The impossible is happening

[Mr.Guy83]

Hey reefers I’m having some serious difficulties with my system. I made a post about this before but nothing worked for me I’m hoping possibly someone that didn’t see it before can chime in. My ALk and cal have steadily gone up daily and I’m dosing absolutely nothing.
Things I do know:
It’s not a test error as has I have checked with multiple things.

Removing 85% of the sand did not help

I’m using TM pro salt

Coral growth has come to a complete stop

salinity is stable

nitrate and phos are in acceptable ranges

Each dip is a 5gal or 10gal water change but like clockwork the numbers creep back up. Please help at the point I’m getting for frustrated I’m considering completing starting over. I’ve been battling this for about 2-3 months

 

[Ryde]

Something to take into consideration, what changed or happened to start this phenomenon?

Till someone more professional can chime in I'd keep control with the water changes.

 

[Mr.Guy83]

Something to take into consideration, what changed or happened to start this phenomenon?

I’ve banged my head against the wall so many times about that. But my method is so simplistic it’s really nothing but water and fish food into my system. The only think I can think of is I changed buckets. I started doing my water changes in the Home Depot buckets. But I’m using the food grade buckets .

 

[Ryde]

I’ve banged my head against the wall so many times about that. But my method is so simplistic it’s really nothing but water and fish food into my system. The only think I can think of is I changed buckets. I started doing my water changes in the Home Depot buckets. But I’m using the food grade buckets .

Interesting. Throw me some insight on your filtration. Specifically any "bio bricks" of a sort?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey reefers I’m having some serious difficulties with my system. I made a post about this before but nothing worked for me I’m hoping possibly someone that didn’t see it before can chime in. My ALk and cal have steadily gone up daily and I’m dosing absolutely nothing.
Things I do know:
It’s not a test error as has I have checked with multiple things.

Removing 85% of the sand did not help

I’m using TM pro salt

Coral growth has come to a complete stop

salinity is stable

nitrate and phos are in acceptable ranges

Each dip is a 5gal or 10gal water change but like clockwork the numbers creep back up. Please help at the point I’m getting for frustrated I’m considering completing starting over. I’ve been battling this for about 2-3 months

It may be your salt. I too had high levels with TM Pro and switched to TM Actif and near stable

 

[Mr.Guy83]

Interesting. Throw me some insight on your filtration. Specifically any "bio bricks" of a sort?

Reef octopus skimmer along with clarisea roller filter

 

[Mr.Guy83]

It may be your salt. I too had high levels with TM Pro and switched to TM Actif and near stable

It may be your salt. I too had high levels with TM Pro and switched to TM Actif and near stable

Do you know anything about Red Sea blue bucket I was considering changing to that, definitely will save some money as well

 

[Ryde]

Reef octopus skimmer along with clarisea roller filter

If that's everything your running then I doubt they're leaching anything. Maybe your rocks are leching stuff?

+1 Test your newly mixed salt water and see where it stands.

 

[Mr.Guy83]

If that's everything your running then I doubt they're leaching anything. Maybe your rocks are leching stuff?

+1 Test your newly mixed salt water and see where it stands.

About a month ago I tested my current salt before entering my system and it was roughly 7.7

 

[vetteguy53081]

Do you know anything about Red Sea blue bucket I was considering changing to that, definitely will save some money as well

Ive used it with luck and went to TM because it was a few bucks more and met Lou (owner) who convinced me on the switch.

 

[Mr.Guy83]

Ive used it with luck and went to TM because it was a few bucks more and met Lou (owner) who convinced me on the switch.

Lol sounds good, spoke to him a few times before. Great guy

 

[mtraylor]

Well the only thing i can think of is. If you calc and alk are creaping up and you are doing nothing....Then it means you have a source in the tank. It narrows it down to your rock or sand or maybe your source water.

When I had cichlid tanks. I used to put calcium carbonate rock or substrate in there for decorations. The rock had big holes in it for the fish to hide and it also raised the ph to about 10. It also leached calcium into the water. Maybe you have something like that gong on.

do you have well water?

 

[Mr.Guy83]

Well the only thing i can think of is. If you calc and alk are creaping up and you are doing nothing....Then it means you have a source in the tank. It narrows it down to your rock or sand or maybe your source water.

When I had cichlid tanks. I used to put calcium carbonate rock or substrate in there for decorations. The rock had big holes in it for the fish to hide and it also raised the ph to about 10. It also leached calcium into the water. Maybe you have something like that gong on.

do you have well water?

No just regular city tap water that I run through a ro/di the system has been up for about 1.5 years with Carib sea live sand and Marco shelf rock

 

[mtraylor]

Easy test. Make up some new water in say a five gallon bucket and measure the parms on it. Put heater and pump in there. Then take a rock from your display and put in the bucket. Monitor the parms and see what happens over a couple weeks.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

No just regular city tap water that I run through a ro/di the system has been up for about 1.5 years with Carib sea live sand and Marco shelf rock

reading over this. I’m not an expert. But in addition to what others have said, what does your ro/di look like. If the membrain and media have been exhausted it could be causing an issue. Idk, something worth checking while you’re waiting for the rock and sand tests to play out.

 

[Mark Goode]

I don't trust Apex probes. Mine's a new system, and this is my salinity according to Apex over the last few days.

My refractometer shows a steady 1024, I have the Red Sea ATO (filled with RODI, I double checked). and it's working properly. The water level is stable and there is no other source of salt. It can only be a false reading.

 

[KrisReef]

About a month ago I tested my current salt before entering my system and it was roughly 7.7

If you have a bucket of salt, perhaps the contents settled in shipping. The original test may be correct but if the contents were not distributed evenly in the bucket? (Just guessing, hoping for a "Bingo.")

 

[Derrick0580]

Test your parameters with regular test kits aside from the apex tests to see if they are correct.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

What are you using to measure salinity? If it is only the APEX, you may have a higher salinity than you think, which would also account for an increase in ALK and Calc.

 

[mtraylor]

As others are stating here. You need some good Hanna testers or good dry kits for testing and a refractometer for salinity. I would second that I would not be solely testing the parms with apex. Not reccomended.