Scott's 270g aka Project Mayhem

Scythanith · #1 03-30-2014, 04:36 AM

Honestly right now my problems aren't the algae type so I am not even thinking about biopellets lol. I am still trying to get my Ca, Alk, Mg balanced.

Myka · #2 03-30-2014, 05:26 AM

^ Pretty much.

Scythanith · #3 03-30-2014, 06:49 PM

It's been somewhat of a pain in the butt! I had my numbers balanced and started dosing equal parts of the three part ™ system. Within 2 days my alk and mg was low and my ca was ok. I up'd my Part B & C dosing and it seemed like no matter how high I kept dialling up my dosing my alk & mg wouldn't go up. I was dosing extra Part C to try and raise the mg but I could NOT get it past 1300 according to my salifert test (confirmed by Bayside Corals test).

Maybe the chemistry experts can help me. I have ~300g of water volume. I made up the ™ recommended mix of a one gallon solution and have been dosing 2 x 175ml of part B. Two days ago I had an Alk of 7.4 and today I have an Alk of 9.4. What's going on!?

I lowered my dosing back to 2 x 150ml a day Part B and will see what happens in a couple days.

sphelps · #4 03-30-2014, 07:33 PM

Scott your tank and basement look great. The problem with new tanks is your chemistry demand is always changing until it becomes more established with a healthy number of corals. Then demand becomes more stable and you can dial things in and maintain levels without constant adjustment. Until then it's test and adjust at least a few times a week. I found this to be particular frustrating when I ran a 3 stage dosing system myself, three separate parts to test and adjust several times a week was just a pain, Ca in particular is hard enough just to test consistently. This is why I switched back to a Ca reactor, I just test Alk and maintain that assuming the rest remains balanced which for the majority of the time is exactly the case.

In regards to your Mag, I'm not sure why you would want levels above 1300, I'd say anything above 1200 is ideal. As far as the alk jump, that's pretty typical after upping the dosage, sometimes it takes a bit for the adjustment to register. It might take a while to come down what that size tank and little stock so don't be too quick to adjust, if it remains stable you're probably at the right dosage. Also upping Ca can help decrease Alk levels.

Scythanith · #5 03-31-2014, 02:59 AM

Thanks Steve. I plan on just testing for 3-4 days now and not adjusting anything and seeing what happens with the numbers.

reefermadness · #6 03-31-2014, 12:42 PM

Don't try and use your dosing pumps to adjust the levels. You will constantly be adjusting them like a yo yo. It's much better to manually bump your parameters to the levels you want and keep the dosers set as close to maintenance you can get. You will always have a little drift but if you regularly test and bump if needed it's not a big deal.

Scythanith · #7 03-31-2014, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reefermadness

Don't try and use your dosing pumps to adjust the levels. You will constantly be adjusting them like a yo yo. It's much better to manually bump your parameters to the levels you want and keep the dosers set as close to maintenance you can get. You will always have a little drift but if you regularly test and bump if needed it's not a big deal.

Thanks Darryl, I will be just watching what happens for the next 3 days so that should show me a general consumption rate hopefully. One weird thing was I mixed up a 20g batch of fresh salt and it tested at 6.3 dKh. I asked Michael and he said that was normal. Seemed weird to me but he said that's the way the system worked. I googled it and saw reef builders mixed up a test batch and it tested at 8.3 dKh. Any opinions?