That plan sounds fine.
Randy, please let me know what you think is going on when you get a few.
Also, next steps...?
Thanks again for the help.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
That plan sounds fine.
You need to boost just calcium, not both, unless you want alk quite high.
Thanks Randy. Would this just be a one time hand dose of calcium and keep my pumps dosing equal daily amounts of both?
Thanks again!
What is your current live stock list? It sounds to me like you are dosing too much solution without the demand, and what you are seeing as demand is actually the calcium and alkalinity precipitating out of the water column due to high concentrations and ending up as calcium carbonate on the hot surfaces of your tank (pumps, heaters, etc.)
Here's what I would do in your situation:
1) Stop dosing today, both manually and via your dosers
2) Test all of your levels tomorrow morning
3) The following morning test again and use the reef calculator to raise the levels to your desired goal (sodium bicarbonate is best for larger alkalinity doses since it doesn't affect pH as much as Soda Ash).
4) Test 10 minutes later and confirm that the levels are indeed now at the desired level.
5) The following day test again . If the levels have dropped then use the calculator to identify how much you need to add. This should be your new starting daily dose.
6) Use the alkalinity dose as your reference and start dosing equal amounts of calcium and alkalinity daily. You will need to test daily until you get the rhythm of how this works and then weekly or monthly will work depending on whats in the tank and the growth you are getting.
As a reference point, in the BRS 160 we have 50 or so colonies of growing corals. Our daily dose on the tank is 150ml a day. If we added 20% more calcium and alkalinity to the tank, the levels would likely rise, but if we doubled it we would likely see calcium and alkalinity fall due to the effects of all the fresh calcium carbonate crystals and precipitation.
I am going through 2 part woes as well (I was dosing 426ml/day on 75gal ). However I am hitting the reset button and trying exactly what RT is suggesting.
Don't mean to hijack this thread, just thought I'd share what I'm going through as well. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/2-part-dosing-excessive-or-just-me.277188/
What is your current live stock list? It sounds to me like you are dosing too much solution without the demand, and what you are seeing as demand is actually the calcium and alkalinity precipitating out of the water column due to high concentrations and ending up as calcium carbonate on the hot surfaces of your tank (pumps, heaters, etc.)
Here's what I would do in your situation:
1) Stop dosing today, both manually and via your dosers
2) Test all of your levels tomorrow morning
3) The following morning test again and use the reef calculator to raise the levels to your desired goal (sodium bicarbonate is best for larger alkalinity doses since it doesn't affect pH as much as Soda Ash).
4) Test 10 minutes later and confirm that the levels are indeed now at the desired level.
5) The following day test again . If the levels have dropped then use the calculator to identify how much you need to add. This should be your new starting daily dose.
6) Use the alkalinity dose as your reference and start dosing equal amounts of calcium and alkalinity daily. You will need to test daily until you get the rhythm of how this works and then weekly or monthly will work depending on whats in the tank and the growth you are getting.
As a reference point, in the BRS 160 we have 50 or so colonies of growing corals. Our daily dose on the tank is 150ml a day. If we added 20% more calcium and alkalinity to the tank, the levels would likely rise, but if we doubled it we would likely see calcium and alkalinity fall due to the effects of all the fresh calcium carbonate crystals and precipitation.
Thank you so much for the reply @RT_BRS.
You are correct about not having much of a demand. I only have live rock, sand, a few mushrooms, zoas, and one small frag of SPS. Nothing really consuming other than Coralline Algae.
So I just turned off my dosing pumps (they did dose today -last dose finished at 8:32pm) and ran my alk and cal test.
12/5 -alk @ 10:00PM - 7.45dkh
Cal @ 10:15PM - 410ppm
As you advised, I will keep my dosing pumps off and take readings at the same time tomorrow.
Thanks again for the help, and please keep tagging along until I get this figured out!
Sounds good, keep us updated!