Okay, I have been playing the alk/calcium seesaw game for a while now. Here is my setup...
20 high
30 pound live rock
4" sand bed, sugar size oolitic sand
10 different species of acropora frags, none over 4", typically 2-4 branches a piece
bta, about 12" across, used to get fed weekly, got too big now, feed him not so often and sparingly...
4 lps frags, about the same size, none over 4"
3 types of montipora frags, none over 4"
one maroon clown
one neon goby
various snails and hermits
ecosystem 40
ushio 175w 10 k
2 55 PC actinic
Maxijet 1200 return through SCWD device
temp 82
salinity-1.024
no detectable nitrates, phosphates
no additives added except food and dt's
tank is a little over a year old now, never had any problems with it, no cyano, algae anywhere except the fuge...
everything doing exceptionally well...except for the fact that I dose kalk with a kent doser, 24/7, yet my alk drops like crazy during the course of just one day! It is not uncommon for me to test in the morning for alk at 7dKH and at night to drop to 5 or so. What gives?!? I haven't even tried to test my calcium levels lately as I am so busy trying to keep my alk up. I am sure that I dose about a gallon of kalk a day, slow drip, haven't been able to get KH up above 8 for weeks now. Please help, I will have this set up for a couple more months until my 180 is finished, so I am not going to get a reactor anytime soon for it, but is this my only option here? Or is it possible that I am doing some thing seriously wrong? I have read almost everything I can on the relationship between ca/alk, but don't understand where it is all going, doesn't seem like the sps are growing THAT fast. I used to use b-ionic to keep levels up, but once I got to like 40 ml a day of both parts, the pH swings were stressing out my animals, so I stopped using it. Would you recommend using less b-ionic in conjunction with kalk? I have tried to straighten levels out with large water changes, but by the next day they were depleted again almost exaggeratedly lower than before the water change. I need some serious advice!!!
Joey
20 high
30 pound live rock
4" sand bed, sugar size oolitic sand
10 different species of acropora frags, none over 4", typically 2-4 branches a piece
bta, about 12" across, used to get fed weekly, got too big now, feed him not so often and sparingly...
4 lps frags, about the same size, none over 4"
3 types of montipora frags, none over 4"
one maroon clown
one neon goby
various snails and hermits
ecosystem 40
ushio 175w 10 k
2 55 PC actinic
Maxijet 1200 return through SCWD device
temp 82
salinity-1.024
no detectable nitrates, phosphates
no additives added except food and dt's
tank is a little over a year old now, never had any problems with it, no cyano, algae anywhere except the fuge...
everything doing exceptionally well...except for the fact that I dose kalk with a kent doser, 24/7, yet my alk drops like crazy during the course of just one day! It is not uncommon for me to test in the morning for alk at 7dKH and at night to drop to 5 or so. What gives?!? I haven't even tried to test my calcium levels lately as I am so busy trying to keep my alk up. I am sure that I dose about a gallon of kalk a day, slow drip, haven't been able to get KH up above 8 for weeks now. Please help, I will have this set up for a couple more months until my 180 is finished, so I am not going to get a reactor anytime soon for it, but is this my only option here? Or is it possible that I am doing some thing seriously wrong? I have read almost everything I can on the relationship between ca/alk, but don't understand where it is all going, doesn't seem like the sps are growing THAT fast. I used to use b-ionic to keep levels up, but once I got to like 40 ml a day of both parts, the pH swings were stressing out my animals, so I stopped using it. Would you recommend using less b-ionic in conjunction with kalk? I have tried to straighten levels out with large water changes, but by the next day they were depleted again almost exaggeratedly lower than before the water change. I need some serious advice!!!
Joey
