[P-Dub]

I am unfamiliar with 'all-for-reef' but I would say bring things to level and maintain it with kalkwasser instead. It just is a no brainer, easy, and reliable way to maintain balanced Ca & Alk. Double-check the calibration on your doser as well. You might want to up the nutrients for the softies. What test kits are you using for all parameters?

 

[blasterman]

All for reef is a one step Formate processes that is supposed to supply alk and calcium. If its working there is no need to dose kalk.

This leads to the inevitable problem of excessive calcium buildup because in a softie/lps dominated tank alk wil almost certainly deplete faster than calcium.

This means you are going to have to back off the dosing of All for Reef to get calcium stable, and manually dose alk/baking soda to get alk inline.

 

[dburnsworth]

Yes. Thank you. I thought maybe Ca wasn’t being used enough and was affecting Alk. Was hoping this would settle out, but maybe not. I’ve been over feeding to get nitrates and Phos up...but it won’t budge.

 

[AdamB]

Yes I would double check calibration.

 

[Sarcazian]

I would check out some of the BRS videos on youtube. I am not at the point where I have tackled this topic, but I wanted a ~2 hour video the other night and they had some really good data.

Not sure if folks trust the info they provide, but I found their 16 years of reefing videos informative. Maybe because I was reefing back then and then took 8 years off. Nostalgia always makes thing more interesting.

 

[dburnsworth]

I would check out some of the BRS videos on youtube. I am not at the point where I have tackled this topic, but I wanted a ~2 hour video the other night and they had some really good data.

Not sure if folks trust the info they provide, but I found their 16 years of reefing videos informative. Maybe because I was reefing back then and then took 8 years off. Nostalgia always makes thing more interesting.

Love BRS...I have watched it all. I think I am just missing something si
Okie here to level out...my dose sucks btw...Kamoer x1 Bluetooth. Seems to be doing it’s thing...but constantly disconnects from the app...so I don’t really know for sure-

 

[William Morris]

Try and keep it simple. Watch the BRS video on 2 part dosing.
I find it easy to test for Alk everyday and dose what is needed in the morning.
I then dose Calcium in the evening - only testing calcium on a weekly basis.