Can anyone explain to me how a tank with pH of 8.0-8.3, running an oversized skimmer (i.e. lots of oxygenation) and no coral in it is consuming 10ppm a day in alk?
Here's the story:
For two years, my tank has had everything measurable in terms of water quality perfect and stable. Everything is controlled and monitored. I have a 60g cube with a 250w radium for light, 2 MP40s for flow, a Reef Octopus XPS-1000SSS, 10 gallon water changes weekly (never miss one), using my own RO/DI.
In those two years, I had ZERO growth in any of my corals...it was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. I spoke with some of the most well-known people in the hobby, and nobody had a clue. The last thing I could think of, was that when I started the new tank two years ago, I used a new brand of salt. Now, I know people with very successful tanks that use the same salt, but it was the last variable I could think of. The salt always mixed to the same level as my water, and it was always stable. But it couldn't hold alkalinity much higher than 7.5dkh. Given it was a synthetic salt, I switched to another salt to see if that was the problem. I only did a typical 10 gallon water change, but the new salt had more calcium and alkalinity.
Well, in a week, the colors started to improve tremendously, and I started noticing growth again. I thought I found the answer. Unfortunately, after a week the new salt caused a cyano outbreak, then the alk crashed and all of the corals died, including some I have had for seven years when I first started the hobby.
Now that I have no corals, one would expect that alk and calcium consumption would be zero. Yet they both keep falling, even though pH, oxygen, and magnesium levels are good. Anyone have any idea how this could be?
Here's the story:
For two years, my tank has had everything measurable in terms of water quality perfect and stable. Everything is controlled and monitored. I have a 60g cube with a 250w radium for light, 2 MP40s for flow, a Reef Octopus XPS-1000SSS, 10 gallon water changes weekly (never miss one), using my own RO/DI.
In those two years, I had ZERO growth in any of my corals...it was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. I spoke with some of the most well-known people in the hobby, and nobody had a clue. The last thing I could think of, was that when I started the new tank two years ago, I used a new brand of salt. Now, I know people with very successful tanks that use the same salt, but it was the last variable I could think of. The salt always mixed to the same level as my water, and it was always stable. But it couldn't hold alkalinity much higher than 7.5dkh. Given it was a synthetic salt, I switched to another salt to see if that was the problem. I only did a typical 10 gallon water change, but the new salt had more calcium and alkalinity.
Well, in a week, the colors started to improve tremendously, and I started noticing growth again. I thought I found the answer. Unfortunately, after a week the new salt caused a cyano outbreak, then the alk crashed and all of the corals died, including some I have had for seven years when I first started the hobby.
Now that I have no corals, one would expect that alk and calcium consumption would be zero. Yet they both keep falling, even though pH, oxygen, and magnesium levels are good. Anyone have any idea how this could be?
