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Can't keep my alk up?


Jrodinnola

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I have two BRS dosers for calcium and alkalinity... However, I can't seem to keep my alk stable, even if I'm almost twice my calcium dosage. I'm trying to get it up to around 11dkh, but i cant seem to get it to hang stable around 8dkh for more than two days...I'm using the red sea reef foundation supplements and my apex doses about 10ml per day of alk and 6ml of calcium.. I just bumped up the programming to 12 ml of alk a day to see if that will help, and left the calcium alone.. it usually stays right at 450. Does this just happen, or is it normal? I really thought calcium and alk would be closer to a 1:1 rato of consumption.. side note, my tank is a 30g, mostly sps.

 

ca- 450

mg-1390

alk- 8.0

pH-8.1

po4-0

no3-3

no2-0

nh4-0

 

@1.026

 

-Jeremy

 

 

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Nanofreak79

In most cases, without a lot of corals that need the calcium uptake, alkalinity will be your most used. I had trouble too, and ended up using kalkwasser in addition to 2part dosing. I'm not saying dose kalk, just giving an example.

 

What two part are you using?

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The red sea reef foundation program. I'm actually testing red deas entire program... I swapped to coral pro salt, all of their dosing supplements and I'm using reef energy instead of other coral foods.

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If you run any kind of phos absorption media, it can hurt your alk levels in smaller tanks.especially if it's unnecessary for your setup

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I'm running the bulk reef supply brand gfo.. I was having a hard time keeping my phophates below .08 before I started running gfo, now its always at either .02 or 0ppm. So I should just keep bumping up my doser until it will keep the alk maintained?

 

also, I have about 8 1-2" sps frags, a 3"x6" red monti cap, 5"x5" purple rim monti cap, an rbta (4" diameter), an orange plate about 3" in diameter, a small frogspawn, 3 small acans (2-3 heads each) and a whole bunch of zoas and shrooms..not sure if thats considered a light load.. because I'm running out of places to put things!

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..Update..

I started running low on my red sea test kit reagents.. so I ordered fresh supplies and tested again when they came in... apparently something was wrong with my old calcium test kit... it was reading 450ppm... but the new test kit is reading around 530ppm.

So, is the calcium being rediculously high the reason I'm having a hard time maintaining my alk? I feel like the alk solution may just be precipitating as soon as it hits the water.. then again.. I'm not sure.. I'm just getting the hang of more detailed water chemistry.

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