Spring Weather Giving me Headaches

The change of the seasons here in Iowa has hit my tank hard. We went from cold and snow to 80 degrees and sunshine in a matter of just a few short weeks. My top off water has slowly been decreasing its rate of addition. Before the high temps and humidity I was adding about 2-3 gallons a day from my ATO. My ato is saturated in kalk. The evaporation rate has slowed greatly to a gallon or less a day. This of course has had an impact on my tank. The Cal is fine. It is at about 500. Slightly high I think. However, my Alk is where my trouble is. My alk has slowly dropped over the course of 2 weeks. I went from 9.5 average dkh with a variable of +-.3 dkh to 7.5 dkh and very unstable. It can raise or lower by almost 1 dkh each day. My SPS corals seem fine at this point and I havent tried anything drastic and I am worrying. I have been dosing a half gallon of kalk saturated water per day to compensate but it isnt helping. The ALK remains unstable and when the new ALK water hits my tank water, its flaking out and floating through my system. Need some guidance here. Please and thank you.

 

bump

 

Hmmm. Maybe saturate your kalk a bit more or use a buffer specifically for alk that doesnt raise calcium levels. Baking soda does a good job for raising alk levels quickly as well without raising ph. Sorry Im not very well versed with kalk as I havent used it yet myself. But crazy with this weather! It has been in the 70's and close to 80 at its highest here in Wisconsin! We seem to be skipping right over spring!

 

This weather is crazy. The trees are budding and the timber is greening. Not good for morels! I dont really understand why the kalk would be precipitating out. The drops are instantly turning into flakes and floating away. I would think this would be true in the opposite scenario of too much top off water saturated in kalk. I think I am going to try some baking soda and try to balance it out. Anybody have any ideas on the precipitation?

 

What's the ph and magnesium?

 

PH 8.2 and hold one minute and I will double check the Mag. I tested it last week and it was 1300 though.

 

PH 8.2
Mag 1325
Cal 500
Alk 7.5 and falling. Yesteray it was 8.3
Nitrate 0
Phos 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0

 

it weird that that's the only thing falling and it isn't throwing anything else off, like the calcium mainly. Do you have anyone you can borrow a alk test or have it double checked?

 

I know some people with the API test kits. Not sure I would even begin to trust one though.

Ive had problems with my ALK before in the past. I fixed it the first time by adding more kalk to my top off. However, I am now nearing the limit I think. I dont have a huge amount of corals IMO. 4 Montis, 4 Acros, 2 Milles, Cyphastrea, Stylopora, BOP, and some mixed LPS.

I am seriously tired of messing with this kalk. When it works, its great. No hassle. But it occassionaly drops my ALK quickly so I have to watch it.

Anyboy run the Reefkeeper lite with 2 dosing pumps for ALK and Cal? My Mag rarely drops below 1300 so I am only worried about dosing for Cal and especially ALK.

 

I tried running kalk before and didn't wanna deal with the inconsistencies anymore with it depending on evap. So I ran a separate drip and was still making me nervous so I gave the kalk to a friend and he was fine for a while. Then the kalk drip emptied to fast and killed a bunch of his corals. Sucks but I warned him it can be dangerous. Now I run a calcium reactor and I wish I would of did it from the start. Granted its over kill but its peace of mind.