Will Alkalinity drop with increased Bioload?

[DaktariEd]

Hello all,

Last month I went out of town for 3 weeks and left my 1 year old reef tank in care of my teenage daughter. She did a pretty good job considering she really had no clue about water parameters, etc. I gave her a program to follow that had kept the tank stable for over 9 months.

However, I failed to consider that a few weeks prior to leaving I had added several new corals.

When I returned I found the alkalinity had fallen from 9.9 dKH to 5.4 dKH (3.54 to 1.94 meq/l) and the calcium dropped from 415 to 275. I didn't think that was too big of a problem, and successfully raised the alk up to 3.83 over several days. The calcium is rising slowly (see below).

Now...since then I stepped up my Seachem Reef Builder to twice a week, trying to maintain the alkalinity. But here are the numbers:

(meq/l) (dKH) (Ca)
7/9/01 3.83 10.75 325
7/15/01 3.37 9.45 295
7/21/01 2.86 8.0 335
7/24/01 2.74 7.7 345
7/28/01 2.29 6.4 355

Should I just continue to increase the Reef Builder dosing or am I missing something here and am about to wreak havoc on my tank?

I'd appreciate any input you might have...

Thanks,

Ed

Here's my tank specs:

Tank Specifications

 

[cubera]

Hi, DaktariEd. Yes, alkalinity (buffer) will drop with more acids from an increased bioload. You should add buffer slowly to find out how much you need to regularly add to maintain dKH where you want it. Depending on what you keep, you might need to add Calcium as well. It is a balancing act hence the concept of 2 part 'balanced' additives like ESV B-ionic. HTH

 

[Rorschach]

I use ESV B-Ionic 2 part, and have a pretty good balance of corals/fish that deplete the buffer/calcium at an equal rate.
The biggest buffer eater I have noticed is allowing the tank to go from 78 to 82 during the summer. I then add a separate buffer because it is cheaper than B-Ionic.

 

[Nathan1]

When your levels are that low I don't believe that you should go slow. If you find somebody who has suffocated from lack of air, the first thing you want to do is get them breathing normally again, and not waste time by taking it slow. Your levels dropped to dismal levels for both coral growth purposes and pH control purposes. Get them on track as fast as possible (like within 1-2 days).

Alk at the minimum should be 2.8meq/l but should be kept between 3-4meq/l

Calcium at minimum should be 400ppm but should be kept between 400-440ppm

-Nathan

 

[DaktariEd]

Thanks for the replies...

Nathan: Yes, I agree. In fact I started to adjust the Ca and Alk earlier today.

Just a few minutes ago, the Alk was up to 3.31 meq/l (dKH = 9.3), and Ca was up to 370. It's a lot of change in 24 hours...hope it doesn't stress out the tank critters too much.

I'll add additional Ca shortly, and follow that with Marine Buffer/Reef Advantage this evening.

My plan is to test every other day and adjust until I come up with a new replacement schedule based on the amounts needed over the next week or two.

Does that sound reasonable?

Thanks again for any input...

Ed