Oregonic Posted May 13, 2019 Share Posted May 13, 2019 Oh boy, just checked my ALK level and got a reading of 5.5, checked again same reading. I dose Aquaforest 123 and had run the jug bone dry. Swapped it out with a fresh one immediately and primed the dosing line. Since the ALK was so low I knew Cal would be as well, 295ppm. Everything in the tank looks super happy. My ALK usually hovers right around 7.8 - 8.2. My tank is a Red Sea e170 with a sump so about 48ish gallons of water and I was dosing 50ml a day of each part of the Aquaforest 123 to keep tank stable. Should I just continue to dose this same amount, will it slowly bring levels back to where they should be? Or should I increase the dosing for a few days? If I should increase the dosing by what percentage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted May 13, 2019 Author Share Posted May 13, 2019 Here is a photo I took last night for instagram, I cant believe my levels are so low and everything looks pretty happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted May 13, 2019 Share Posted May 13, 2019 I'm not an expert on this topic, but my understanding is that if you continue dosing the same 50ml per day that is just enough to maintain your coral uptake demand and your alk level would remain low. I'd probably increase it by about 10% - 20% for the next several days to slowly work your way back up to your desired level of 7.8 - 8.2, then revert back to 50ml daily. You don't want to do a large dose all at once. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The ReefBox Posted May 13, 2019 Share Posted May 13, 2019 You can safely move your Alk 1 full number per day and calcium 100 ppm so I would continue to add so that you are raising it by no more than those. The slower the better esp if your corals are. It all pissed off already. So Alk can in theory go to 6.5 in one and so on 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted May 13, 2019 Author Share Posted May 13, 2019 8 hours ago, SuncrestReef said: I'm not an expert on this topic, but my understanding is that if you continue dosing the same 50ml per day that is just enough to maintain your coral uptake demand and your alk level would remain low. I'd probably increase it by about 10% - 20% for the next several days to slowly work your way back up to your desired level of 7.8 - 8.2, then revert back to 50ml daily. You don't want to do a large dose all at once. That was my initial thought too, that continuing dosing the sam amount would just hold it steady, but I thought I had read at one point that is not quite how it works. Im going to up the dosing from 4 daily doses of each component of 12.5ml to 4 daily doses of 13.5 ml and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deuce00 Posted May 13, 2019 Share Posted May 13, 2019 Your tank looks great 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted May 13, 2019 Author Share Posted May 13, 2019 14 minutes ago, Deuce00 said: Your tank looks great Thanks, hopefully this bump in the road doesn’t hurt anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted May 14, 2019 Author Share Posted May 14, 2019 Well 21 hours later and Im up to 5.9 dkh. Seems to be a decent pace for raising back to tanks stable level. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted May 17, 2019 Author Share Posted May 17, 2019 Well 4 days into getting the alk and cal back inline and Im up to 7.0. Today is the first day I have seen any visible stress to any of the coral. My duncans are partially closed up but they are cry babies. Im shocked they were fine until today they normally are the first coral to alert me when something is out of whack even in the slightest bit. My plating red monti has lost it white ring so its not growing. I had a jump from 6.4 to 7.0 in about a 20 hour window so I backed off the dosing a little. Probably because the monti has decided to stop growing due to the swing. Got my fingers crossed everything stays healthy and readjusts to normal chemistry quickly when I get it back there. It sucks I am usually very good at testing alk every few days, I slip up for about a week and a half and thats when the alk drops. I guess thats this hobby for ya everything goes well till you slip for a few days or go out of town lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted May 22, 2019 Author Share Posted May 22, 2019 Well alk is up to 7.7 but cal has jumped to 500. Should I continue to dose equally since I am using the balling method with Aquaforest 123 or should I dose slightly more of part 2 then part 1 for a few days? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 12 minutes ago, Oregonic said: Well alk is up to 7.7 but cal has jumped to 500. Should I continue to dose equally since I am using the balling method with Aquaforest 123 or should I dose slightly more of part 2 then part 1 for a few days? I have always dosed calcium and alk in separate amounts based on each test parameter. Currently I need to dose about 30% more calcium than alkalinity to keep my levels at 420 ppm and 8.2 dKH. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrabbyCrabs Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 I second suncrests recommendation. I screwed up my tank by dosing equal parts of b-ionic when I only needed alk. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted May 22, 2019 Author Share Posted May 22, 2019 34 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said: I have always dosed calcium and alk in separate amounts based on each test parameter. Currently I need to dose about 30% more calcium than alkalinity to keep my levels at 420 ppm and 8.2 dKH. Thats what I used to do but it seemed I was always having to make adjustments. When I switched to the balling method I stuck with equal amounts and everything stabled out within a few weeks and I only have had to make a small adjustment evenly every few months. That being said my alk to cal ratio has not been this far off from one another since I started the balling method. Im at a toss up, I dont want to have to start chasing numbers like I used to do when I dosed separate amounts of alk and cal, but I am unsure if it will balance out without a manual correction. Maybe I should just do 20% water change now that everything is close to being inline with what it was before the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 Thankfully my new Trident is adjusting the dosing automatically for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted May 22, 2019 Author Share Posted May 22, 2019 1 hour ago, SuncrestReef said: Thankfully my new Trident is adjusting the dosing automatically for me! Your spoiled 😂😂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 19 minutes ago, Oregonic said: Your spoiled 😂😂 I do spoil myself. It's only money, right? 💸 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimusprime3605 Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 I do spoil myself. It's only money, right? [emoji389]It's only money, "IF" you have the money[emoji6]Sent from Atlantis 🤙 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted May 28, 2019 Author Share Posted May 28, 2019 Well a few increased doses of ALK and a 20% water change and everything is back inline and stable for a few days now 😃 Cal may be 10 ppm off from the old stable but I will take it. I had zero casualties and everything appeared healthy then I thought such a big dip in stability would have caused. Even my first round of frags that I have ever made about 2 weeks prior to the incident survived and have grown a little during the dip. Thanks everyone for their advice. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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