In need of help from experienced sps keepers!

[Myka]

I see no reason to discontinue calcium and alkalinity dosing to maintain levels. Just make sure calcium and alkalinity aren't increasing while the corals are stressed. I would work on getting the magnesium up too. Just quit the carbon dosing.

[jason604]

Ok carbon dosing has been stopped. My Alk is somehow dropping so something must be growing. Cal stayed the same n mag is now increased to 1140. I don't see any sps getting worse. LPS is more puffy.

[Aquattro]

alk will reduce based on acids in the system. The tank produces various acids as part of being and alk is consumed while buffering pH. If Ca is staying constant, nothing is growing (worth worrying about)

[Wretch]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

alk will reduce based on acids in the system. The tank produces various acids as part of being and alk is consumed while buffering pH. If Ca is staying constant, nothing is growing (worth worrying about)

Just going to jump onto Jason's thread here.

So if your calcium is going down but alk and mag are holding steady/very slow decline is that normal?

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Wretch

Just going to jump onto Jason's thread here.

So if your calcium is going down but alk and mag are holding steady/very slow decline is that normal?

over what time span are you testing the calcium to see its drop? how much of a drop compared to alk?

[Wretch]

Originally Posted by reefwars

over what time span are you testing the calcium to see its drop? how much of a drop compared to alk?

Well my calcium isn't dropping holding steady at 450 but its being dosed a tiny bit, 12ml a day. I was dosing my alk the same but it was going up slowly every day. So I turned the alk off for now. I check my magnesium(1350) once a week after my water change. Add if needed. Have been checking calcium and alk every day since adding doser.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Wretch

Well my calcium isn't dropping holding steady at 450 but its being dosed a tiny bit, 12ml a day. I was dosing my alk the same but it was going up slowly every day. So I turned the alk off for now. I check my magnesium(1350) once a week after my water change. Add if needed. Have been checking calcium and alk every day since adding doser.

testing calcium drops daily is pretty much impossible to do on hobby test kits the margin of error is to high for such a low drop , test it weekly and find out what the weekly drop is , basically if your calcium is holding steady at only 12ml but alk is rising a bit then both need to be a lower dose , try 8mls and see what happens. eventually calcium will find a happy medium with alk.


tinkering for a bit with both is ok at first but if your using an equal measurement dosing product like 2 or 3 part then youll eventually need to set both the same.


as they say dose based on alk numkbers not calcium numbers. so test alk daily for a while and calcium once or twice a week and find what both needs are