Interesting Case

[asylumdown]

To add:

If you're finding that you're adding twice as much alk as calcium and you keep upping the amounts of each, I think you should first try dialing way back on the rate you dose alk. It seems counter intuitive, but if you're precipitating out large amounts of additive due to an imbalance, you're not likely going to see normal levels in one, and way high levels in the other, it will look like 'normal' levels of the one you're over-dosing, and low levels of the other.

[PoonTang]

Yes i would say that he is at the point of the "viscous cycle". His tank sounds about the same as mine but my corals are probably larger and my demand may be higher. The only thing i dose is Kalkwasser and never have to add any 2 part except i will tweek the levels every month or so but never by all that much. I wouldnt worry about the ph at all mine sits around 8.0 and if i try to move it higher (such as in my battle with dinos) it just falls back within a couple of hours. Its a no win battle. Cal and alk are a funny thing as we all know, they work fine when they are all balanced but if you get 1 out of wack then it has the opposite effect on the other. This is partly why i prefer the Kalk route, as it is basically balanced to start with. I would check his mag too. I havnt had to clean a pump from calcification in a year and a half and some of the pumps have never been cleaned.