Is my alk consumption normal? Is there a more efficient way to control it?

[crappie]

Setup is a 40 breeder several corals on the left with mainly monti and gsp on the right. There was more variety on the right but the gsp grew over it. Tip on gsp…don’t put it where you don’t want it !!!

Now to the question…

My dosing seems to constantly going up and now I’m using a gallon of soda ash every 2 months! Dosing is 40 ml of soda ash every day to keep it around 8dkh. Calcium carbonate is the same at 40ml/day.
Does it seem normal for a tank this size with this amount of corals?

Is there a more efficient way to maintain the alk and ca?

I do weekly 5g water changes with the cheap Instant ocean salt.

 

[exnisstech]

I can't say normal because IME each tank is different. If your testing is accurate and dosing the amount you are keeps things stable then I would say it's normal for that tank.
As far as a more efficient way perhaps all for reef? I use it on my sps tank and am very happy with it. I use esv 2 part in two other tanks but really like the ease of using AFR and may switch them over when my 2 part is gone, I haven't decided yet.

 

[Lavey29]

Have you verified salinity with a calibrated instrument? Magnesium is the buffer for alk and calcium. Have you tested Magnesium?

 

[crazyfishmom]

I’ve been an AFR girl since I started dosing and roll my eyes every time someone tells me I should try anything else. I have 4 tanks, all maintained using AFR, from a softy/anemone tank, to an LPS dominant to an SPS dominant to a mixed reef. All doing great. I don’t use dosers so this is almost mindless. I throw stuff in the tank once a day and alkalinity releases slowly over the course of the day. Love it.

 

[crappie]

Have you verified salinity with a calibrated instrument? Magnesium is the buffer for alk and calcium. Have you tested Magnesium?

Mg sucks to test so I only do it monthly but it stays at 1300-1360 with dosing at 4 ml/day of mag. Salinity is tested with a refractometer calibrated to 0 with rodi so it’s not the best calibration. I mix and keep the salinity to 1.026 using the refractometer.

 

[exnisstech]

Mg sucks to test so I only do it monthly but it stays at 1300-1360 with dosing at 4 ml/day of mag. Salinity is tested with a refractometer calibrated to 0 with rodi so it’s not the best calibration. I mix and keep the salinity to 1.026 using the refractometer.

Yes using rodi to calibrate the refractometer isn't ideal. RHF has a recipe for diy calibration fluid using table salt. I've been using it a couple of years. I've verified my accuracy mixing it with a TM hydrometer. The link is Here if you want to check it out.

 

[exnisstech]

I’ve been an AFR girl since I started dosing and roll my eyes every time someone tells me I should try anything else. I have 4 tanks, all maintained using AFR, from a softy/anemone tank, to an LPS dominant to an SPS dominant to a mixed reef. All doing great. I don’t use dosers so this is almost mindless. I throw stuff in the tank once a day and alkalinity releases slowly over the course of the day. Love it.

Ooo I never though about manually dosing it. That sure makes switching the other two tanks appealing. I don't know if its just coincidence, tank maturity, AFR or something else but my sticks sure have taken off over the last several months which is when I started AFR.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Ooo I never though about manually dosing it. That sure makes switching the other two tanks appealing. I don't know if its just coincidence, tank maturity, AFR or something else but my sticks sure have taken off over the last several months which is when I started AFR.

I am too much of a nervous Nelly to trust dosers so having it release slowly and then the maintenance of most trace elements to boot has been great. I’ve been meaning to send out an ICP test but since the corals look good I haven’t. Mostly curious to see whether there’s anything that I should be adding.

Have you sent out any ICPs?

 

[exnisstech]

I am too much of a nervous Nelly to trust dosers so having it release slowly and then the maintenance of most trace elements to boot has been great. I’ve been meaning to send out an ICP test but since the corals look good I haven’t. Mostly curious to see whether there’s anything that I should be adding.

Have you sent out any ICPs?

I'm not a fan of automation but was forgetting to dose manually so I added a couple of dosers. Now that I'm retired my mind is not so occupied so I may end up pulling them before I regret it. One thing I learned as an auto tech for 30+ years is everything will fail it's just a question of when and will it be catastrophic or just an inconvenience.
I've only done one icp several years ago and any confidence was destroyed when two rodi samples pulled from the same container at the same time came back with very different results. Probably the only time I would consider one again would be if something strange was going on that I couldn't figure out. If that happens I will not use ATI.

 

[Lavey29]

I am too much of a nervous Nelly to trust dosers so having it release slowly and then the maintenance of most trace elements to boot has been great. I’ve been meaning to send out an ICP test but since the corals look good I haven’t. Mostly curious to see whether there’s anything that I should be adding.

Have you sent out any ICPs?

I've been auto dosing for 3 years with no issues but I do hand dose trace once we week. ICP test every 4 months.

 

[crazyfishmom]

I think dosers work, don’t get me wrong and I’m sure plenty of people use them successfully every day. I am a research scientist and oversee an analytical development lab where I would say 90% of failures are associated with either machine error or machine error caused by human error. Most of the time, human error alone is not sufficient to cause catastrophic failures but machine error in the form of overdosing or under dosing can be extremely significant and this is using highly precise instrumentation and not our hobby grade dosers. AFR makes it pretty painless. If I had to dose several different items daily I might reconsider and get over it but for now I’ll stick to my controlling type A mindset and continue dosing by hand. Every now and then I you with the idea only to recant. Maybe in a few months I will revisit again!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

IMO, AFR is especially well suited to once a day dosing, relative to other methods, since the alk is only released slowly.

 

[Etkini]

If you're using AFR in a doser make sure you either clean the hose and end often or put the end in the water. It will dry, clog and blow your dosing line if not.

 

[GARRIGA]

I’ve been an AFR girl since I started dosing and roll my eyes every time someone tells me I should try anything else. I have 4 tanks, all maintained using AFR, from a softy/anemone tank, to an LPS dominant to an SPS dominant to a mixed reef. All doing great. I don’t use dosers so this is almost mindless. I throw stuff in the tank once a day and alkalinity releases slowly over the course of the day. Love it.

Once a day how I was taught in the 90s with Kalk. I'm home everyday therefore thinking of hand dosing once a day AFR and avoid the concern with dosing pumps. Keep it simple and if I go away for the weekend doubt a couple of days going to crash the tank and can't find any literature stating elevated calcium and alkalinity for a few days going to crash the tank. We complicate nature which isn't complicated.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Setup is a 40 breeder several corals on the left with mainly monti and gsp on the right. There was more variety on the right but the gsp grew over it. Tip on gsp…don’t put it where you don’t want it !!!

Now to the question…

My dosing seems to constantly going up and now I’m using a gallon of soda ash every 2 months! Dosing is 40 ml of soda ash every day to keep it around 8dkh. Calcium carbonate is the same at 40ml/day.
Does it seem normal for a tank this size with this amount of corals?

Is there a more efficient way to maintain the alk and ca?

I do weekly 5g water changes with the cheap Instant ocean salt.

40 mL per day of my sodium carbonate recipe (BRS uses it) is only 1.4 dKH per day, so it does not seem crazy high. If the sand is not hardening and pump impellers do net get coated excessively fast, I’d just stick with it.