Ca, Alk, Mg Dosing and white film buildup on glass

[Oceanus]

Visited an LFS today and they tested my water with API kits:

Their results:

Ca-300ppm

Alk-10dKH

My results with Salifert kits (brand new alk kit, first time ever used):

Ca-250ppm

Alk-8.6dKH

...Well, this is confusing

Edit: they also sold me some of their water because they still thought water softeners in the supermarket RO/DI were the problem. I got home and tested their water and...200TDS. Yeah, I'm going to use that water for my fire bellied toads instead . The supermarket RO/DI always reads 0 or 1 TDS.

[Oceanus]

Bad news guys, I set my alk doser to turn on at 6:30p.m. and off at 6:40 p.m. today to get alk buffed up a little to match my new higher Ca around 330ppm, and I cam back from the grocery store an hour later at 7:30 p.m. and the alk doser was still on! My time malfunctioned it seems, and that dunked around 64ml of alk into the tank. Currently it has pretty cloudy glass, but all the corals are fully polyped out. Did not bother to do an alk test because it will read all of the precipitates. pH is really high at around 8.8, so I dosed 5 ml of distilled white vinegar to get it back to around 8.7 ish. Another 5ml will go in around 11:00 p.m. tonight. Doing a 2 gallon water change with the old reef crystals because it had relatively low alk.

 

Wow. Right as things were starting to turn around, this happens. Additionally, my vortech stopped working today for some reason...the dry side got REALLY hot.

[Oceanus]

Mini update: all the SPS are still happy/polyped out and the glass got even cloudier. The good news is that the overdose wasn't quite as huge as I thought. those 65~ml would get my alk up to 13dKH but clearly didn't because of all of the precipitation. 65ml is roughly 2 day's worth of dosing, and I didn't dose alk this morning and obviously won't tomorrow. Fingers crossed, pH is the main worry now I think.

[farkwar]

It sounds to me that you need an RODI filter.

 

And need to start dosing water changes, instead of chemicals with machines. (Salt water is chemicals of course).

 

/shrug

[Oceanus]

Yeah I should probably get an RO/DI, but I still do need to dose daily with this much SPS, they suck around 1.3 dKH per day. RO/DI is on my list, sure would be mighty convenient. You have any suggestions for a unit under $150?

 

Some good news this morning: I woke up to check the tank and all the corals are polyped out and look fine. The water is not cloudy anymore, but I need to clean the glass.

I also solved the MP10 mystery...of course a dwarf cerith would get in there and stop the propeller.

[Amphiprion1]

It may be a bit more of a PITA, but try this for a while instead of the B-Ionic. On the plus side, it is cheap and will probably work better if your pH is naturally high. Mine is due to high light from photosynthesis, so I get better results with it:

 

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/#9

[Oceanus]

Currently I am not using B-Ionic, I'm using BRS Bulk Calcium Chloride and soda ash. That recipe #2 does use bicarbonate, so I'll probably switch out to that.

 

It seems that the disaster didn't really do anything. I just tested Ca as 300ppm and alk as 8.0dKH. All my corals are happy, so the only negative affect is the cloudy glass which I have to scrape now.

 

My pH does seem to be on the higher side naturally. I get around 8.3 in the mornings and 8.5 by the end of the light cycle. Will try out using the bicarbonate...

[farkwar]

All of this work is for your 16 gallon?

 

Sounds, to me, like a shitload of work for negative results.

 

Here is a trick. Stop testing everything. Unplug your F'n God Damn doser. Buy a bucket of your reef Salt.

 

If you dont want to buy an RODI(I dont think anyone is serious in this hobby without one), go to Walmart and buy out their distilled water stock. When you go to the next town, buy out all their distilled jugs, etc.

 

Buy 100 gallons if you can, thats only like $80. Now buy a 5 gallon drinking water jug. Like $11 for those.

 

Now take your distilled water, pour 5 gallons, leave a little room, into the 5 gallon jug. Now pour in exactly 2.5 cups of your salt.

 

Mix overnight. I would bet your refractometer shows SG 1.025. You have been subjecting your corals to radical swings, so they dont care by now.

 

Do a water change the next day.

 

Repeat in 2 days.

 

Repeat in 4 days.

 

Do this for 100 gallons, 40 days worth of changes.

 

Now test.

 

Then repeat except water change every 4 days. Now test in 80 days.

 

I will bet you that your results will be the same as at the 40 day mark. I will also bet you that youve spent less work in these 120 days, than the last 120 days.

 

And all of your corals will love you.