alk up and down like a roller coster

[chrisjenson1978]

hi and thanks before hand for reading this i am in need of some frustrating help!!

i have a 420 ltr tank running the following

1 x sump
1 x skimmer
1 x rohaphos reactor
1 x carbon
1 x dosing pump running ati pro A and b

after 7 years in the marine hobby i am still not surprised i am still learning so can any body help i have a massive alk swing and it will not stop for example

i am trying to keep a 11.5 alk so over a week this is what it is doing

sat 11.5
sund 11.9
mon 10.5
tues 12.5

omg i simply cant dial the doser in

the ATI pro is concentrated should it be ? am i phusing to neat its that bad every time i run a bit of acroporer sps it strips in 3 days

salt is red sea pro

calc is always good 450to 455 its the bloody alk

so for now i have unplugged the doser untill i get answers ,when i do a water change for note wise i get a alk of 10.5 every time any help would be amazing or at least a start

[chrisjenson1978]

Originally Posted by chrisjenson1978

hi and thanks before hand for reading this i am in need of some frustrating help!!

i have a 420 ltr tank running the following

1 x sump
1 x skimmer
1 x rohaphos reactor
1 x carbon
1 x dosing pump running ati pro A and b

after 7 years in the marine hobby i am still not surprised i am still learning so can any body help i have a massive alk swing and it will not stop for example

i am trying to keep a 11.5 alk so over a week this is what it is doing

sat 11.5
sund 11.9
mon 10.5
tues 12.5

omg i simply cant dial the doser in

the ATI pro is concentrated should it be ? am i phusing to neat its that bad every time i run a bit of acroporer sps it strips in 3 days

salt is red sea pro

calc is always good 450to 455 its the bloody alk

so for now i have unplugged the doser untill i get answers ,when i do a water change for note wise i get a alk of 10.5 every time any help would be amazing or at least a start

p.s i have hanna checkers,and check alk every day because of the swing? and yes going through trident like water !!

[ohashimz]

We need more informations to provide more targeted advice
Are you testing during the same time of the day? Alk fluctuate during the day and fluctuate with ph.

Did you try another test kit?

What's your system load? Do you have high demand coral?

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[chrisjenson1978]

hi yes i am testing same time every day as i know it goes up and down

i use a expensive hanna checker and i use red see pro test kits

i have lps and sps in tank brains/stylo/hammers torches etc

[chrisjenson1978]

[Uncle99]

What’s your MG at....should be 1260-1360.
If too low you will never get your alk on point......

[hhaase]

Have you calibrated/measured your doses are consistent?
I've seen a few cases where a check valve was needed.

[ohashimz]

Test alk 3 times a day and see where is your alk. Dose manually based on the measurements.
Then come up with the avrage consumption a day and use doser to spread it over 24h.
Before you do this u strongly advice you
1- check your doser and make sure it's not dispensing irregular dosages. This can happen if the peristaltic heada are going bad which is very common. These heada should be changed every year at the most
2- check your test kit and make sure you are getting correct readings
3- make sure your ph is not swinging too much
4- check your mag. With low mag alk and ca will fluctuate

Finally, at such high alk levels the alk will be more sensitive to what I described earlier so your level maintenance will be bit more involved so heads up. Am personally against these funky high levels in reef, I know companies try to convince reefers that 3levated levels accelerate growth but I think it's some BS some truth. But also think you can get similar growth with well maintained well balanced reef...
Cheera.

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[chrisjenson1978]

Originally Posted by hhaase

Have you calibrated/measured your doses are consistent?
I've seen a few cases where a check valve was needed.

hi yes i have calibrated the dose pump and it is bang on

[chrisjenson1978]

Originally Posted by ohashimz

Test alk 3 times a day and see where is your alk. Dose manually based on the measurements.
Then come up with the avrage consumption a day and use doser to spread it over 24h.
Before you do this u strongly advice you
1- check your doser and make sure it's not dispensing irregular dosages. This can happen if the peristaltic heada are going bad which is very common. These heada should be changed every year at the most
2- check your test kit and make sure you are getting correct readings
3- make sure your ph is not swinging too much
4- check your mag. With low mag alk and ca will fluctuate

Finally, at such high alk levels the alk will be more sensitive to what I described earlier so your level maintenance will be bit more involved so heads up. Am personally against these funky high levels in reef, I know companies try to convince reefers that 3levated levels accelerate growth but I think it's some BS some truth. But also think you can get similar growth with well maintained well balanced reef...
Cheera.

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hi yes i agree i am very suspicious on the 11.5 theory i am edging towards the 10.5 as some how it always seems to balance off there once it behaves

i will double check the mg and see where we are at ,i will also check with the hanna 3 times a day what you thinking lights on 9am check 1pm check and say 6pm check?
and the pump is 3 months old brand new and calibrated

and finally ph is around 8.1 to 8.2 most days

[chrisjenson1978]

1 more thing silly question should i dose through the day or 24 hours say so many mill per hour? does this include the calc to? also should i use the ATI pro liquid concentrated out of the bottle or 50 percent dilute with ro water

[ohashimz]

Originally Posted by chrisjenson1978

hi yes i agree i am very suspicious on the 11.5 theory i am edging towards the 10.5 as some how it always seems to balance off there once it behaves



i will double check the mg and see where we are at ,i will also check with the hanna 3 times a day what you thinking lights on 9am check 1pm check and say 6pm check?

and the pump is 3 months old brand new and calibrated



and finally ph is around 8.1 to 8.2 most days

I ran elevated parameters for couple years. Yes bit faster growth but coral look bad since zooxanthellae is overpopulated, skeletons were week due to the rapid consumption and it was just not worth it.
I sustain similar growth using natural sea water level. Alk 7.5 ca 380...

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[chrisjenson1978]

Originally Posted by ohashimz

I ran elevated parameters for couple years. Yes bit faster growth but coral look bad since zooxanthellae is overpopulated, skeletons were week due to the rapid consumption and it was just not worth it.
I sustain similar growth using natural sea water level. Alk 7.5 ca 380...

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yeah i am really regretting the high alk ! i am going to put it down slowly and go back to my old salt using reef crystals as then i had no problems xo(

[ohashimz]

Originally Posted by chrisjenson1978

1 more thing silly question should i dose through the day or 24 hours say so many mill per hour? does this include the calc to? also should i use the ATI pro liquid concentrated out of the bottle or 50 percent dilute with ro water

It honestly do not matter that much. Depend on how luch you need to dose. I used to dose close to 30ml a day so I spread it over 24h and had my bubble magus spread the doses.
But if your dosing ammount is small I would make it every 2 or 4 hours...

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[ohashimz]

Originally Posted by chrisjenson1978

yeah i am really regretting the high alk ! i am going to put it down slowly and go back to my old salt using reef crystals as then i had no problems xo(

If you want to lower kh to lower levels Just go slowly do bot worry. Do not go more than 1dkh if possible
Ideally you should do it over a month or 6 weeks..


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[chrisjenson1978]

well i think prob best thing to do is turn doser off let it slowly lower itself and go from there i have noticed lots of problems with skeleton 1 x hammer is retracted today and my zhoas or look not happy also the odd brain is white skeleton edging .....

[ohashimz]

Originally Posted by chrisjenson1978

1 more thing silly question should i dose through the day or 24 hours say so many mill per hour? does this include the calc to? also should i use the ATI pro liquid concentrated out of the bottle or 50 percent dilute with ro water

Sorry did not read all your post.
I never used ati so I cannot speak to it. I used b-ionic. One of the best brands in my openion. They come in equal 2 parts so you dose both same ammount for alk and ca..
In your case if you will start using b ionic you need to first bring ur system to a balance (where you want your alk and ca to be) then start dosing equal amounts of both additivea..
If your system is balanced you should consume equal amounts of the 2 parts...

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[ohashimz]

Originally Posted by chrisjenson1978

well i think prob best thing to do is turn doser off let it slowly lower itself and go from there i have noticed lots of problems with skeleton 1 x hammer is retracted today and my zhoas or look not happy also the odd brain is white skeleton edging .....

Careful of this method. It depend on how much coral consume.
If turning off the doser caused more than 1dkh drop a day or 2 days, you should supplement so you avoid fast drip otherwise coral can get in to shock..

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[chrisjenson1978]

Originally Posted by ohashimz

Sorry did not read all your post.
I never used ati so I cannot speak to it. I used b-ionic. One of the best brands in my openion. They come in equal 2 parts so you dose both same ammount for alk and ca..
In your case if you will start using b ionic you need to first bring ur system to a balance (where you want your alk and ca to be) then start dosing equal amounts of both additivea..
If your system is balanced you should consume equal amounts of the 2 parts...

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hi yes the ATI is the same 2 parts A and B you supposed to dose the same equal..etc stright out of the bottle using a doser i will look at bionic but i feel atm its because its high and prob not balancing out ?

[chrisjenson1978]

Originally Posted by ohashimz

Careful of this method. It depend on how much coral consume.
If turning off the doser caused more than 1dkh drop a day or 2 days, you should supplement so you avoid fast drip otherwise coral can get in to shock..

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

ok thanks that good advice will just test daily to see how it goes untill it reaches its own balance

[bertoni]

I am not sure why the alkalinity consumption should swing like that. What is the feeding schedule? I wonder whether the pump is acting inconsistently for some reason. That's very strange. I might get a second alkalinity kit to see whether it gets similar results. This is a bit confusing!

[chrisjenson1978]

hi i agree very odd ,i have just done a tet 12.5 to 11.2 over night


so i am letting mother nature take its course go back to my reef cyrstals and still with 9dkh 450 calc etc and re dial the doser in once its stabilised will update accordingly again thanks in advanced!!!! to all

[chrisjenson1978]

hi can i ask one thing from every one when i hit my target of 9 dkh with using my dosing pump what is the best mil a day to start with ? say calc 1 mil dkh 1 mil and see how it goes from there and also 24 hours dose or just wail the tank is on through the day? regards chris

[bertoni]

I don't know how much water is in the system, but I might target a 1 dKH dose, which might be something like 30 ml, assuming the ATI is close to the ESV in concentration. I might dose once by hand, just to see what happens.

[chrisjenson1978]

Originally Posted by bertoni

I don't know how much water is in the system, but I might target a 1 dKH dose, which might be something like 30 ml, assuming the ATI is close to the ESV in concentration. I might dose once by hand, just to see what happens.

Hi all is well and I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel

Ok so did a massive water change with reef crystals got a nice 9.2 dkh and calk 445 perfect ..so am I right in thinking take a sample at same time every day for 3 days and work out how much it uses then split the does in 3 is this correct? Then place dose back on and adjust as per results

Tank looks great already ...man I feel a lot better !!!!!