Parameter swing?

[Kens Bees]

What’s the accepted time frame to judge the stability of your parameters? in other words, my Alk goal is 9.0. Is that considered the average of a week, a month or other arbitrary range?

For Example

Jan 1 alk = 9.5
Jan 8 alk =9.0
Jan 15 alk =8.5
Jan 22 alk = 8.0
Jan 29 alk = 9.0

That gives me an average of 8.8 for the month which is great, but the swing could be as high as 1.0 in a week. what am I aiming for?

 

[MichaelJ]

Stability……between 8-9…..and it depends on what you have in your tank…I tested mine every morning for a week and a half….my tank utilizes 5 ml of Alk a day….so I’ll have 8.5 then it’ll drop to 8.0 in 24 hrs…roughly

 

[Mixed Reefer]

I think in my opinion that all of that is a swing. If you’re shooting for 9dkh then keep it there. My tank when dialed in stays solid on the target dkh. Over a week with little variance. The biggest swing you have is 1dkh. over a weeks time. A little drop each day isn’t going to hurt you. In my opinion you should be fine. But your corals might show they’re not happy maybe polyps or color. So try to keep your swings to .5dkh. Or less. I prefer .2 or less. I disagree with @MichaelJ to keep between 8-9dkh. Pick the dkh that works with the salt that you’re using and keep it stable. I’ve tried between 8-12dkh with good results. Just keep up on your dosing and testing to keep it in range. My tank is running a alk of 9dkh with great results

 

[Edward]

I think in my opinion that all of that is a swing. If you’re shooting for 9dkh then keep it there. My tank when dialed in stays solid on the target dkh. Over a week with little variance. The biggest swing you have is 1dkh. over a weeks time. A little drop each day isn’t going to hurt you. In my opinion you should be fine. But your corals might show they’re not happy maybe polyps or color. So try to keep your swings to .5dkh. Or less. I prefer .2 or less. I disagree with @MichaelJ to keep between 8-9dkh. Pick the dkh that works with the salt that you’re using and keep it stable. I’ve tried between 8-12dkh with good results. Just keep up on your dosing and testing to keep it in range. My tank is running a alk of 9dkh with great results

As long as your levels are within an acceptable range, stability is the most important factor. Corals will adapt, they'll only thrive with consistency.

 

[Kens Bees]

This is the last month of alk and Calc records for two tanks. Red is a mixed reef, green is SPS. Other than a big adjustment November 20 I’ve been slowly getting more stable. My target is 9.0. I’d like to get a month where the high and the low are no more than 1 dKh apart. “Get a reef tank”, they said. “Easy peasy.”

 

[Mixed Reefer]

This is the last month of alk and Calc records for two tanks. Red is a mixed reef, green is SPS. Other than a big adjustment November 20 I’ve been slowly getting more stable. My target is 9.0. I’d like to get a month where the high and the low are no more than 1 dKh apart. “Get a reef tank”, they said. “Easy peasy.”
View attachment 200396

How are you dosing? Doser? Manual? You need to test more and make an adjustment to tighten up that rollercoaster I test alk often sometimes everyday, but this depends on how the tank is running.My tank is full of coral and the uptake is large so I need to stay ahead.

 

[MichaelJ]

I think in my opinion that all of that is a swing. If you’re shooting for 9dkh then keep it there. My tank when dialed in stays solid on the target dkh. Over a week with little variance. The biggest swing you have is 1dkh. over a weeks time. A little drop each day isn’t going to hurt you. In my opinion you should be fine. But your corals might show they’re not happy maybe polyps or color. So try to keep your swings to .5dkh. Or less. I prefer .2 or less. I disagree with @MichaelJ to keep between 8-9dkh. Pick the dkh that works with the salt that you’re using and keep it stable. I’ve tried between 8-12dkh with good results. Just keep up on your dosing and testing to keep it in range. My tank is running a alk of 9dkh with great results

You said pick the salt that works with the dkh….but doesn’t all that change over time with addition of more corals? So if the starting point was 10…then you should keep it at 10? And to avoid major drops then over time you’d probably end up getting a reactor? …..I was always told 8-9 was normal…im just curious ….not that you disagreed with me…lol.

 

[JohnK]

As Michael said, as your corals grow the uptake will increase and more supplementation needed, and or the swings will get bigger.

Second to the question about how you are supplementing? If manually, and you hope to decrease the swings, then of course automation would be well worth considering. (for example, a simple kalk dosing system can be had with just a dosing pump, timer and a barrel)

 

[shrimpchips]

Are you testing at the same time of day every time? Alk can vary with pH, along with usage and fluctuations of course based on when you’re dosing. All in all, unless you’re using automated sampling, 1 dkH range is probably within testing and sampling error/variance. Bigger question - qualitatively how does your reef look? If it’s happy, then chasing “stability” more often than not leads to failure/non-optimal conditions. Use the numbers as a guide, but follow your eye for coral health.

 

[Mixed Reefer]

You said pick the salt that works with the dkh….but doesn’t all that change over time with addition of more corals? So if the starting point was 10…then you should keep it at 10? And to avoid major drops then over time you’d probably end up getting a reactor? …..I was always told 8-9 was normal…im just curious ….not that you disagreed with me…lol.

I think the biggest take is pick a dkh between 8-12 and keep it there. So if you choose 8 dkh, every time you test make your addition of alkalinity to stay at 8. The uptake will always increase with larger colonies or adding more coral. Reactor In my opinion is needed when two part becomes expensive. I’m running two part. Hope this made sense. The 1 dkh swing over a week will hurt color and extension. Keep it tight and the corals will be more happy

 

[MichaelJ]

I think the biggest take is pick a dkh between 8-12 and keep it there. So if you choose 8 dkh, every time you test make your addition of alkalinity to stay at 8. The uptake will always increase with larger colonies or adding more coral. Reactor In my opinion is needed when two part becomes expensive. I’m running two part. Hope this made sense. The 1 dkh swing over a week will hurt color and extension. Keep it tight and the corals will be more happy

Absolutely agree..

 

[Kens Bees]

All good stuff here, thanks for the insight and advice. Nothing looks terrible in either tank I just think they could do better.
From here my plan is:
Stop dosing pumps.
Adjust alk/calc to where I want, at a time of day I can do regular sampling.
Check the readings in 24 and 48 hours to determine consumption and adjust the pumps accordingly.
Wash, rinse, repeat.

 

[Mixed Reefer]

All good stuff here, thanks for the insight and advice. Nothing looks terrible in either tank I just think they could do better.
From here my plan is:
Stop dosing pumps.
Adjust alk/calc to where I want, at a time of day I can do regular sampling.
Check the readings in 24 and 48 hours to determine consumption and adjust the pumps accordingly.
Wash, rinse, repeat.

That’s the most important thing is that they could do better. Get into a routine in testing. If you’re going to adjust your level test at 24 hours. Also test at the exact same time. I would not stop your dosing pumps completely. Maybe tweak the alkalinity dose to be a bit less. I’m not sure how many corals you have but if I was to shut my doser off the uptake of alkalinity would be detrimental to my system. Small changes are better when dealing with Alk. Hanna makes a nice alkalinity checker. It literally takes less than two minutes. But the tighter you tighten that swing the better results you’ll see! Good luck