Djplus1

What's funny is I don't have all of those icons showing at the top that you do either. I hit the gear and and I only have 5 more icons that show up and the last is the two people one for user authorization and the temperature probe icon is two past that one lol. I guess I'll dig into that manual, but I may just be SOL on this one.

I'm using an Apex Lite which I know is discontinued, but I'll dig through the manual and see if I can see anything that mentions this specific problem, though I feel I'm not going to see this exact scenario, lol

LOL, no. What is going on that I don't have these gears? I also tried BOTH online PC and web based Fusion options and can't seem to find anyway to get to a screen like that.

Ah, that's the problem. I have no gear next to either TMP or PH on my screen. I wonder why...

I can't seem to locate the probe screen you're at. I'm on Android if it's different. Also, any reason why your heater is fallback off vs on? If I had a heater without built in thermostat, I can see why, but if for some reason my Apex goes offline, I don't want the heater shutting off, or am I missing something?

Interesting. I do know that certain critters (seahorses, etc) do better in cooler water as I'm sure some pests do not so that might be something. I'm not getting much growth however and between my ICP returning low trace elements and no No3 and Po4 and realizing my salinity is low, I'm tackling a few things at once so I'd like to establish more of a standard baseline before messing around with permanent lower temps.

I'm curious if I'm not doing something correctly as I'm having issues keeping temps up to 77/78 (currently 76.8) and wondering if it's more of a heater not being big enough issue vs an incorrect on/off program. It's an Eheim 125w which is supposedly good for 40-53 gallons (set for about 83 on dial) and I'm using it on a Waterbox 45.2 Marine. The tank is in my basement which is climate controlled though due to energy costs the thermostat on main level is set to 66 so not sure exactly what the temp is near the tank. The program I have set is Fallback ON Set ON and no number values, but I always get notifications when the tank goes below 75, so I can go hours of seeing notifications like "If temp < 75 Then ON (74.1)" until the tank goes above 75 where I get a notfication "Set OFF" I have looked at the tank heater after this notificaiton and the heater is indeed on, so not sure what that even means. So the question is, if I were to have a larger 150w heater, would it be naturally more capable so I never see this dip below 75? And since I keep my current heater to a higher value that never gets reached, would the bigger heater be better to set to the target temp range of 77-79 or so? And where does this 75 degree threshold come from in the first place as my program makes no mention of 75 degrees for any ON/OFF actions? Or am I missing something program wise where I should have an "ON < 77 and OFF > 80" (or something like that)?

OK, so that is actually promising if people still need to supplement Alk meaning I SHOULDN'T out of nowhere be at 11+ dKH. It's actually the primary reason I've never set up my 2 part as my numbers are pretty good with Kalk and I've not yet at least seen CA or Alk low enough to attempt it.

So just looking around the webs has me looking at a few different options. But the two that intrigue me the most are using All For Reef or skipping the Alk/CA portion and just use Tropic Marin's Trace 1 and Trace 2. I feel while running kalkwasser, All For Reef might be a little much if I can just dose the trace elements? Or are my dKH levels not going to all that effected by the small amounts dosed? All For Reef I believe would be much more cost effective if in powder form also. Anyone see an absolute reason to not do All For Reef?

Did you just pick Micro-E out of a hat a decide to use that vs any other product? I just looked it up and it has a number of the elements I'm low in minus Iodine and Boron, so not certain that's the "perfect" pick for me, but close. Are you using a doser for it or just adding by hand everyday?

Yeah, I actually knew my salt was a little low because I just checked it for the first time in about 6 months the day I took my sample for the ICP. My refractometer read closer to 33/34 though but that could also be my blurry eyes, lol. I need to change my RO/DI filters as I have a ton of Silicon and I'll mix 5 gallons with 3 cups vs 2.5 cups of coral pro and I should get back up to 35 within a change or three. I do find it weird that they recommend Daily Traces A when highlighting Zinc shortage, but don't mention their Daily Traces B which has Iodine which I am also "critically low" in. Do you personally think if I got a bottle of each and dosed daily for 30-60 days and sent in another test that I would "correct" at least Zinc and Iodine without completely blasting the other trace elements through the roof? I definitely do not want to dose 7-8 elements separately.

Hey all, I just got back my first ICP test results (attached) and once I get my question answered by them about the accuracy being that it's showing my tank size as 1711006 Liters instead of 171.1006 I was curious on best dosing options seeing that I am "critically low" or "below normal" on a number of trace elements such as Iodine, Zinc, Barium, Boron, Manganese, Iron, Vanadium, etc. I have never dosed, just using kalkwasser, but I did pick up a couple dosers from Isaac last year and I've got a bunch of ESV B-Ionic 2 part laying around. Does this product sufficiently (or at all for that matter)increase any of these listed on the packaging? Obviously it won't be as controlled as following the exact amounts shown to add and also being that my dKH and CA are within "normal" levels, am I even safe to use 2 part if I continue to use kalkwasser? Part 1: Carbonate, sodium, bicarbonate, sulfate, borate, fluoride, iodide, molybdate, vanadate, selenate. Part 2: chloride, calcium, magnesium, potassium, bromide, strontium, lithium, barium, rubidium, iron, zinc, nickel, copper, manganese, cobalt, chromium. The results also recommend using multi trace element products like ATI Daily Traces A which if used would lessen (or even eliminate) the need to dose for those included in that particular formula, correct? Just a little confused and overwhelmed here so any "easy" multi trace element products that will help would be ideal rather than individually chasing numbers for Iodine, Zinc, Barium, Boron, Manganese, Iron, Vanadium, etc. 2026-02-18-363783-ati.lab.results.pdf

Not sure how many people have had this problem, but one of my MP10's is doing this thing where when the power goes off (Apex feed cycle shutting off outlet/power outage, etc) it takes much longer to turn back on and occasionally will not at all. lights flashing red, yellow and a white pulse. Reset procedures do nothing. Power cycling does nothing. And if/when it does come back on, the Mobius app always says it's out of sync, and to "tap here" to resync, so there is definitely "something" wrong. I was just on a chat with Ecotech and they basically said to send it in for repair or buy a new dryside. So for giggles I dropped it on the floor from a few inches up and plugged it back in and voila it actually turned back on when I plugged it back in. Of course whenever I change my water or otherwise turn off this pump, there is a not small chance that this will happen again. I did buy this used, so not the end of the world if it needs repair I guess, but just wondering if anyone else has had this issue and did buying a new dryside completely resolve or is it possibly the controller part?

Good read Tom. I'm definitely going in eyes open as I've used kalk in the past with decent results, but clearly need to keep an eye on what's currently going in as I absolutely do not want an over dose. I am picking up a couple more alk hungry sps this weekend, so hopefully that helps too, lol. I did buy Isaac's doser's a couple weeks ago and if the kalk is too much, I'm prepared to switch over to 2 part pretty quickly. I did just get a DKH result that wasn't trending upwards today, so I may actually have lucked out and leveled off now. Finger's crossed...

That's a good idea, I didn't think of turning off the stirrer motor. I may try that. However, I may have a positive update as I just now did a test and my dKH was 8.9, and my top off just happened about 30 minutes previous. This is the first time that the number did not increase, so perhaps I am going to settle somewhere between 8-9 when all is said and done.

Yeah, that's kind of the point of the post. I definitely see that constantly rising levels of any type are problematic. I'm just hoping that since the stirrer has only been on a week that this is the "strongest" it's going to be and will slowly just "settle" at some point I'm comfortable with (hopefully shortly) so I can just go back to relying on my numbers not getting out of whack over a week without me realizing. Would adding top off water manually here and there to reduce the ATO usage really do anything other than delay the inevitable rise in dKH until I just cleaned out the stirrer with a less potent solution? Or are you implying the solution will weaken enough where this is a good time buffer of sorts? I do plan on watching the dKH level every day this week and see if I notice any kind of levelling off before making the call to take the stirrer offline this weekend and washing it out and starting again in a few days to get back down towards 8-9, with half of the suggested kalk powder and see how that goes.

It is pretty new, but it already has a decent bit of coral. Three torches (2x heads each), Four Hammers (2-4x heads each), One 2x head Bowerbanki, three Acan frags, two gonioporas, one alveopora, one 8x head duncan, one funghia, one tubbs stellata monti mini colony, one forest fire digi frag, and a couple random plating and encrusting monti frags. This started with me losing a torch and corals not looking so great when I discovered my dKH was at 6 and for who knows how long as I couldn't figure out exactly where I was with the Red Sea test and the moment I got the Hanna, I've been able to track MUCH more efficiently. I'm hoping that over the next few days it just hovers around 9 which I'd be happy with, but I'm just trying to get ahead of what happens when it just keeps rising and rising a decimal point or 2 each day. I just don't want to pull it off and dwindle back down to where I started as that solves nothing.

Unfortunately I can't set it on a timer as it's directly connected up to my ATO and gravity fed. As far as PH goes, aside from the immediate spikes (reading up to 8.5 or so for a minute give or take, where the top off enters the baffle chamber ahead of my return and ph probe) it's a steady 8.1-8.2 all day. And there are definitely plenty of people using kalkwasser full time, myself included for years on end. I've actually never dosed 2 part since I didn't need it, but was hoping to incorporate the kalk AND 2 part this time around to promote growth.

It is administered via top off. I'm using the recommended 1/2 cup of kalk per the Avast instructions supposedly added every 2 weeks. I will monitor dKH until this Saturday when I would in theory add more and if it hasn't stopped rising, I will not add another half cup and maybe wait another week to only add 1/4 cup.....

I'm not dosing yet. Just the kalkwasser. I was tracking usage to start dosing eventually, but clearly going higher than expected....

I don't have anything monitoring dKH, so I'm doing it via Hanna pretty much every couple few days. I honestly think it should eventually sit at a number within a few days or so, but I do need to have an emergency cut off time where I need to pull off the kalk stirrer if I don't see that leveling off. Do you think I should watch for a certain # like 11.5 or 12 and just yank off the stirrer?

Are the IM socks designed to be single use only? I've always reused mine previously. I just washed them in machine with vinegar to get them "clean" without worrying about soap.

So, my Kalkstirrer went live 5/31 and brought my dKH from 6.5 (measured 5/31, day after water change and before bringing kalk online) to 7.1 on 6/1, 7.8 on 6/2, 8.1 on 6/3, 8.5 on 6/6 (directly before water change) and 9.0 today (6/9). It's being administered through ATO and pH has averaged 8.16 per Apex. Just curious what folks have experienced when utilizing kalkwasser? As you can see, my #'s just keep steadily increasing. When will it effectively level out as I can't imagine it's just going to keep rising past 12 (or is it?) FWIW, I ran this stirrer on my old tank 10 years ago and never had any issues, though I did not really test for dKH regularly either if much at all.

I have had fish and corals for about a month and everything seems mostly fine minus the torch I lost due to my low dkh. Pretty sure it was my bad as I did a trifecta of donts mixing my Red Sea Coral Pro (mixed too long, with heat, and stored for 3-4 weeks and did three weeks of water changes with that batch). I'm just unclear how I've not once (until yesterday) shown any nitrates.... I am starting up my dkh replenishment plan in the next couple days.

So up until TODAY, I have tested 0 nitrates and phosphates with API/Red Sea/Hanna (tank started April 1 with live sand and some water) . I just got my Hanna checkers last week and tested 0 so I decided to reef roid the tank every day and still tested only .3 Nitrate and got up to .1 phosphate. I have also been experiencing low dkh (6 last week and after a few water changes up to 7 today). Should I just feed more or dose nitrate? I have just started setting up my old Avast kalk stirrer and picked up dosers for Ca/Alk, but I did read some stuff online about dosing nitrates increases Alk.....