May 23, 2018
Tim Harris
wrote
We recently purchased Reef Endurance supplements for our 90 gal display tank. It also has a 29 gal display refugium along with a 26 gal sump (the sump only maintains about 15 gal of water at any given time). There's 60 lbs of live sand and 80 lbs of dry rock in the tank. I've been told that it should equate to about 119-120 gal of system water.
With that being said, we're trying to bring our alkalinity up from 8.4 to about 11. Considering the calculator suggested no more than a 1 dKH increase per day, we changed our desired alkalinity to 9.4 when using the calculator with the expectation of adding the same 4.76 ml of Reef Endurance per day. 30 hours after adding the first 4.76 ml to the main display tank, we saw the alkalinity drop to 8.2 dKH. Did we somehow misuse the calculator? HELP?
Note: We have 0 corals in the system at this time. There are 2 clownfish in the display refugium along with some macro algae (sea lettuce). There's 1 clownfish, 1 dwarf angelfish, and 4 Chromis in the main display.
With that being said, we're trying to bring our alkalinity up from 8.4 to about 11. Considering the calculator suggested no more than a 1 dKH increase per day, we changed our desired alkalinity to 9.4 when using the calculator with the expectation of adding the same 4.76 ml of Reef Endurance per day. 30 hours after adding the first 4.76 ml to the main display tank, we saw the alkalinity drop to 8.2 dKH. Did we somehow misuse the calculator? HELP?
Note: We have 0 corals in the system at this time. There are 2 clownfish in the display refugium along with some macro algae (sea lettuce). There's 1 clownfish, 1 dwarf angelfish, and 4 Chromis in the main display.
Reply
5 Answers
May 23, 2018
Carlos
agent
wrote
You are not taking into consideration the regular use of Alkalinity by your corals and inhabitants. If you had a tank with no corals and just water, then yes, there would not no intake at all so adding the same amount after 24 hours would increase your alkalinity the same but since that is not the case, you need to add and then 24 hrs later test. That way you know your daily tank consumption. Then you need to add back your daily tank consumption plus the extra to raise the alkalinity.
May 23, 2018
Tim Harris
wrote
Thanks for the quick response Carlos.
Maybe I misled you in the description. Let me restate from my original posting... We have zero (0) corals in our tank.
All we have are the fish listed above, 2 shrimp, a few crabs and about 4 snails.
Maybe I misled you in the description. Let me restate from my original posting... We have zero (0) corals in our tank.
All we have are the fish listed above, 2 shrimp, a few crabs and about 4 snails.
May 23, 2018
Carlos
agent
wrote
Your tank is still consuming Alkalinity somehow. You need to account for that regular daily consumption.
May 23, 2018
Tim Harris
wrote
Hmm... "somehow" is very open ended?
My wife and I are new to this hobby. We spent 7 months reading,ordering parts, reviewing, forum searching, and watching YouTube videos before we even had the tank cycled (Jan 1, 2018).
One more factor is that we have some macro algae (mostly sea lettuce) in the refugium which is lit by a Kessil H380 light tuned to the "grow" selection. It runs for about 5 hours per night and is about 9 inches from the top of the water (about 12 inches above the actual macro algae). The refugium still gets a fair amount of hair algae growing on the rocks though.
There are no other additives except for 60 ml of Probiotic Marine Formula every two weeks which is used to keep the fish healthy and to avoid ich or any other parasitic diseases from surviving or finding their way into the system.
Would you be able to provide me with some ideas as to where to start searching for that Alk consumption?
My wife and I are new to this hobby. We spent 7 months reading,ordering parts, reviewing, forum searching, and watching YouTube videos before we even had the tank cycled (Jan 1, 2018).
One more factor is that we have some macro algae (mostly sea lettuce) in the refugium which is lit by a Kessil H380 light tuned to the "grow" selection. It runs for about 5 hours per night and is about 9 inches from the top of the water (about 12 inches above the actual macro algae). The refugium still gets a fair amount of hair algae growing on the rocks though.
There are no other additives except for 60 ml of Probiotic Marine Formula every two weeks which is used to keep the fish healthy and to avoid ich or any other parasitic diseases from surviving or finding their way into the system.
Would you be able to provide me with some ideas as to where to start searching for that Alk consumption?
May 24, 2018
Carlos
agent
wrote
I would suggest online. Are you testing your alkalinity? If you add solution and then wait 3-4 hours and test again, did the Alkalinity go up? If it did, then the supplement is working correctly and "somehow" your tank is consuming it. How it is I cannot tell you as we do not have access to the tank water or the tank specs and even then, every tank is different.