What changes caused dkh to jump by 1

[HB AL]

So looking for some professional's guess to my question. I have a heavily stocked mixed reef with lots of fish. 2 weeks ago I made 4 changes to my dosing of chemicals and phyto. First was upping the dose of Red sea no3po4x to 20ml a day, for the last 2 years I dosed 10ml a day. My nitrates hovered between 20 to 30, with the new higher dose they are down to 3ish. At the same time I started dosing Acropower daily instead of weekly, 20ml a day, used to be 20ml a week. I also started dosing Kent phytomax daily instead of once a week. Also at the same time since I dont do water changes I dose red sea abcd 20ml a month, 2 weeks ago I dosed 40ml of each. My corals have always grown and had good color with the previous dosing regimen and my dkh would drop around 1dkh in 24 hours. This week when I tested it went down 2dkh in 24 hours, and have tested 6 days in a row and the pattern continues at a steady 2dkh drop a day. I keep my alk around 8, calcium around 500 and mag around 1400. I'm not sure if it's possible to determine what 1 thing, or a combination of changes that caused the increase in alk uptake but any ideas would be welcome. Corals all still look good so no adverse effects occurred with the changes I made. Heres a pic of my tank if you haven't seen it before. Thanks for any advice.

 

[Backreefing]

I’ve seen full tank pics before . Your aquarium is beautiful as always. Kudos to you.

 

[HB AL]

I’ve seen full tank pics before . Your aquarium is beautiful as always. Kudos to you.

Thanks, any opinion on the alk demand change?

 

[SeaDweller]

Is your pH getting lower? I'd think all the biological process in your tank is increasing and consuming alk/carbonate what have you, so it's dropping, on top of your corals probably growing. Your increase in AA and NOPOX is probably fueling more bacterial growth.

When I killed cyano in my tank, my NO3 rose and alk consumption decreased for a short period of time.

 

[bar|none]

Increase in Alk uptake is a good thing right? Corals are growing...but maybe bad...you have no more room, lol. Curious the effect on your PO4?

My small immature tank, dosing carbon and adding a lot of new nutrients meant, low NO3 (from carbon), High PO4 until I just added some GFO on reactor, and now I have more nutrients, good NO3 and PO4 balance. And I don't dose carbon regularly.

 

[Backreefing]

I would guess that all the extra nutrients has increased growth rates.
have you noticed any changes in the coral? I would suggest to photograph the corals individually and retake photos say one month later to really see changes .

 

[Backreefing]

One word of caution is watch out not to increase nutrients to high because doesn’t that cause browning out event’s.

 

[HB AL]

Is your pH getting lower? I'd think all the biological process in your tank is increasing and consuming alk/carbonate what have you, so it's dropping, on top of your corals probably growing. Your increase in AA and NOPOX is probably fueling more bacterial growth.

When I killed cyano in my tank, my NO3 rose and alk consumption decreased for a short period of time.

Ph although I never really test it I just did since you brought it up and it's at 8, normal from past test results. I'm 99% sure the corals are using the extra alk, just trying to figure out what change or combination of changes is the reason. I guess in the future I could 1 by 1 go back to old dosing and see if that gives me a clue if alk consumption drops back down.

 

[SeaDweller]

Ph although I never really test it I just did since you brought it up and it's at 8, normal from past test results. I'm 99% sure the corals are using the extra alk, just trying to figure out what change or combination of changes is the reason. I guess in the future I could 1 by 1 go back to old dosing and see if that gives me a clue if alk consumption drops back down.

i dont check ph either. but if it drops, it alk can drop to help buffer the ph

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

So looking for some professional's guess to my question. I have a heavily stocked mixed reef with lots of fish. 2 weeks ago I made 4 changes to my dosing of chemicals and phyto. First was upping the dose of Red sea no3po4x to 20ml a day, for the last 2 years I dosed 10ml a day. My nitrates hovered between 20 to 30, with the new higher dose they are down to 3ish. At the same time I started dosing Acropower daily instead of weekly, 20ml a day, used to be 20ml a week. I also started dosing Kent phytomax daily instead of once a week. Also at the same time since I dont do water changes I dose red sea abcd 20ml a month, 2 weeks ago I dosed 40ml of each. My corals have always grown and had good color with the previous dosing regimen and my dkh would drop around 1dkh in 24 hours. This week when I tested it went down 2dkh in 24 hours, and have tested 6 days in a row and the pattern continues at a steady 2dkh drop a day. I keep my alk around 8, calcium around 500 and mag around 1400. I'm not sure if it's possible to determine what 1 thing, or a combination of changes that caused the increase in alk uptake but any ideas would be welcome. Corals all still look good so no adverse effects occurred with the changes I made. Heres a pic of my tank if you haven't seen it before. Thanks for any advice.

Have you noticed more skimmate?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Just a guess, but if you doubled your carbon dosing, you could of doubled your skimmate which is %26 calcium carbonate, increasing your dKh demand. Just a guess though

 

[HB AL]

i dont check ph either. but if it drops, it alk can drop to help buffer the ph

Just changed my media in my reactor a week ago so ph should be fine.

 

[HB AL]

Have you noticed more skimmate?

Not really but a little more foamy than usual, I have set to skim a little wet so I have about 1 to 2 inches of skimmate in a 24hour span.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Not really but a little more foamy than usual, I have set to skim a little wet so I have about 1 to 2 inches of skimmate in a 24hour span.

That’s all I got. Hopefully they’re just growing more.

 

[Thaxxx]

Just guessing. Maybe your huge drop in no3 is helping your coral absorb more alk.

 

[HB AL]

Duplicate post

 

[HB AL]

That’s all I got. Hopefully they’re just growing more.

Ya they probably are time will tell.

 

[HB AL]

Just guessing. Maybe your huge drop in no3 is helping your coral absorb more alk.

That's one thing I was thinking but that seems to easy all on its own.