Alkalinity/Calcium Daily drop with no livestock

[Brew12]

I dont think i have much if any coralline algae though my understanding is that the purple color is just epoxy paint. The greyish deposits on the rock is certainly not coralline.

Nitrates are at about 1 to 2 ppm and phosphate is typically undetected. I feed 3 to 4 times a day pellets, mysis and brine shrimp and soak the frozen in selcon. Feed the corals reef roids and reef chilli couple times per week.

Are you sure that it isn't coralline? My coralline came in bright green in spots and greyish green in other spots before turning purple a few months later.

 

[Jeff Miotke]

Are you sure that it isn't coralline? My coralline came in bright green in spots and greyish green in other spots before turning purple a few months later.

No, Im not sure of anything. I just took out one of the rocks and took some photos of it. Maybe it is coralline?

 

[GoVols]

Yea ive read these as well and have been looking at switching salt. Seachem gave me a box of the vibrant salt. I mixed a batch up up just this weekend for water changes. Calcium was 420ppm, alkalinity was 8.9 and mg was 1500 at 1.024 salinity. I have a apex dos change out 7500ml/night.

I spoke with Aquaforest at length last week regarding this and they were stumped as well.

I'm sorry but I had to post that for fellow reefers to make they're own conclusions.
AF is not stumped I've been telling Deep Water since 2015.
If AF is stumped then they need to stop putting QC sheets into their "Reef Salt" to (NSW) parameters.

@Jeff Miotke
I'm sorry and I hope I did not kill your thread.

 

[Brew12]

No, Im not sure of anything. I just took out one of the rocks and took some photos of it. Maybe it is coralline?

Sure looks like a form of coralline algae to me.

 

[N4sty T4te]

Are you using the probiotic salt or regular?

Also are you doing any carbon dosing or running biopellets?

I know that biopellets in particular produce bacteria that will consume Alk fairly quickly.

 

[Jeff Miotke]

Sure looks like a form of coralline algae to me.

Well that would be good news. If so then maybe the tank is doing just fine and I should just keep giving it what it wants?

 

[GoVols]

No, Im not sure of anything. I just took out one of the rocks and took some photos of it. Maybe it is coralline?

The bottom picture sure looks like coralline to me and as @Brew12 said it comes in a lot of colors.

 

[Jeff Miotke]

I'm sorry but I had to post that for fellow reefers to make they're own conclusions.
AF is not stumped I've been telling Deep Water since 2015.
If AF is stumped then they need to stop putting QC sheets into their "Reef Salt" to (NSW) parameters.

@Jeff Miotke
I'm sorry and I hope I did not kill your thread.

No worries. Im just glad to get help.

 

[Brew12]

Well that would be good news. If so then maybe the tank is doing just fine and I should just keep giving it what it wants?

It's possible but unless your tank is loaded with live rock I'm not 100% sure.

And it still doesn't explain why you can't keep coral.

 

[GoVols]

No worries. Im just glad to get help.

You've got coralline.

 

[GoVols]

And it still doesn't explain why you can't keep coral.

+1

 

[Jeff Miotke]

Are you using the probiotic salt or regular?

Also are you doing any carbon dosing or running biopellets?

I know that biopellets in particular produce bacteria that will consume Alk fairly quickly.

I used the full Aquaforest product line for probiotics. So yea in the beginning I used all of it. I stopped about 4 months or so ago when it didnt seem to be working and changed to the plain Aquaforest reef salt as I thought it was stripping the nutrients out of the water and maybe that was the problem with corals dieing. The Aquaforest guys confirmed that I shouldn't have been using those products with such a sparse tank. Wish they had put a warning in their guide that it should only be used on heavily populated tanks.

Since November Ive been just using plain reef salt and dosing BRS 2 part and thats it.

 

[Jeff Miotke]

You've got coralline.

Ok, great so that is a good sign then and would explain the alk/Ca consumption. Im thinking the following then...

1. Keep dosing to try to keep Alkalinity at about 8 and Calcium at 420. Im dosing only at night...should i spread it throughout the whole 24 hour day to keep levels more stable?
2. Replace the Mg test and figure out what the levels really are. Will try to find the time to stop by LFS and purchase the Salifert test kit.

I really appreciate everyone's help. Hoping I can get this tank to turn the corner and wishing I had posted here sooner.

 

[GoVols]

I used the full Aquaforest product line for probiotics. So yea in the beginning I used all of it. I stopped about 4 months or so ago when it didnt seem to be working and changed to the plain Aquaforest reef salt as I thought it was stripping the nutrients out of the water and maybe that was the problem with corals dieing. The Aquaforest guys confirmed that I shouldn't have been using those products with such a sparse tank. Wish they had put a warning in their guide that it should only be used on heavily populated tanks.

Since November Ive been just using plain reef salt and dosing BRS 2 part and thats it.

OK, you went back to simple and that's good.

Ok, great so that is a good sign then and would explain the alk/Ca consumption. Im thinking the following then...

1. Keep dosing to try to keep Alkalinity at about 8 and Calcium at 420. Im dosing only at night...should i spread it throughout the whole 24 hour day to keep levels more stable?
2. Replace the Mg test and figure out what the levels really are. Will try to find the time to stop by LFS and purchase the Salifert test kit.

I really appreciate everyone's help. Hoping I can get this tank to turn the corner and wishing I had posted here sooner.

When was the last time you lost a coral in your display?

 

[Jeff Miotke]

Are you sure that it isn't coralline? My coralline came in bright green in spots and greyish green in other spots before turning purple a few months later.

OK, you went back to simple and that's good.

When was the last time you lost a coral in your display?

I would say last coral death was November. Had no corals in there for about 2 months. Ive had the fungia, micromussa and platygyra and zoas in there since then. Ill get photos of them tomorrow to share.

 

[e572]

Get a Salifert mag kit.

+1

 

[Brew12]

Im dosing only at night...should i spread it throughout the whole 24 hour day to keep levels more stable?

I would say yes to this. You are seeing pretty significant swings so if you can spread it out to 2 or even 4 periods during the day it should help.

Your tank also runs very low nutrients. Some corals, like Zoa's, like their water a little "dirty". Of course, now much nitrate and phosphate a reef tank should have is the subject of much debate. You will have successful reefers who try to keep Nitrate under 2ppm and others who have wonderful tanks with nitrates pushing 100ppm.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Well that would be good news. If so then maybe the tank is doing just fine and I should just keep giving it what it wants?

You should do that anyway.

 

[Jeff Miotke]

Thanks again to everyone helping me out.

Visited the LFS. They measured Mg for me using Salifert:

Frag tank: 1350
Display tank: 1380

My measurements with RedSea on same water sample:

Frag tank: 1800
Display tank: 1600

So looks like Mg is spot on. So RedSea test kit found its way to the trash. Its interesting because I had another LFS verify my Mg and they used a Redsea kit and also showed a high reading of like 1550.

So at least one less thing to worry about being off. Ive extended the dosing period throughout the day to keep parameters from fluctuating so much.

Just did a reading of Alkalinity and it is 8.1.

last few days reading with dose of 2 part:

3/29 8.4 Dose 65ml
3/30 8.2 Dose 85ml
3/31 7.9 Dose 85ml
4/1 7.5 Dose 125ml
4/2 7.9 Dose 125ml
4/3 7.8 Dose 125ml
4/4 8.1 Changed to spread 125ml throughout day (so this reading would include last nights 125 + 25 from today)

So at this point going to just keep dosing what the tank needs to stay at around 8 dkh and observe. Also added a small coralline coated piece of live rock rubble to the display tank. I figured it wouldnt hurt to get more life in the tank.

Here are the photos i promised:
Live rock with Coralline on it right in the center of the photo.

Micromussa Photo - Im thinking the loss of color is from not enough light. Its under about 85 par currently. What do you think?

Platygyra Photo -

Frag tank

FTS

 

[Brew12]

Thanks again to everyone helping me out.

Visited the LFS. They measured Mg for me using Salifert:

Frag tank: 1350
Display tank: 1380

My measurements with RedSea on same water sample:

Frag tank: 1800
Display tank: 1600

So looks like Mg is spot on. So RedSea test kit found its way to the trash. Its interesting because I had another LFS verify my Mg and they used a Redsea kit and also showed a high reading of like 1550.

So at least one less thing to worry about being off. Ive extended the dosing period throughout the day to keep parameters from fluctuating so much.

Just did a reading of Alkalinity and it is 8.1.

last few days reading with dose of 2 part:

3/29 8.4 Dose 65ml
3/30 8.2 Dose 85ml
3/31 7.9 Dose 85ml
4/1 7.5 Dose 125ml
4/2 7.9 Dose 125ml
4/3 7.8 Dose 125ml
4/4 8.1 Changed to spread 125ml throughout day (so this reading would include last nights 125 + 25 from today)

So at this point going to just keep dosing what the tank needs to stay at around 8 dkh and observe. Also added a small coralline coated piece of live rock rubble to the display tank. I figured it wouldnt hurt to get more life in the tank.

Here are the photos i promised:
Live rock with Coralline on it right in the center of the photo.

Micromussa Photo - Im thinking the loss of color is from not enough light. Its under about 85 par currently. What do you think?

Platygyra Photo -

Frag tank

FTS

I love the aquascape, that is some impressive rockwork!

Please tell me that isn't a recent shot! IMO it looks way too clean for a reef tank. Does your sump look that clean, also?