What am I doing wrong?...calling water chemistry guru's

As I'll try to be as descriptive as possible, this will be long.

I've been Dosing ESV 2 part for the last two months now. Tank is only 4 months old.
Current parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 1 ppm
PO4: 0
Ca: 415
KH: 9.45
Mg: 1485
Salinity:1.027
Temp:79.5 during the day and 78.5 at night

This is what the glass of my tank looked like yesterday morning and this morning after my PM Alk. dose.



Horrible isn't it? And I just scraped it yesterday. Is this calcification? Does this mean the calcium in the tank instead of being available for coral is adhering to the glass?

I've come to the realization that I have no idea what I'm doing and am seeking help before I kill all my beloved inhabitants. I've been struggling to get parameters up seeking a glorified number instead of keeping stability. This is because I've recently decided to add more SPS and wanted the numbers that a lot of SPS keepers here have and maintain. I was aiming for 480 Ca and 11dKH. I've been Dosing 200ml Ca for the last week and a half(since the intro of my Acro's) in the AM via slowly poured out of my measuring beaker. I've been Dosing 200ml+ Alk for the same time span mixed in fresh RO via DIY dripper overnight. This seems like way too much, but for the amount, I'm not getting extreme results. While they are increasing, just slowly which is how I thought it's supposed to be done so I continued doing so in this manner. The problem I have in consistency is that when I do weekly water changes or have to add freshwater because my salinity is too high due to evap. and no ATO, it dilutes everything. Like one step forward and two back.

Scraping the glass is definitely something I'm not willing to do on a daily basis and I shouldn't have to. Not to mention cleaning my powerheads once a week to keep performance.

My livestock:

Fish: 2 Ocellaris
1 purple gramma
1 velvet damsel

Other: 3 nassarius snails
7 astreas
6 hermits
Tons of bristle worms a few peanut worms...collonista..1 stomatella that I've seen.

Corals: 2 Acan Frags, one with 8 heads the other 5

2 Duncan Frags- 3 heads each

6" elegance

3 zoa Frags 5+ heads each

Red Cap Monti- approx. 4"

Two sunset Monti Frags

One rainbow Monti frag

One birdsnest frag

Two blasto Frags 2 heads each

Lythophillon frag

Kenya tree frag- 4" high

Yellow toadstool frag- small

Small acro frag

Small milli frag

Small acro colony-4" high

The leathers have been shrunken since this past weekend. Not sure if it's parameter related or due to a sudden temp change I had this weekend when my landlord conveniently forgot to mention power was gonna be out for 3 hrs. Tank temps went from 76 to 80 kinda quick when it went back on.

Thoughts?

 

I honestly think you tried alittle to early. I would do a BIG water change and stop dosing for alittle bit then test some more. You said the tank is only 4 months old. thats alot of inhabitants for such a young tank(IMHO) i know you want it to happen right now, but its always good to remember the motto "go slow, let it grow" this even applies to letting the tank "grow up" stability is the key

 

Params are in the sweet spot. Shoot for stability of the params. Don't worry about the top off causing a drop in the numbers only H2O evaporates everything else stays in solution. What alk solution are you using? How close to the end of the alk drip are you adding the Ca?

Get a good scraper and work over the glass real well until it stops depositing. You will want the scraper to feel as though it is gliding over ice. I had the same problem with my new tank.

I keep my Mg at 1500 max, Ca at around 420 any more does not help growth, Alk at around 9 to 10. My alk I use a 50/50 combination of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate.

 

Where are you dripping your alk at?

 

+1 on above posts

Im interested in what strenght solution the 200ml of calc and alk is your dosing
and how much of it are you dosing on a daily basis?

it does seem that your trying to add to much at any one time and thus its falling out of solution

your levels as posted are fine IMO
Do not dose anything for 7 days

on day 7 - test levels again ( NB test the DKH midweek also to make sure it would not get as low as 7 within that 1 week period)

the difference between those figures and the figures you posted above
are the weekly demand

find out how much of both solutions you need to match that weekly demand
and then spread that amount over 7 days (calc) and 7 nights (Alk)

and you should not have this issue again

test weekly, and if you find growth of corals are demanding more than you are adding
adjust your dosage upwards to compensate

Steve

 

Not to be a bummer but some of those corals are fairly high maintenance and would be way better off in a tank that has been established for longer than 4 months. I am not sure what your salt brand you are using is but my suggestion would be to slow down and try to keep your parameters stable first. I use reef crystals salt and they have 420 on cal. 10-11dkh. Your water changes should be enough to keep everybody happy for awhile. Monitor calcium levels (alkalinity,magnesium, ph etc.) until you have a better idea of how much your system is using then you will know how much to supplement. Lots of research on the balance between calcium and alkalinity will help you to. Good Luck

 

I am going to have to agree with the advice given in the previous replies. That is a lot of livestock for a new tank, you may want to wait before adding anymore. I know how it is when a tank is new and you want it to look full and beautiful, but many of the really nice tanks that people post pictures of have taken years to get to that point. Going slow also allows you to learn as you go, rather than a crash course in reefing leading to a crashed tank. Just my opinion.
I would do some 10 gallon water changes a few days apart without dosing anything, a good quality salt should provide your corals with enough calcium and the other elements that they need.

 

I am going to take a different direction here. Your CUC is severely under-gunned. I think the stuff on your glass is diatoms/cyano which is perfectly normal for a 4-month old tank. Contact John at reefcleaners.org and get a TON of dwarf ceriths. They eat diatoms and cyano and will keep your glass spotless. I was cleaning my glass every other day before I beefed up my CUC. Now I scrape it once a week, tops.

 

IMO/E your half right, his CUC is small, but diatoms are more brownish, it looks more like a calcium build up to me. I very well could be wrong but I've never seen white diatom/cyano...

 

I was going off of the brown on the back wall. On my tank, the front will look white and cloudy in the front, but when viewed thru a side panel the inside of the front glass looks brown(like the back wall). Only when it is so thick I cannot see thru it does it take on a brownish tinge.

I could very well be wrong too as I have really no experience with dosing.


PS... I hate admitting the fact that I used to let my tank get so bad that I couldn't see thru the glass. But I guess one has to learn somehow.