ESV Two-Part Mystery

[CoralDanimal]

Hi Randy,

Long-time fan of your posts and contributions to the hobby! I have a puzzle I was hoping you could resolve. First, I want to note this is not urgent so while there was a bit of an emergency, I have the tank back on a good path (I hope).

I have a Red Sea Reefer 425 (~112 gallons). It's mainly SPS so the daily Alk/Calcium/Magnesium intake is meaningful. I dose 4L of fully saturated kalkwasser per day and then 90mL each of ESV two-part with 40mL of ESV magnesium per day. I was starting to go through the 1-gallon containers quite quickly so I recently purchased the 4-gallon ESV packages.

Last week I refilled by Alk/Calcium containers (I use 4L space saver containers) in preparation for a 3-day vacation. When I got back yesterday, the first thing I did was test my alkalinity and it was at 5.2 dKH (I usually run it at 7.7-8.3). I used to multiple test kits to verify and they all came back within +/- 0.2 dKH of one another.

Next I checked my Neptune DOS and I noticed the tubing had come off of the Alk dosing head. Upon further inspection, there was a blockage in the dosing line that caused the issue (DOS tried to push Alk in, but due to blockage something had to give and the dosing line came off). The solid white blockage wasn't just in the dosing line from the DOS to the tank, but a similar calcification was nearly blocking the entire intake tubing from the container to the DOS as well.

I got a fresh container, replaced all of the tubing, and started to very slowly bring the alkalinity back up so the tank is back on track and so far, so good with the corals.

Now for the riddle - why did the Alkalinity dosing lines completely calcify? My first thought was: when I refilled the Alkalinity container, did I fill it with the calcium supplement accidentally and the two chemically reacted? There was some calcification in the bottom of the container and when I manually dosed a few mLs of what was in there, it didn't cause the milky white cloudiness of when I typically dose alkalinity two-part. I went to my 4-gallon jugs and the same amount was missing from the alkalinity jug as calcium so it doesn't appear as though I did this, but it's also possible I simply topped off my alk jug with calcium and vice versa with the other.

I don't want to throw out 2 gallons of additive, but part of me feels like it's the smart thing to do. Is there any way to "test" or reverse engineer what's going on in each jug? For example, I know it's not pure alkalinity additive otherwise it would turn cloudy white when I dose it, which it doesn't but I took 0.5L of water, tested the dKH, added 5mL of the mystery solution, tested dKH again, and indeed the dKH did rise. Should I just toss it or is there something I can do to better understand what I have in these jugs now?

Thanks for any potential help you can offer!

 

[Lavey29]

Hi Randy,

Long-time fan of your posts and contributions to the hobby! I have a puzzle I was hoping you could resolve. First, I want to note this is not urgent so while there was a bit of an emergency, I have the tank back on a good path (I hope).

I have a Red Sea Reefer 425 (~112 gallons). It's mainly SPS so the daily Alk/Calcium/Magnesium intake is meaningful. I dose 4L of fully saturated kalkwasser per day and then 90mL each of ESV two-part with 40mL of ESV magnesium per day. I was starting to go through the 1-gallon containers quite quickly so I recently purchased the 4-gallon ESV packages.

Last week I refilled by Alk/Calcium containers (I use 4L space saver containers) in preparation for a 3-day vacation. When I got back yesterday, the first thing I did was test my alkalinity and it was at 5.2 dKH (I usually run it at 7.7-8.3). I used to multiple test kits to verify and they all came back within +/- 0.2 dKH of one another.

Next I checked my Neptune DOS and I noticed the tubing had come off of the Alk dosing head. Upon further inspection, there was a blockage in the dosing line that caused the issue (DOS tried to push Alk in, but due to blockage something had to give and the dosing line came off). The solid white blockage wasn't just in the dosing line from the DOS to the tank, but a similar calcification was nearly blocking the entire intake tubing from the container to the DOS as well.

I got a fresh container, replaced all of the tubing, and started to very slowly bring the alkalinity back up so the tank is back on track and so far, so good with the corals.

Now for the riddle - why did the Alkalinity dosing lines completely calcify? My first thought was: when I refilled the Alkalinity container, did I fill it with the calcium supplement accidentally and the two chemically reacted? There was some calcification in the bottom of the container and when I manually dosed a few mLs of what was in there, it didn't cause the milky white cloudiness of when I typically dose alkalinity two-part. I went to my 4-gallon jugs and the same amount was missing from the alkalinity jug as calcium so it doesn't appear as though I did this, but it's also possible I simply topped off my alk jug with calcium and vice versa with the other.

I don't want to throw out 2 gallons of additive, but part of me feels like it's the smart thing to do. Is there any way to "test" or reverse engineer what's going on in each jug? For example, I know it's not pure alkalinity additive otherwise it would turn cloudy white when I dose it, which it doesn't but I took 0.5L of water, tested the dKH, added 5mL of the mystery solution, tested dKH again, and indeed the dKH did rise. Should I just toss it or is there something I can do to better understand what I have in these jugs now?

Thanks for any potential help you can offer!

I know you are waiting for Randy to reply but I dose the same 2 part on a much smaller scale and I had my dosing line get blocked inside also with calcified alkalinity.

 

[CoralDanimal]

I know you are waiting for Randy to reply but I dose the same 2 part on a much smaller scale and I had my dosing line get blocked inside also with calcified alkalinity.

Interesting. Did you figure out what it was? Or did you do anything recently before the block occurred (ex: refilled your alkalinity dosing container?).

 

[Lavey29]

Interesting. Did you figure out what it was? Or did you do anything recently before the block occurred (ex: refilled your alkalinity dosing container?).

It's apparently common for all to calcify like that particularly on the tips of the dosers. Some people aim their ATO to dispense over the top of their dosing lines to keep the residual crud from building up. I just soak mine in RODI every few weeks and clean it off now.

 

[CoralDanimal]

It's apparently common for all to calcify like that particularly on the tips of the dosers. Some people aim their ATO to dispense over the top of their dosing lines to keep the residual crud from building up. I just soak mine in RODI every few weeks and clean it off now.

Yes it's common for this to happen at the tip of the dosing line going into the tank/sump (I have to clean mine off on a regular basis too), but what's interesting about this is that the calcification didn't happen at the tip. Basically the full dosing line calcified going from the dosing container to the DOS and from the DOS to the tank/sump, which leads me to believe it wasn't the normal type of calcification. Also, the fact that it looked like there was calcification in the dosing container itself makes me think either a.) it was user error when refilling (I topped off the alk container with calcium) or b.) maybe when I cleaned the alk container, the leftover tap water or something reacted with the alkalinity additive.

 

[Lavey29]

Yes it's common for this to happen at the tip of the dosing line going into the tank/sump (I have to clean mine off on a regular basis too), but what's interesting about this is that the calcification didn't happen at the tip. Basically the full dosing line calcified going from the dosing container to the DOS and from the DOS to the tank/sump, which leads me to believe it wasn't the normal type of calcification. Also, the fact that it looked like there was calcification in the dosing container itself makes me think either a.) it was user error when refilling (I topped off the alk container with calcium) or b.) maybe when I cleaned the alk container, the leftover tap water or something reacted with the alkalinity additive.

Sounds more like precipitation instead. My dosing line had about 1/4 inch blockage inside too but nothing compared to yours but I'm going to check it now again.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks!

Certainly swapping dosing pumps accidentally would cause precipitation in the lines, but alk supplements are also often near saturation and if the solution gets cool/cold, precipitation can happen in them.

If that's it, you can keep them warmer, or add some extra water to them.

Evaporation from the drop end can also lead to precipitation, and splashing of tank water onto the line could lead to calcium carbonate formation on either dose tip.