Does this amount of dosing seem right?

[rocketeer]

Hi MAAST,

I'm dosing BRS CaCl and soda ash at what seems like a crazy rate. I can never go on vacation because I'm constantly mixing chemicals. On my 240 gallon aquarium I am dosing 1/2 gallon of CaCl solution and about .2 gallon of soda ash solution a day. I remove about a gallon of tank water every day to keep my salinity in check, so I'm losing trace elements. I dose about a cup of BIonic Mg a day.

Alk: Salifert 2.9 Meq/L, Seachem 3.0 Meq/L, API 3.5 Meq/L
CA: API 400 ppm today, Tropic Marin 350 ppm but raising, Salifert 320 ppm but raising, over the last month all three were 375 to 450 and I was dosing .28 gallons/day. I thought it was stable but it dropped to 320-350 over six days while dosing reliably so I upped the dose to .5 gallon/day.
MG: Salifert 1310, Tropic Marin 1300

I'm about to mix up 5 gallons each of Ca and Alk additive so I can leave for 9 days.

My tank is not that loaded. Mostly I have a few softies. I was getting a lot of abiotic precipitation for a while when my Mg was low. It's been better for about a month and a half.

Is this crazy?

Thank You,
Jack

[Justin]

In my old 40 breeder, I used to get wild swings of Alk like that as well. I thought something was wrong and never really knew how I fixed it. I will tell you that your levels look to be fine. I would possibly suggest you raise your Mg levels to be around 1450 or higher just in case. What are you running with your PO4?

I ask this because excessive PO4 can precipitate out your Alk and Ca. Perhaps you need to target a higher Alk like 10dkh to offset any precipitation from PO4 in your tank.
What is your pH at in your tank? CO2 levels can also impact your Alk and Ca as well in your tank.

If you are running mostly softies, you can also just go with Kalk in your ATO to help balance out some stuff.

[Frogman]

I have dosed alk in my ato when needed, but I don't recommend doing it all the time. Separate your dosing, all you need is a little failure and it can cause serious issues.
There are too many people who have had tank crashes due to issues with their ATO dosing.

My .02 :-)

[ktipp]

Half a gallon is way to much if mixed correctly.

I would contact manufacturer and get confirmation on if it was mixed correctly and also inquire about 240g daily dosage range.

Something just doesn't sound right. Maybe bad batch of product.

[Dkray944]

Yep agree with above. This sounds way off. With just softys you should be able to just do weekly water changes and add kalk to your ato using a kalk stirrer. Somethings definitely not right. I had a 220g heavily stocked reef tank and dosed a lot less. Not sure of exact amount but I remember it was 3 small caps of two part every other day along with water changes and kalk and everything was fine for years.

[Frogman]

Bad test kit!!!


It's in everyone's best interest to take care of those who take care of you. Support a local Veteran!

[rocketeer]

Yeah, that's my first thought. I discarded my Red Sea Alk test kit for measuring too low, but I'm still measuring each parameter with three different brands.

PO4 is .04 and PH is 8.1. My heavy CA dosing is increasing my CA level. Now I'm at 420ppm with Salifert (was 320). So I guess I'll cut back a little.

I'm dosing with dosing pumps separate from my ATO.

CaCL and soda ash are being mixed with RODI water according to the instructions on the label, both 2.5 cups in a gallon. I dose Alk into fast moving water.

30 gallon water changes every week with Red Sea Coral Pro salt.

IDK

Jack

[Frogman]

Do you have any SPS/LPS or is it all softies? I'm with David... You shouldn't need to do all that, I use Reef crystals, have a lot of sps and lps and My values are much higher. and I don't does.
Wonder what it is that is precipitating it out of your system, have you checked Mag? I have alk drop to 7.5 or 8 after a few days, but that because of my water softener and RO ATO

[rocketeer]

Yeah Mag has been around 1300. Kind of low but I think it should be ok there. I'm boosting it. Currently at 1380. It was really low for a long time and my filter sponges turned hard, pumps froze... But it's been 1300ish for a couple of months now. Maybe it takes a while for all of the surfaces to get enough Mag on them to stop precipitation.

Jack

[slm222]

May need to raise mg. Calcium carbonate may be precipitating out from alk and cal dosing due to lower mag

[rocketeer]

Problem solved! I started using Randy's Recipe #2 about two and a half months ago and everything stabilized and my dosing has gone down to 35 to 30 ml/hr of each of Alk and Ca. Mg went to 5 ml/day. Considering that Randys #2 is about half as concentrated as #1, I'm now dosing about %25 of what I was dosing before. Abiotic precipitation has basically vanished. Yay!

Jack