22bfan March 23, 2015 Share March 23, 2015 I'm fairly new to reef keeping and am noticing some strange behavior with my dKH readings. Details regarding my setup are as follows: BioCube 29 Highly Modified D120 LED Array (Not sure what specific model these are but chinese D120 looks similar). Actinic spectrum @ 50%, white spectrum @ 15%. Lights on from 8am - 8pm. Stock filtration and horizontal baffles removed and replaced with "InTank" 2nd chamber acrylic media basket with filter floss up top, a bag of Chemi-Pure Elite and a bag of Purigen. Also in the 2nd chamber is an Tank Fuge Basket with a ball of chaeto (lights on the chaeto from 10pm-6am). Stock return pump replaced with a CA-MJ1200 Tunze ATO Reef Octopus BH1000 hang on back skimmer (HUGE!!) Hydor Koralia Nano 425 I have about a 1" sand bed, live rock, and basic corals (candy canes, toadstool leather, zoa's, frogspawn, pulsing xenias, kenya tree) covering maybe 5% of the rock. I do 2-4 gallon water changes ever week to week and a half and use RO-DI water with reef crystals. I occasionally feed the coral with Coral Frenzy, maybe once a week. After water change my parameters are as follows: dKH: 8.3 Mag: 1650 Cal: 450 I add about 20ml of Fluval's Alkalinity supplement. This bumps dKH up in the 10's. A week later my parameters are the following: dKH: 8.4 Mag: 1400 Cal: 440 Seems strange that Alkalinity is dropping so quickly but Magnesium and Calcium are barely effected. I'd like to see my Zoa's and other corals grow a little more rapidly as well as maintain stable enough parameters to add SPS varieties. Any comments/help appreciated!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 23, 2015 Share March 23, 2015 Under normal circumstances, alkalinity declines 2.8 dKH for every 20 ppm of calcium consumption. In cases where there's a lot of nitrate export taking place through water changes (rather than bacterial action), alkalinity can decline 2.8 dKH for every 10 ppm of calcium consumption. What you're seeing is perfectly normal (given that all tests have a certain amount of error in them). Alk will always seem like it's declining faster than everything else, but that's mostly because the test sensitivity is higher and the base levels are not as high as calcium or magnesium. If you're supplementing alkalinity, you might want to supplement calcium as well because the two are typically used up according to the proportion I listed above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
22bfan March 23, 2015 Author Share March 23, 2015 Very good to know Origami!! Thanks. I remember reading somewhere that you shouldn't dose Alkalinity and Calcium at the same time. Any recommendations for a dosing schedule? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkonen March 23, 2015 Share March 23, 2015 Minimum of 1/2 hour apart into high flow for dosing Cal/Alk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
22bfan March 23, 2015 Author Share March 23, 2015 Thanks Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime March 23, 2015 Share March 23, 2015 Any pictures of your setup!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami March 24, 2015 Share March 24, 2015 Minimum of 1/2 hour apart into high flow for dosing Cal/Alk. That's the typical advice and works just fine. I'll often dose them sequentially in two separate high flow areas of my tank.For example: One in the sump near the intake of my main pump and a second in the tank near an overflow. The objective is to have the two components mix well and dilute, so that two locally concentrated areas don't meet up and form precipitate. If you drip both in at the same time, you can introduce them simultaneously, too, for the same reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lutz123 March 24, 2015 Share March 24, 2015 (edited) Interesting that you are needing to dose at all with those corals. I would imagine that, unless they are huge colonies, water changes alone should allow for plenty of growth. Nanos are simple if you allow them to be, though you may be looking at slightly larger changes. Just my opinion of course... Edit to add - Also, it's alot easier with nanos to cause imbalance when dosing. Edited March 24, 2015 by lutz123 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
22bfan March 25, 2015 Author Share March 25, 2015 Lutz - Agreed. I thought water changes every week and a half would suffice. And no i don't have a huge colony of anything. YHSublime - I need to figure out how to best take pictures of my setup then I'll post some pics Origami - Thanks for the advice!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k March 26, 2015 Share March 26, 2015 8.3 dkh is fine- no need to go to 10.stability is more important than chasing some mystical number. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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