So a friend I help with water testing recently setup a hang on the back refugium which I though was an awesome idea to help compete his issues with nuisance algae. I did run into a pretty hard problem with his dKH. His tank use to consume 0.1 ml of all for reef daily. He went to camp and his dosing pump failed causing his dKH/calcium/magnesium to plummet to 6.5 and we have been trying to gradually bring it back up to 9. We have been testing daily and adjusting the dose for nearly two weeks. We are only up to 6.8 and up to 4 ml daily. I tested his calcium and magnesium knowing they should be lower than expected along with the dKH but thought maybe one was way off. They're fine Ca is about 390 (which yes is low but as I said should go up with the dKH) and Mg about 1390-1400. Is the chaeto just sucking up that much nutrients out of the water. Anyone else running a refugium and having stability issues? What can I do to help him stabilize his tank?
Refugium dKH battle
- Thread starter xdcbenoitxd
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The chaeto consumes N&P, not alk, cal or mag. Its the concentration of nutrients (N&P) in the water that directly affects the corals ability to uptake alk, calcium, and magnesium.
You need to raise the macro element levels (alk, cal, mag) with singular elements such as a pure alk or calcium mix before resuming AFR.
That seems off... Yes it consumes nitrates and phosphates primarily but does use many other elements to grow. Also all my parameters were in check and the all for reef rises my specific tank with calcium/magnesium/dKH in perfect harmony. Unless you have one of the 3 that is being consumed at a separate rate and you have had your numbers because of not dosing high enough it should all rise back up together right?
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