What would you do? Again with the x@#^*! Dosing

[daniella3d]

Yes I remember your tank and your previous post about salinity rising. Maybe you will have to use another method to keep your levels up? That is an insane amount of sps in a small tank I am not surprised you need to dose that much.

[phi delt reefer]

may wanna try kalkwasser in your ATO as well.

[spawn]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Yes I remember your tank and your previous post about salinity rising. Maybe you will have to use another method to keep your levels up? That is an insane amount of sps in a small tank I am not surprised you need to dose that much.

I was told that it was insane to try by my friend who helped me get started. But is it really possible that there is a maximum for a small tank that I have surpassed? Has anyone ever heard of this before. I really wanted it to be as jam packed as humanly possible.

[e46er]

Have you tried other calcium products?
Maybe u just got a shitty batch ......

[Cal_stir]

Originally Posted by spawn

I was told that it was insane to try by my friend who helped me get started. But is it really possible that there is a maximum for a small tank that I have surpassed? Has anyone ever heard of this before. I really wanted it to be as jam packed as humanly possible.

maybe you should be running a calcium reactor in stead of dosing it

[Myka]

Ugh...I can't believe you're still fighting with this!

If it was my tank I would manually bump the calcium to about 400 (380 is fine), then in an hour bump the alkalinity up to 7 dKH (ish). Then increase the dosers by a couple mL. In 3 days repeat until you test one day and the numbers are still at 400 and 7, then you have the dosing amount right. Have you tried this sort of thing?

Once you have figured out the dosing amount you can manually bump up the levels to where you want them (say 420 and 8? whatever you want). You may need to manually bump up the levels once a week or so for the first month or two while the tank settles in. Plus, as the tank grows the demand will go up and you will have to bump the levels and the dosers. I was bumping my dosers up by 1-2 mL 2-3 times a month for a year, now I'm only increasing the dosers once a month or so.

[shrimpchips]

Are you using ash soda (Na2CO3) or sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3)?

If you're using soda ash, the additional sodium could be the source of your salinity woes. With twice as much sodium being dumped into your tank, the salinity will rise that much faster.

Also, what's your pH? I suspect it's on the higher side also since you're not getting the H+ from your Alk supplement (among other things). I know the amounts may seem trivial, but I think the combination of a high pH and high amount of CO3 and Ca you're having to add to the system may be causing your woes.

I would try switching your Alk supplement to sodium bicarbonate and see if that can change some of your fortunes. It sounds crazy that you'd need half a litre of supplement a day.....

[shrimpchips]

Also, to the guys who don't think dosing can sustain a tank, there's a great thread on RC about how great it is on systems 200g + . Changing systems isn't the answer - it's figuring out what's wrong with it. Dosing should work on any tank, and it's simpler to adjust individual components than reactor ever will be.

[daniella3d]

It's not the size of the tank and the amount of water that is the problem with the OP it's the fact that his tank is really full of SPS. Too many sps for the water volume.

Either he doses more and the salinity will rise, or he uses other system that won't affect the salinity. I guess it would probably be either dosing a lot more and doing a lot of water changes, or use a reactor.

Originally Posted by shrimpchips

Also, to the guys who don't think dosing can sustain a tank, there's a great thread on RC about how great it is on systems 200g + . Changing systems isn't the answer - it's figuring out what's wrong with it. Dosing should work on any tank, and it's simpler to adjust individual components than reactor ever will be.

[spawn]

I'm using soda ash, & just checked the ph with lights out it reads 8.2 with an elos kit.

Originally Posted by shrimpchips

Are you using ash soda (Na2CO3) or sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3)?

If you're using soda ash, the additional sodium could be the source of your salinity woes. With twice as much sodium being dumped into your tank, the salinity will rise that much faster.

Also, what's your pH? I suspect it's on the higher side also since you're not getting the H+ from your Alk supplement (among other things). I know the amounts may seem trivial, but I think the combination of a high pH and high amount of CO3 and Ca you're having to add to the system may be causing your woes.

I would try switching your Alk supplement to sodium bicarbonate and see if that can change some of your fortunes. It sounds crazy that you'd need half a litre of supplement a day.....