Interesting Case

[mark]

Been using a reactor for my needs but go years between cleaning on my pumps and even then it's more just a thin slime coat.

Every 2 weeks, is he dosing directly in front of the pump's intakes?

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by mark

Been using a reactor for my needs but go years between cleaning on my pumps and even then it's more just a thin slime coat.

Every 2 weeks, is he dosing directly in front of the pump's intakes?

Not really, he doses directly into sump after skimmer and a couple chambers back from return.

[phi delt reefer]

maybe a second set of eyes should check his testing. those tests all use a color scale and he could be interpreting them wrong or looking at them in the wrong light, etc.

Sphelps - maybe he can bring you a water sample and you could test it and report back?

[cathyg_99]

maybe his RO unit isnt filtering enough out of the water? thats why hes getting a build up... as for the dosing that seems really high, id have someone else do my testing for me

[Aquaria]

It's got nothing to do with the rodi I know people who use tap water and if that's the case should they not have the same problems?

[Delphinus]

My guess is low magnesium. Before I would track magnesium, I noticed calcium buildup on many of my pump's magnets and shafts. Powerheads .. skimmer pumps .. etc. Calcium precipitates easily when Mg is low. This effect has been profoundly reduced since keepng Mg where it should be. Now I still notice some buildup on the Tunze magnets but nothing that needs to be removed more than say once every 6 months or so.

[Red Coral Aquariums]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

My guess is low magnesium. Before I would track magnesium, I noticed calcium buildup on many of my pump's magnets and shafts. Powerheads .. skimmer pumps .. etc. Calcium precipitates easily when Mg is low. This effect has been profoundly reduced since keepng Mg where it should be. Now I still notice some buildup on the Tunze magnets but nothing that needs to be removed more than say once every 6 months or so.

I have seen this before. Interested to see the mg levels.
Kevin

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

My guess is low magnesium. Before I would track magnesium, I noticed calcium buildup on many of my pump's magnets and shafts. Powerheads .. skimmer pumps .. etc. Calcium precipitates easily when Mg is low. This effect has been profoundly reduced since keepng Mg where it should be. Now I still notice some buildup on the Tunze magnets but nothing that needs to be removed more than say once every 6 months or so.

He doses magnesium weekly to maintain it at 1500

[trilinearmipmap]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

My guess is low magnesium. Before I would track magnesium, I noticed calcium buildup on many of my pump's magnets and shafts. Powerheads .. skimmer pumps .. etc. Calcium precipitates easily when Mg is low. This effect has been profoundly reduced since keepng Mg where it should be. Now I still notice some buildup on the Tunze magnets but nothing that needs to be removed more than say once every 6 months or so.

+1

[Lance]

Does the sump chamber where he doses have fairly low flow, or is he dosing the calcium and alk too soon to each other? I had the same problem for awhile in the 90g, (though not as extreme). I use the same recipe, and found if I dose the calcium and the alk into the same chamber I have to make sure there is at least 6 hours between the dosing times or I get calcification. In fact the water in that chamber was even a little milky from the two reacting together. I eventually moved the calcium dosing line to a different part of the sump that has more flow and that helped a lot. Within days after doing this the volume of calcium and alk I needed to dose to keep parameters in line dropped considerably.