FarmerTy

I forgot two more options, 1) upgrade (woohoo) or 2) give your clam to me (Woohoo again!) [emoji14]

With the clam and the amount of SPS you have in that smaller volume of water, I can easily see how you could lose 2 dKh per day in that system. I'd really look into 2-part dosing via peristaltic pumps or possibly even a CARX to keep up with the demand. Hand dosing with that type of usage rate is never going to be stable enough for the SPS and I believe they are already telling you that, by the STN. I say either get the dosers, a CARX, or ditch the clam. I'm assuming again that there are no external factors that could be causing the STN and that all other parameters are in line.

Hey hey, don't knock it unless you try it first! If it will take a bath with you, what makes you think it won't trust you with feeding it? Instant bond, I tell ya!

One day, the vials and syringes will take over the world! I'm only testing this obsessively because even after a year, I'm not in cruise control yet on the tank. The constant tweaking of the CARX helps me fine tune it as the system starts hitting peak stability. But you're right, all this testing gets you in tune with your tank. Honestly, the only thing I test for after the 1 year mark is alk. I'll occasionally test for nutrients (nitrates/phosphates) once in a blue moon but the rest of the parameters will stay in line in my system and hardly warrant more than a test every couple of months just to correct for slow drifts.

Captain, I guess the pertinent question is have you been tracking your alk values and if so, what have they been at? How much does it fluctuate? What test kit are you using? If you haven't been testing the alk, then I highly recommend doing so. I'd be hesitant to keep SPS without tracking at least your alk values. STN from the bottom up could be a number of issues but is often related to low alk.

Funny thing... and when I say funny thing, it's not actually funny... but I realized after two tests this week that for the past 2-3 weeks, my CaRX has been humming along, roughly dosing just the perfect amount of Ca and alk back into the water like it's supposed to. I thought nothing of it because I could see the a gradual peak and trough of what appeared to be the solenoid turning off and on every couple hours. I figured everything was working just fine. Then it dawned on me that when I lowered my pH range for the CaRX to operate within a couple weeks back, that the pH had never gotten below my lowest pH setting of 6.5. Oddly, it managed to creep as low as it can around 6.53 and then every 2-3 hrs, the pH would start to increase again, and then it would gradually decrease... very similar to how it would function with a solenoid turning on/off. I can't really explain the raise and fall of the pH from 6.53 up to 6.60 and then back down again without a solenoid but maybe it's variances of pressure or saturation by the CaRX causing it... either way, I thought it interesting/odd that I've been basically running without my solenoid actuating at all for almost a month and luckily had it dialed in via the bubble rate alone... which is ideal but sadly, it wasn't even within my pH specs I set, which is scary. I guess nothing could have actually gone wrong other than it not dosing enough and my alk slowly drifting down but my habitual alk testing quirk would have noticed that immediately anyways. Anyways, thought it was interesting and wanted to share.

That should be for you to receive the membership card in the mail. Once you've paid, it either automatically changes your status to premium so you can post a "for sale" thread immediately or as soon as an administrator changes your status once you've paid. Either way, you don't have to wait to receive the card.

Wait, What Ty, you had your Fish in the tub with you and you spooked it......... I employ that technique with all my new additions... helps me build the bonds of trust! [emoji57]

Cameron, tank is looking pretty good! I'd take it easy on the stocking for a bit... I can almost guarantee that's why you have GHA and looking to add even more fish is just going to further your problems. Let your tank balance out a bit and stabilize and I'm sure you'll have a less stressful 2015. Once it has stabilized, you can stock again but stock slowly and let your system adjust to it before adding more. I just don't want you to end up going too fast and crashing your tank multiple times and losing a bunch of fish. It's a quick way to get discouraged in the hobby and not end up being as enjoyable as it could be.

You make a good point on the standard. Hopefully somewhere I am within NSW range... I know it's been steady so that's good at least.

Forgive me ARC, I am only human. I just took an alk reading only 2 days ago and started drawing alk reagent into the syringe for another reading tonight. I have a problem...

Don't go singing my praises yet. This is all still theoretical until we start seeing the acid in the mixing station and the alk start dropping. You can then call me at that time and we can both throw out a good maniacal evil scientist laugh together! With me now..... muahahaahhaa! [emoji436] [emoji23]

Alright, forgive me if I explain this poorly or my calculation is off since it's been almost 3 years since my scientist days. First off, the formula and sourced values are from Randy Farley-Holmes. I like to give credit where it's due and to make sure people don't think I just whip out chemical computations out of nowhere. First off, Randy stated that the concentration of straight muriatic is 1/11,000 meq/L. So if we used a volume of 1/11,000 of the acid, it will drop the alk by 1 meq/L, which happens to be 2.8 dKH. Your new mix water is currently at 9KH and I was thinking of dropping it down to 3 dKH, to more rapidly lower the alk in your tank water as we really don't even know what it is since it topped out both our Hanna meters (as I think of it, if you're curious of the actual concentration, take 5mL of tank water and 5mL of RO/DI water and run it in the Hanna meter, then double the result to see what you really have in there). So, we are essentially aiming to lower your dKh of the new saltwater down 6 dKH. 6dKH of 2.8 dKH = 2.1 times the amount 2.1 times the amount of 1/11,000 = 1/5,100th of water volume You have 35 gallons of new saltwater, which is approximately 132.5 liters (units folks... it'll kill a calculation everytime!) So we basically want 1/5,100th of 132.5 liters = 0.02598 liters x 1L/1000ml (convert to mL) = 25.98mL So if I calculated everything correctly, we are needing to add basically 26mL of straight muriatic acid to the new saltwater to bring it down from 9 dKH to 3 dKH. Randy made it a good point to do half the concentration first and see if it goes in the right direction, so maybe add 13mL and see if it gets your to 6 dKH and if so, add the other 13mL to bring it down to 3 dKH. He also made a good point to aerate the water, perhaps overnight, so that you bring the pH of the water back up as it will depress with the lowering of the alk levels. As with anytime you work with a caustic acid, I'd recommend nitrile gloves if you have them and safety googles. Safety first! I'd also do it in a ventilated space (if in your garage, perhaps open your garage door while doing this).

How many gallons is the mixing station?

Oh great, so it's at 9 dKh right now. Let me do a quick calculation and see how much muriatic is needed to lower it X amount. I think we'll have little repercussion bringing down the alk quicker than the recommended 1.5 dKh/day since there aren't many corals left and there's only your fish in there.

Well I was hoping the alk would be even lower when mixed super concentrated but it looks like only some of it precipitated out. When I used to use Red Sea Coral Pro, I would sometimes get 11 dKh from the salt so at least you might have did a little damage getting 9 dKh. I did a little research and looks like we may be able to lower the alkalinity of the water by mixing in muriatic acid to it. I am hesitant to have you do that to the display tank. Mainly because you have livestock in it (even though others have done it with ill effect) but also because I've never applied that technique myself and as much as I like to experiment, I like the potential downfalls to only affect me. That way I only have myself to blame and be mad at. Let's apply that technique to your new saltwater though and see how low we can take the alk levels since there is little repercussion if it is not as effective as we were hoping. Next time you mix up new saltwater, measure the dKh and let me know what it's at. We can then calculate how much muriatic acid we will need to add to it to lower the dKh in the new saltwater. That's a good sign that the corraline is growing back but it's going to take a whole army of it to lower that alk as much as we need.

I don't trust wrasses for sure in an uncovered tank but I can see how any fish might accidentally jump. My dartfish can get a good solid 1' out of the water if spooked well enough. Luckily I found this out in the tub with roughly 1.5' of spare jumping room.

I should have had you around when I was planning to buy the 65-gallon to talk me into the 215!

You don't have to ask me twice! Asian food, messing with tank stuff, and BS'ING with a buddy.I haven't seen Makena on here either lately. Bet she got a job promotion and has been wreaking havoc at Petsmart.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/hi755-11-alkalinity-standards-for-hi755-hanna-checker-marine-water.htmlYou can borrow it anytime sir.

Does it have the ability to evaporate much? I just find it odd that it was more of a jump in alk and not a progressive increase if the alk solution became more concentrated. Maybe I misunderstood you though.

All the joy, none of the work? Sign me up!

Don't blame me if your tank ends up with 40 clowns in it tonight!

I forget about your AIO mad tank skills! [emoji4]

Sure, take the hard route! I don't have my lab contacts anymore so I ordered the Hanna Alk standard and based it off of that. That's interesting what Habib mentioned. The standard puts my alk at a 0.94x conversion. Any chance one of your bearings is not fully sealing? Allowing more liquid to basically gravity feed into the sump during each turn? I guess that would require two with a slight leak to allow that to happen.