Alk and calcium dropped fast - do these numbers add up

[Recci]

I set up a knew red sea max nano 8 days ago. I had a 35L nano up and running for over a year before that with lots of live rock and just a hob filter and no skimmer. I made 75 litre of new salt water with coral pro salt to the recommended 34ppt. I measured the alk and calc which seemed roughly inline with what it was supposed to be with that salt. 450 ca KH around 11 dkh. I then used a new sand with only a small amount of sand from the old tank and I moved over all the mature live rock from the old tank and added a load of new ceramic rock. The live rocks had a few mushrooms and other small sofites on it and 1 small duncan plus one small candy cane. I moved over all the CUC and the two fish i have a small azure damsel and green chromis. I fugured that since i am not increasing bio-load and the rock is mature and was move from tank right into the other within seconds that there wont be a cycle. The live rock will seed the new sand and ceramic rock. 

So far everything has went to plan and the corals and fish are looking better than ever except for my Astrea Snails which now seem to be falling over and getting stuck which they never really done before. I am keeping a close eye on the params and have noticed that my alk and calc have dropped much faster than I expected. 

The alk has dropped from 10/11 to 6dkh in 7 days and thats with a 10% water change. The calc is down to about 400/410. Does this seem normal such a small tank with no sps and only two small lps and no visible coraline algae growing yet? Does the calc drop and alk number seem right? I was expecting it to take a few weeks to see much of a drop in anything.

[Clown79]

Did you save water from the previous week to use in the next water change?

 

Coral pro has specific mixing instructions and how long it can be stored before precipitation occurs.

 

Otherwise no, that's a very large drop for very little corals.

 

New sand can use up parameters but that seems excessive.

[Recci]

No never saved water. I mix and generally add when its ready. It must be the new sand, I wasn't even aware of that! 

[Aurortpa]

Have you tested your magnesium?  Also if it's a new tank, cycles with accumulating nitrates will lower alkalinity.

[Recci]

I dont have a magnesium test yet but going to order the red sea kits. I was planing to follow the red sea care guide but its very expensive. Is foundation B just sodium bicarbonate? My nitrates are showing 0 on my test but again i dont have a high resolution test kit  only api at the moment.

[Aurortpa]

9 minutes ago, Recci said:

I dont have a magnesium test yet but going to order the red sea kits. I was planing to follow the red sea care guide but its very expensive. Is foundation B just sodium bicarbonate? My nitrates are showing 0 on my test but again i dont have a high resolution test kit  only api at the moment.

Magnesium should be around 1250-1350.  Mines actually at 1400 with no ill effects.  I use seachem but from what I looked online, foundation B by redsea is carbonate and other buffers. 

 

If it were me, I'd at least go to the LFS and get a mag test, see if that has any indirect role in it.  I wouldn't raise the overall alkalinity to more than 1 dkh a day, however considering your tank is consuming a bit more than the rate of about .5 dkh a day, I would make the dose actually 1.5--no more than that--just until you reach your target dkh. 

 

Then I'd double check and verify it's still consuming around .5 a day.  Test 7 days after you reach target, do maintenance doses, and prior to water change to confirm if you are still at target or if your tank is using up more or less at that point.  It's a bit tricky in beginning, can be many factors, key is to keep testing. 

[Recci]

Im ordering red sea mag and alk test kits and Salifert nitrate and phosphate as they are half the price. Also getting red sea reef foundation a,b,c liquid kit and nopox. Ill use these till i know what im doing but long term I really want to use cheaper alternatives. 

[Clown79]

Do you have a really good skimmer because nopox must be used with a skimmer.

 

 

You don't have to use red sea products.

 

Salifert is just as good.

 

Also for dosing you can use any product. It doesn't have to be red sea.

Esv bionic is a great 2 part doser and well priced.

[Recci]

i have the skimmer that  came with the red sea max nano. Seems a bitch to tune and is really noisy.

[Clown79]

A skimmer has to be used with nopox.

[Recci]

i know!

[Recci]

So been testing mag, ca, and alk for the past 5 days. Its still dropping about 1.5dhk a day and 30ppm calcium. Mag seems stable enough. Seems like a crazy consumption for such a small tank with so few corals in it. But according to another forum its the ceramic rock and new sand bed. It will continue like this for a while.

[Aurortpa]

Interesting, what did they say? I thought ceramics were inert and new sand actually can help buffer params? 

[Recci]

Just that they had experienced the same thing with ceramics. It also says about new sand beds causing this on the red sea website so I am getting a double whammy which explains the rapid drop.

[Recci]

Looks like my rock is aquaroche and it has a reputation for sucking up KH.  I done some extensive googling and came across a few posts on various forums with people saying the same thing. Its still dropping over 1 dkh a day and apparently this can go on for months or years! Also getting an alge bloom even though both nitrates and phosphates are undetectable on the red sea pro test kits. 

[Toxic enigma]

On 7/26/2018 at 6:01 PM, Recci said:

Looks like my rock is aquaroche and it has a reputation for sucking up KH.  I done some extensive googling and came across a few posts on various forums with people saying the same thing. Its still dropping over 1 dkh a day and apparently this can go on for months or years! Also getting an alge bloom even though both nitrates and phosphates are undetectable on the red sea pro test kits. 

You may want to look into something like dossing kalkwasser if this is going to be an on going issue. Just seems like dosing such large amounts daily would be stressful for the corals, fish and you aswell. You may have to supplement one or the other by hand but a kalkwasser dripper can be made pretty cheap, like less than ten bucks. All you need is two water bottles, some air line and a couple air line valves. Takes a bit to get dialed in but atleast it would add calcium and alkalinity throughout the day rather than all at once.

[Recci]

Yeah I was thinking about adding a dosing pump. 

[brianinak]

I have also had a drop in alk and ca.  I added new sand.  Read that adding new substrate can cause drop ca and alk.