CA and ALK Help needed

[serge]

eutrophication?

i just did a quick google on alk and ca hard to maintain; old tank syndrome? Thats what i found I am no expert.

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6...up-205062.html

It is hard to say. The symptoms are similar but all soft corals, poci doing OK, chalice, are doing just fine but the birds nest is always naked, not bleached just no polyps out but i can tell polyps are there just come out very little. Plus I dont have any cyano, only green hair started showing up a lot more than used to. I cannot get any pods or other critters that live inside refugium. Crabs and snails are fine.

In my fuge i ran chaeto until it started dying off so I removed it, since then my sandbed in fuge is pretty clean without any mircos. my skimmer works but recently has not produced anything but does when there are things that need to be removed (i hope).

Here is what I think, and let me know if i'm talking crazy. My overflow pipes, the walls, compartments behind DT, and rubble inside there (it's a biocube), my hose to chiller, all have calcium build up from calcification i had couple of times. I soaked pumps and powerheads in vinegar and cleaned those. The sand in some areas is hard and became like a rock but breakable. Could all that buildup somehow take calcium from water?

I actually want to remove all my coral and fish, wash the sand and rock as much as i can, clean all the buildup, and sort of start over. I'm just afraid making things worse than they are.

Here are some pics, sorry no daylight pics

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[serge]

Just double checking, you're adding part 1 aka alkalinity first right? You listed mag then calcium. 60 mL is a lot of part 1 alk to add are you monitoring your pH that must be a massive swing. I have 53 gallons net volume and I only dose 15.7 mL of alk per day. Also it doesn't make sense so I'm guessing it's a typo but how do you go from 930PM 6.5 dkh, add 60 mL and end up at 4.5 dkh at 10PM..?

Might I suggest reading this article a few times as well, I still reference it from time to time.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry

Yes I wish it was a typo. In my tests I found that 30ml of ALK would raise dKH by 1.5. I would add this much in the morning and in the evening it would back down by that much. So within 8-10 hrs those 30ml of ALK would just disappear. Same goes for CA. So as much as I wish it was a typo, it is not. And since the original post, it looks like it increased the consumption upto 45-50ml a day and no precipitation. go figure

[serge]

What is your ph? If your ph isn't right, that will screw with the tank's ability to utilize calcium. Also, I would switch to BRS supplements instead of B-Ionic and see what happens. The BRS supplements are exactly what they say, nothing more, nothing less. Calcium chloride and soda ash. Could be a bad batch of chemicals, bad test kits, or another chemical type issue in the water. If you get some Scripps water, test some in a bucket, add the B-Ionic, and test again. See if the bucket of Scripps water exhibits the same characteristics that your tank does. If it does, then it is your tests or B-Ionic. If it is different then the problem is within the tank.

I tried BRS, B_Ionic, and Brightwell, but all those started to be too expensive with the amount i had to put in. So i switched to Randy's recipe for both CA/ALK. I tested sea water and other members' tanks with different kits. My kits were fine in the end. So the problem is definitely with my tank. Surprisingly everything is doing great in there as long as i add the 2 parts. Thinking about just washing sand and all the pipes, cleaning all that CA buildup in them from previous 2 snows i had before my tank developed this hunger for 2 parts.

[Livinlocal]

If your sand is turning so hard that it is like a rock, it is something to do with your pH being too low, what is causing it; I don't know, but it is definitely a low pH issue if your sand is sticking together, because what is happening is the sand is starting to dissolve because of the low pH and is melting together.

What's your ph?

[serge]

If your sand is turning so hard that it is like a rock, it is something to do with your pH being too low, what is causing it; I don't know, but it is definitely a low pH issue if your sand is sticking together, because what is happening is the sand is starting to dissolve because of the low pH and is melting together.

What's your ph?

Haven't done a Ph test yet, but if I can't keep ALK at normal then i would assume ph is down or swings like crazy.

[Livinlocal]

Yeah I'm almost positive your ph is waaaay too low. Clumping of the sand makes it a sure sign

[Leonard]

had same issue with my nano tank. and my ph was way to low. so i started to use kalkwasser solved problems and keeps Ca. in check.

[Leonard]

here is a link for problem solving PH issues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPiPZlMGzlA

[serge]

I decided to remove all sand and rock, replace the rock, i don't like the pieces anyway, and go BB. For the bottom will use Polyethylene Plastic aka cutting board and in the fuge will use mud in the shallow containers for easy removal if needed, maybe split half sand half mud. I'm tired of of tank's current condition so the project starts next weekend. This weekend will be doing a lot of planning.

Needed this done anyway. Would like to eliminate my 90 degree angle on overflow pipes and replace them with hose or 45 degree elbows. And some other minor things that I wanted to redo from rookie mistakes.

It's gon be huge and probably time consuming.