HELP Dosing Pump Didn't Stop Dosing

Because you've reached the saturation point where Ca is precipitating out of the solution? Need Ca and Mag levels to effectively trouble shoot. I would not run the dosing pump until I had those values and a new kit. What product are you using in the dosing pump?

 

Just got home from work and tested the water.

KH is 6.104 (hana checker)
cal 400 (red sea)
mag 1500 (salifert)

Now i'm puzzled as to why the water got cloudy last night.

 

So your Alk is 6.104 dKH? If so, that is obviously low. The lower your Alk, the less calcium that can be saturated (if that is the right term) before it precipitates. Having a higher Alk allows you to maintain a higher calcium level. I am not sure at what level calcium will start precipitating compared to Alk, so take this all with a grain of salt!

 

So any thoughts as to why my tank gets cloudy when I add alk? My tank uses about 9oz of BRS 2-part a day. Goes from 8ish down to the low 6's in a 24 hour period. I tested the water again when I got home today and it was in the low 6's so I added 9oz of solution into my sump. Now my water is hazy but the alk is back up in the 8's.

Cal 420
Mag 1500

 

Some interesting reading.
Chemistry And The Aquarium: Solving Calcium And Alkalinity Problems — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

I am no expert by any means but:

Overall the reason you are getting the cloudiness is do to the Alk being so low and then dosing to bring it back up so quickly which is causing precipitation of calcium carbonate.

You need to put your system on a dosing routine so that the alk is not dropping so significantly. You want to try to maintain at 7-11 and keep calcium in 400 - 500 range and mag generally 1350 - 1500. Of course some may run things higher or lower.

 

I recommend dripping Kalwasser daily. no pumps, etc.

After you bring the Alk up some.

 

Get two dosing pumps and timers. You can't add that much at once; no more than raising 1.5 dKH IIRC.

 

I would rather utilize the equipment that I have then putting it away and not using it anymore. Dosing 2 part is a proven method but I guess I just can't get it right. I feel like it shouldn't be this hard to figure it out.

Well, I have 2 dosing pumps and times. The times are so darn hard to program. I have the woods #50007 timers. It looks like the timers have two channels. My tank uses about 270ml of alk so I need to run the doser for 241 minutes. Should I does for 2 hours at night then 2 hours mid day?

 

I run my BRS pumps no more than 30 minutes in a row. Try and spilt it up more than that if you can. If you use baking soda, better to run during the day then at night as it will slightly lower PH.

 

I guess I will have to purchase some timers that have more on/off settings per day. I just found one that has 8 so I guess that is the the front runner right now.