[Craigdillman]

Hey guys,

Been a while since i posted here but looking to the reef gods you are for some much needed advise.

Im having trouble doing my tank to get my alk up. Recently I have been a slow battling dinos over last 6-8 months they are almost 98% gone now. ( long story but used 2 weeks of vibrant in my tank that didn't need it went on holidays phos and nitrates dipped to zero...pump died... dinos..)

So i have been dosing Nitrates and Phos daily now and everything is looking great. The corals and fish never had any issues through the dinos colour great and good growth: it wasn't a bad breakout just like 10-15% coverage.

My tank is a 5 yr established mixed reef ( ill put a picture up here ). Small bio load but the colonies are quite big.

So Paramaters are

alk 5.3
Mag -1410
Calc- 410
Phos 0.06
Nitrates 2-4ppm

Right now I'm dosng approx .01 ppm phos a day and .4 nitrates a day and the levels are holding steady for the last 4 ish months. I haven't been doing my normal bi weekly WC cause the dinos. down to 1 every 6 weeks

Im trying to up my Alk back to around 8.5 ish where it was before but i can't seem to do it. Im trying to start 2 part dosing here as now the tank is needing it due to the less WC but want to start at 8.5 dkh level

I did the BRS calc and used the Sodium Bicarb calc to raise it from 5.3 to 8 i split the dose into 3 days cause its quite a raise and after day 3 i am exactly the same ?!?!

Yesterday dosed Sodium carbonate that at a level to dose 1.4dkh and 24 hr later no change?


So looking for some help?

My thoughts are the tank was being limited by the bottomed out PHOS and NITRATES and is now Scarfing up any alk to grow it can. I have seen massive growth in sps last 1 months like 1" + on everything.

Im worried about raising PH dosing so much alk or is that not a big deal if i use Bicarb ? If the 1.4 calculator isn't working can i up it more? im worried

thanks for the help, ill post a picture here in the comments