Cant get it up....

zigginit

zigginit

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So I have been messing with my water params and I have been testing my alk, cal, and mag. my alk had dropped over the past few weeks and i cant get it back up. Currently the alk is 128 ppm or around 7.1 dkh and the cal is 490, and mag is 1350. I am using BRS 2 part on a doser and have been running that for a while so it was kinda dialed in. 2 days ago I saw the low ALK and used the BRS calculator to bring up the ALK. The calculator told me to dose about 45ml of BRS alk which I did. I let it rest for 2 days while continuing the normal daily dosing and retested to find it only went up by like 3 ppm. It should had jumped it up to around 155ppm but im still in the 128ppm range. I am using hanna test kits.

Why did it not bring the alk up like it should have?
Should I stop the Cal drip and let alk run until they balance out? maybe to much gradient?
I would like to shoot for 9 dkh. and 450 cal

current tank params as of today at 6pm
water volume estimated at 55gal
ALK= 128ppm or 7.1dkh
CAL=490
Mag=1350
temp=77
SG=1.022
 
C

civicdemon

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if your using a doser just up your dosage, it could be corals are growing and taking up more than before, Just up your dosage a bit and monitor it for a couple weeks untill you get to where you want to be then cut back a bit until it stays even. im hoping to get a doser soon im tired of having to dose every morning my self lol .
 
Greaser9999

Greaser9999

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civicdemon said:
if your using a doser just up your dosage, it could be corals are growing and taking up more than before, Just up your dosage a bit and monitor it for a couple weeks untill you get to where you want to be then cut back a bit until it stays even. im hoping to get a doser soon im tired of having to dose every morning my self lol .
Click to expand...
+1... I have to add 50ml to my 125g daily, double what bottle recommends. Use to b a lot less b once corals started growing it started alk dosing started going up
 
zigginit

zigginit

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and corals are only beginning to start to grow out again and are all small right now. should not be using up that much yet.
 
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civicdemon

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did you messure right after you added the 45 ml or did you wait a couple days ? you should have messured about 30 min after you dose. But ether way you dont want it to go up to fast then your corals will rtn or stn
 
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bigpaul

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You could possibly have a build up of carbon dioxide, try putting a fan over the tank to get fresh oxygen into the tank.
 
zigginit

zigginit

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tofucube said:
pH?

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/5/chemistry
Click to expand...
holy cow my head hurts after trying to read that.... I have a semi open back wall of my stand/sump area and a open wall of the canopy witch is open most the day anyways. I would think its open enough to have a normal amount of co2 exchange. maybe? I do run a skimmer and it should aerate it well. maybe I should run the skimmer air line out side the stand? I have a fan in the stand but its been off since its been cold. maybe a correlation? interesting but im kinda skeptical right now.
 
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tofucube

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man..that stuff put me to sleep too. hahaha!

Doesn't seem like you're having pH issue. Maybe it is just the tank consuming at a higher rate than your dosing. Have you changed bulbs or lighting schedule recently. I noticed my Alk would drop at a higher rate when I do either one of those two things too. I was attributing it to the corals reacting positively to those changes and therefore consuming more so dropping alk faster. BTW...this is coming from a guy that tests alk using API $3.99 (before discount) test so take it with a grain of salt :)
 
zigginit

zigginit

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alk test kit is new from BRS. Hanna test kit. all test kits are new actually.

I stopped the cal drip but am leaving the alk running to see if the come closer together if it will help. seems the cal is high and the alk is low so maybe its a balance issue. if this does not do it then ill do a water change and start it over again.
 
Smite

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#15
Did stopping the cal drip help bring up the alk level?
[MENTION=3762]zigginit[/MENTION]
 
zigginit

zigginit

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Smite said:
Did stopping the cal drip help bring up the alk level?
[MENTION=3762]zigginit[/MENTION]
Click to expand...
No it didnt do anything. Ca even went up i think. I dripped kalkwasher but just raised ca even higher. I then did a 50% water change and added a lot of mag. Need to retest still.
 
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