So I have some other posts on here about sps bleaching and other issues I have been having but this is new for me. I have been really focused on keeping my Alkalinity as stable as possible around 8 dkh since March. I thought I was getting better and better at it and testing at least once a day, sometimes twice, and I take note of the time of day as well. I have been dosing around 30 ml of BRS two part calcium and alkalinity 12 times each daily separated by 1 hour with my bubble magus doser. I have frequently had to tweak my dose up or down 1 ml -3 ml a day/every couple days to try and stay between 7.9 - 8.2 with a goal of 8. My main corrections lately have been to decrease the amount dosed down because of climbing alk.
So recently I had a reading .4 dkh higher than the day before (use Hannah Checker). And I would adjust the dose down a few ml per day and immediately after unplug the machine until I got back down towards 8-8.1 area. Typically this would take less than a day, maybe 12 or less hours. I would then plug back in with the lower dosing amount ready to go. I would have a day or two testing at my target of 8-8.1 and then saw it bump up to 8.2 again so I again adjusted the amount dosed down a few ml and unplugged the machine at 11:40 am before lights came on. At 10:20 pm right after lights shut off I tested again and got 8.0 which seemed normal and what I was hoping for. But at this point I decided I should check the calibration on my doser by turning the machine on and having it dose into two containers for 24 hours so I could measure the amount actually dosed against my settings. The next day I tested my Alk before lights came on and I was surprised to see dkh increased by .1 to 8.1. I had been expecting it drop slightly overnight since I was not dosing into the tank but I figured well maybe it didnt drop combined with a small testing accuracy range error. I continued to test the rest of that day and today and alk has remained at 8.1 dkh every test so far. On a side note I did complete my 24 hour calibration test and it passed.
So I am very surprised to see that Alk has either slightly increased or stayed the same over a period of 2 days with no dosing. I checked my ph today and what normally was always 8.2 when dosing 2 part was possibly 7.8?? (the color was not an exact match but it was on the green end of the red sea test kit spectrum and clearly different from the more blue color I would say matched 8.2 quite well typically). So it kind of hit me, I thought unplugging my dosing unit to glide back down to my goal of 8 dkh where it would then get plugged back in to run a lower ml schedule was a good thing. But now I am wondering if because I had my doser off/lines out of the tank for calibration test for at least 2 days if the drop in PH stopped my corals from uptaking any Alk and Calcium.
That brings me to the question is unplugging a doser to coast back down to a goal level something that should not be done? I suppose I could correct for increasing Alk just by reducing the ml's dosed per day in the program but I worry if I do not subtract enough ml's being dosed when I test again 12 or 24 hours later my Alk will still have increased even higher and then I am getting away from the stability I am trying to provide. Where if I unplug the doser I know for sure or at least in theory next time I measure Alk it will not have climbed higher.
One other thing I will mention is I swear little tweaks to my dosing program of 1-3 ml's up or down seem to have a larger effect on my test results than I would expect. It seems very hard to find that daily number to dose that will keep me in a tight range without straying even throughout short windows of time like a 3 - 5 days.
Yes when I make an adjustment to Alk dosing I make the same adjustment up or down to Calcium. Yes I have tested the calibration on my Hanna Checker.
So recently I had a reading .4 dkh higher than the day before (use Hannah Checker). And I would adjust the dose down a few ml per day and immediately after unplug the machine until I got back down towards 8-8.1 area. Typically this would take less than a day, maybe 12 or less hours. I would then plug back in with the lower dosing amount ready to go. I would have a day or two testing at my target of 8-8.1 and then saw it bump up to 8.2 again so I again adjusted the amount dosed down a few ml and unplugged the machine at 11:40 am before lights came on. At 10:20 pm right after lights shut off I tested again and got 8.0 which seemed normal and what I was hoping for. But at this point I decided I should check the calibration on my doser by turning the machine on and having it dose into two containers for 24 hours so I could measure the amount actually dosed against my settings. The next day I tested my Alk before lights came on and I was surprised to see dkh increased by .1 to 8.1. I had been expecting it drop slightly overnight since I was not dosing into the tank but I figured well maybe it didnt drop combined with a small testing accuracy range error. I continued to test the rest of that day and today and alk has remained at 8.1 dkh every test so far. On a side note I did complete my 24 hour calibration test and it passed.
So I am very surprised to see that Alk has either slightly increased or stayed the same over a period of 2 days with no dosing. I checked my ph today and what normally was always 8.2 when dosing 2 part was possibly 7.8?? (the color was not an exact match but it was on the green end of the red sea test kit spectrum and clearly different from the more blue color I would say matched 8.2 quite well typically). So it kind of hit me, I thought unplugging my dosing unit to glide back down to my goal of 8 dkh where it would then get plugged back in to run a lower ml schedule was a good thing. But now I am wondering if because I had my doser off/lines out of the tank for calibration test for at least 2 days if the drop in PH stopped my corals from uptaking any Alk and Calcium.
That brings me to the question is unplugging a doser to coast back down to a goal level something that should not be done? I suppose I could correct for increasing Alk just by reducing the ml's dosed per day in the program but I worry if I do not subtract enough ml's being dosed when I test again 12 or 24 hours later my Alk will still have increased even higher and then I am getting away from the stability I am trying to provide. Where if I unplug the doser I know for sure or at least in theory next time I measure Alk it will not have climbed higher.
One other thing I will mention is I swear little tweaks to my dosing program of 1-3 ml's up or down seem to have a larger effect on my test results than I would expect. It seems very hard to find that daily number to dose that will keep me in a tight range without straying even throughout short windows of time like a 3 - 5 days.
Yes when I make an adjustment to Alk dosing I make the same adjustment up or down to Calcium. Yes I have tested the calibration on my Hanna Checker.
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