alkalinity problem

sleepy

sleepy

New Member
I'm having a problem keeping my alkalinity up to where it nees to be. It's currently around 2.5 with the calcium at 425.
My tank is a 150 heavily loaded coral tank (all types). I have a sand bed of about 4 inches. I have been using b-ionic ever since I statred the tank 3 years ago. I have a digital dosing system
that doses 6ml per hour continously, thats 144 a day. This by far exceeds what is recommended by the manufacturer. Any ideas? If you use B-ionic how much are you dosing daily?
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
Sounds like a really nice tank sleepy.
Only thing I can think of right now is to ask you if you are using RO or more specifically RO/DI water for top offs.
As long as the added carbonates and calcium from the B-Ionic dosing are being taken up by your heavy load of hard corals, and I assume some decent coralline growth as well, I would imagine you are dosing at near the right levels, maybe a little higher than recommended by the manufacturer.
If you are using pure RO/DI water, possibly due to the nature of the pure water having a very neutral pH of say 7.0 and basically no alkalinity .... the top off water may be, I repeat MAY be pulling your alk down, and making it hard to raise back up. Possible yeah. Likely maybe not ?
Keeping your calcium at 425 is a good thing, but will also restrict you somewhat on getting the alk up as well.
BTW - what do you keep your pH at if I may ask ?
Hopefull below 8.4
I've read where some will dose it say 1ml per gallon of tank water over a 24 hours period MAX !
Again - depending on the load of the tank.
You've darn near reached that point for sure.
Maybe back off some on the dosing amount, and continue to test the levels and keep a close eye on the corals too.
Oh yeah ... are you dosing them at the same time or staggering the two part doses, like one part one day, the other part the next day ?????
I don't know for sure - but those things come to mind.
 
sleepy

sleepy

New Member
I am using ro/di water for evaporation, proably around 2-3galons a day. Ph is between 8.2 -8.4. With the electronic doser I have I dose right into the sump at the same time. By the way, I have a ton of coral line growing.
 
chevron tang

chevron tang

Member
you may try the dkh buffer by kent marine. i know that i posted a topic not long ago, it may still be on this page about baking soda. i use it dose your tank one teaspoon per 10G once a week until you acquire your desired alkalinity. i haven't had a problem with mine in about two months. i just talked to a friend of mine today who dosed his tank with baking soda every day until he got his desired alk. and his tank looks great with no problems.
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
sleepy,
As always, do what you feel is best, but if I had your set up ( and I wish I did ;) ) I would try mixing a powdered marine buffer into your RO/DI water, assuming you manually add the make up water each day. Try this if you can, and continue to monitor the water. If you have an auto top off system, you could certainly mix smaller amounts of the buffer in a few cups of freshwater and add that to your sump.
I would also consider looking into ways to setting up your dosing system to alternate dosing the two part additives. For a period of time dose the calcium part, then stop it with a timer if possible. Then wait a period of time, and have another timer start dosing the alk part.
Dosing both into the sump at the same time may be causing you problems. May be.
I don't dose liquid reagents this way, although I would like to soon. Your set up sounds really nice.
Maybe some others on here actually have a similar dosing set up as yours. I don't so I probably should hold back on my comments, and allow others to reply with direct experience.
I'm sort of shooting from the hip here, and that is not always such a wise thing to do, and I will avoid getting into the baking soda discussion here.
Hope you get'er figured out !
 
mlm

mlm

Active Member
I had this problem once with Kent superbuffer DKH so I called kent and they said to double the dose. After that I had no problems keeping the alk up.
 
luke

luke

Member
If you have massive growth, as you say you do, then why mess with a good thing???
Your CA is fine, your pH is good, your alk is low... but not so low to be too alarmed. Just keep an eye on it.
Luke
 
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