Biggen
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have been battling Alk and Ca problems for the longest time and am finally at my wits end. I can't seem to correct the problem for the life of me. I now am in some need of help from you guys and gals...
Here is the deal, my alk is low. Way low. I just tested it this morning and it was around 5.5 DKH as measured with the Salifert Alk kit. My Ca actually wasn't too bad as it was around 390 ppm. Lately, its been my Alk I have had a hard time keeping up. The Ca seems to have stabilized as every morning it always tests at around 390 ppm.
This is what I have do every day to try and correct the problem:
Dose saturated Kalk via auto topoff
Dose 27 ml of each bottle of B-Ionic
Tested Mg and it comes out to around 1300 ppm as per Seachem Mg kit
Monitor pH to make sure it doesn't go above 8.4 or so that that abiotic precipitation doesn't follow
I can't figure out what the heck is wrong. I just can't belive that my tank is using this much Alk and Ca every day! The only thing I have a lot of is coralline algae all over the rocks. Although within the last two weeks, my coralline has been disapearing off the back glass. It is almost totally gone which I can only attribute to having chronic low levels of Alk and Ca. I do have one T. Maxima, Green horn, and one frag of pocillipora. Everything else is LPS and a few zoos.
I can correct the Alk problem with baking soda and push it up to around 9DKH. But then over the next few days it keeps falling even with all the dosing I do.
So I just don't know what to do anymore. It is extremely frustrating to know how to correct this problem, but for what ever reason, can not. I am going to be ordering new Salifert Alk and Ca kits here today as I am out of my Alk kit due to all of my testing the last month to try and correct the problems...
FYI, a few months ago, I experimented with adding 40-50 ml of each B-Ionic solution to see what happened. This is in a 40 gallon tank. It didn't seem to do anything. It raised the levels immediately, but then when I tested for them the next morning the Alk and fallen back down to ~6-7DKH and the Calcium down to ~390 ppm.
I am almost thinking I am losing all of this Alk and Ca due to Abiotic precip even though my pH doesn't appear to be going all that high and my Mg levels are fine. Although I just looked at my heater and I can still see the glass on it just fine. I haven't check any pumps yet. I do have a light brown slightly "crusty" coating on the sides and bottom of the sump. I am not sure if this is an indicator of a problem or just normal sump "wear and tear".
Help!
Here is the deal, my alk is low. Way low. I just tested it this morning and it was around 5.5 DKH as measured with the Salifert Alk kit. My Ca actually wasn't too bad as it was around 390 ppm. Lately, its been my Alk I have had a hard time keeping up. The Ca seems to have stabilized as every morning it always tests at around 390 ppm.
This is what I have do every day to try and correct the problem:
Dose saturated Kalk via auto topoff
Dose 27 ml of each bottle of B-Ionic
Tested Mg and it comes out to around 1300 ppm as per Seachem Mg kit
Monitor pH to make sure it doesn't go above 8.4 or so that that abiotic precipitation doesn't follow
I can't figure out what the heck is wrong. I just can't belive that my tank is using this much Alk and Ca every day! The only thing I have a lot of is coralline algae all over the rocks. Although within the last two weeks, my coralline has been disapearing off the back glass. It is almost totally gone which I can only attribute to having chronic low levels of Alk and Ca. I do have one T. Maxima, Green horn, and one frag of pocillipora. Everything else is LPS and a few zoos.
I can correct the Alk problem with baking soda and push it up to around 9DKH. But then over the next few days it keeps falling even with all the dosing I do.
So I just don't know what to do anymore. It is extremely frustrating to know how to correct this problem, but for what ever reason, can not. I am going to be ordering new Salifert Alk and Ca kits here today as I am out of my Alk kit due to all of my testing the last month to try and correct the problems...
FYI, a few months ago, I experimented with adding 40-50 ml of each B-Ionic solution to see what happened. This is in a 40 gallon tank. It didn't seem to do anything. It raised the levels immediately, but then when I tested for them the next morning the Alk and fallen back down to ~6-7DKH and the Calcium down to ~390 ppm.
I am almost thinking I am losing all of this Alk and Ca due to Abiotic precip even though my pH doesn't appear to be going all that high and my Mg levels are fine. Although I just looked at my heater and I can still see the glass on it just fine. I haven't check any pumps yet. I do have a light brown slightly "crusty" coating on the sides and bottom of the sump. I am not sure if this is an indicator of a problem or just normal sump "wear and tear".
Help!