I have a fairly new 90 gal tank running. Started slowly, let it run with just live rock for a while. Live rock is from a tank that had been running for about a year I think. Added a few cuc, nothing crazy. Later added some feeder shrimp. Much later added a couple inverts. More than a month ago I added some fish. So it's been a few months of slow stocking. Current stocking list is a small eel and 3 small fish. 2 of them are very small. Decorator crab, cleaner shrimp. Only a few corals, mostly small lps frags. At the very end of June I started daily small feedings along with the fish using an auto feeder and I left town for a month. Get back things are great, corals look good. So no water change since the end of June. I test the water for the first time a couple days ago using the red sea pro kit.
Ca 420
Mg 1600
Alk doesn't even register on the chart o.O
Order a hanna alk checker that comes today and it shows 89 then 92ppm. Very very low.
Any ideas how this is happening? I'm going to have someone test the alk in their hanna checker to see if they get the same results but I think it may be correct. Corals look good except a couple zoa frags, but that's actually pretty normal lol! I just plugged in the skimmer yesterday but it's not collecting much as of today. I think excess nutrients can lower alk, right? I hardly have any algae growth so excess nutrients doesn't seem to fit. I'd like to get some ideas of how it got so low so maybe I can correct the problem. I'm also getting ready to dose.
Thanks!