That’s a lot of Kalk. I started adding kalk my alread dosing calk and alk to raise ph as well. Also added co2 scubber. My range is from about 7.9 to 8.1. Not terrible but I was expecting more.
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Agree that it’s a lot. But I keep testing and keep raising trying to get closer to the ranges.
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New gate valve and 45° elbow’s are in and running. First impressions are the gate valve works much better. Was able to dial it in and have it hold pretty quickly. Also overflow box didn’t fill up completely when I turned the pump back on like before. So guessing less back pressure when draining. I added a pipe on to get drain below the water line. But this is not glued in so I can remove it if I feel it to be necessary.
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I just had a light bulb moment last night. I am up to about 220ml of Kalk via dosing to help with PH. Per instructions, doing the 1.5 tbl at the high level. I was thinking, this isn't doing much? then I remembered. When I used to add Kalk to my ato, i would do the 1.5 tbl per gallon. Put it would probably topoff around 2 gallons a day. That is like 8000ml.. So I might need to rethink my 220ml a day approach 
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I think maximum kalk concentration (not slurry) is ~2.5 teaspoons/gallon or ~1 Tbsl per gallon. Right? So if you're using a dosing pump/reactor (not ATO) my understanding is you should always mix to 100% concentration so that the only difference then is the amount you actually dose from your pump. You're not dealing with 2 variables, concentration and dose. I know in my ~35 gallon total system volume I'm dosing 1000mL daily, which is basically my full evaporation rate (due to the hood I have on the tank). And even with my light coral load that is barely keeping up my alk/ca. I've definitely heard of people with larger systems (and thus more evaporation) that are dosing many gallons per day and that use a a 55 gallon brute to mix their kalk so that they don't have to mix it daily. Sooo, yea. I think you're probably safe to go above 220mL/day .
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I had similar thoughts when I started dosing and was only doing small amount. Then I started to remember from when I did it years ago I added it to my top off. Back then I was around 1.5 gallon per day. This time around i figured my daily top off and then started with around 20%. I’m up to around 50% now at 1600ml. And now I’m finally starting to see closer to 8 for ph and 8.2 alk. I’m still fine tuning but getting close.I just had a light bulb moment last night. I am up to about 220ml of Kalk via dosing to help with PH. Per instructions, doing the 1.5 tbl at the high level. I was thinking, this isn't doing much? then I remembered. When I used to add Kalk to my ato, i would do the 1.5 tbl per gallon. Put it would probably topoff around 2 gallons a day. That is like 8000ml.. So I might need to rethink my 220ml a day approach
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Kalk is at 1700ml dosing over 24 doses Through out the day. Alk 8.8, Calc is over 500, Mag over 1400, and PH is 7.97. I turned off the 4ml of All for reef that I was dosing today to see if CALC will come back down to measurable. Going to leave it at this for the week and test next weekend and see what happens. Corals are all over the board. Chalices look nice and puffy, 1 hammer looks happy another not so much. 1 or 2 sps show some RTN, but other I've notices have spread onto the rock and covered the glue that was holding them In place. Some of this unhappiness could be due to a better light. That other t5 light I had was not working nearly as nice as this new one. I had the old t5 light running for 7 hours a day and after a week with this New light Im getting a lot more brown growing on the glass so I dialed it back to 5 hours a day. The ai primes are set at about 70%.
I moved the auto feeder to the sump. Food is dumped into the return pump compartment. I also moved the pump I had in the Sump o to create more water movement to the return chamber to get the food mixed up. Fish a corals seem to get a better feed then just having it dump into feeding ring. The chromas are hogs and eat a lot of the food that gets dumped.
Thinking of painting the lid to the external overflow. Im getting algae growth in this area. Looking at paint or maybe a wrap of some sort. But think the kryLon black spray paint would work the best. Hope not to have to paint the sides and just doing the top will be enough
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I moved the auto feeder to the sump. Food is dumped into the return pump compartment. I also moved the pump I had in the Sump o to create more water movement to the return chamber to get the food mixed up. Fish a corals seem to get a better feed then just having it dump into feeding ring. The chromas are hogs and eat a lot of the food that gets dumped.
Thinking of painting the lid to the external overflow. Im getting algae growth in this area. Looking at paint or maybe a wrap of some sort. But think the kryLon black spray paint would work the best. Hope not to have to paint the sides and just doing the top will be enough
crappy IPad FTS four fun
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For anyone who may still be following, Sorry!! This is a great way for me to document what im doing and maybe everyone can get a good laugh out of my struggle 
. While trying to watch a movie last night with the fam the tank was so loud I was going nuts. The water level dropped low in the overflow causing a water fall effect. It took everything I had to not adjust the gate valve. So I left it. This morning the water was high again and falling down the emergency drain 
WHY!!!!!! So I went down the google search rabbit hole again and saw an interesting comment on R2R From someone having overflow issues for another reasoN but maybe would make sense on my tank. The water flow changes in the tank maybe because I had my 2 mp10’s set on reef crest. Could this be the reason the water flow in the tank changes in a way that the pump supplied more water off and on causing the change in the overflow box? Another ideas was it just takes that long for the water level to move in the tank that at night its higher and in the day its lower because the water in the tank is rising and lowering causing the over flow to change in height because the drain can’t take the amount of water going through the overflow. Sort of makes sense, but ive run my return pump at different speeds and still have the same issue. So this am I tuned the various down to speed 3 again because why not, but then set the Mp’s to 60% and constant speed To get back the flow im losing from the return pump being turned down. We will see what happens this evening.
On a side note im starting to think when the auto feeders dumps food my skimmer bubble drop. Does this cause some sort of water change height in the sump return chamber in return changes the overflow height? I might try changing to a noon feeding and see what happens if the above don’t give any relief.
. While trying to watch a movie last night with the fam the tank was so loud I was going nuts. The water level dropped low in the overflow causing a water fall effect. It took everything I had to not adjust the gate valve. So I left it. This morning the water was high again and falling down the emergency drain WHY!!!!!! So I went down the google search rabbit hole again and saw an interesting comment on R2R From someone having overflow issues for another reasoN but maybe would make sense on my tank. The water flow changes in the tank maybe because I had my 2 mp10’s set on reef crest. Could this be the reason the water flow in the tank changes in a way that the pump supplied more water off and on causing the change in the overflow box? Another ideas was it just takes that long for the water level to move in the tank that at night its higher and in the day its lower because the water in the tank is rising and lowering causing the over flow to change in height because the drain can’t take the amount of water going through the overflow. Sort of makes sense, but ive run my return pump at different speeds and still have the same issue. So this am I tuned the various down to speed 3 again because why not, but then set the Mp’s to 60% and constant speed To get back the flow im losing from the return pump being turned down. We will see what happens this evening. On a side note im starting to think when the auto feeders dumps food my skimmer bubble drop. Does this cause some sort of water change height in the sump return chamber in return changes the overflow height? I might try changing to a noon feeding and see what happens if the above don’t give any relief.
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I technically should be off from my 'lunch break' but here I am with my big mouth (as it seems this week ). ... I've been seeing this subject of 'I can hear the sound of my water flowing down the tube' mentioned very frequently. I didn't want to comment then, but here I am ... OK, so, .. I don't get it!!! 
. What is so bad about the sound of the water flow? I remember when I saw the reef tank of my cousin in FL, the first reef tank that I ever saw in my life, I heard the water, everybody heard it, and everybody was thinking it had to be some sort of 'sound effect' or the actual sound of the water flowing through those rock and caves. Everybody was impressed!!! 
... And remember the 90s?? Where they actually had those CDs out with nature sounds, bird chirping, water running .. And those on the desk fountains that you could plug in with the sound? ... Some people go for those for relaxing purposes ... So, yeah, I usually hear my fans running (an indication that my lights are working), my water running (indication that the flow is running, so I know the system is up and I'm not suffocating my fish, etc, etc). I also have clocks on the walls (plural), music going too ... I dunno ... Maybe it's just me but I don't see the problem there .
). ... I've been seeing this subject of 'I can hear the sound of my water flowing down the tube' mentioned very frequently. I didn't want to comment then, but here I am ... OK, so, .. I don't get it!!! . What is so bad about the sound of the water flow? I remember when I saw the reef tank of my cousin in FL, the first reef tank that I ever saw in my life, I heard the water, everybody heard it, and everybody was thinking it had to be some sort of 'sound effect' or the actual sound of the water flowing through those rock and caves. Everybody was impressed!!! ... And remember the 90s?? Where they actually had those CDs out with nature sounds, bird chirping, water running .. And those on the desk fountains that you could plug in with the sound? ... Some people go for those for relaxing purposes ... So, yeah, I usually hear my fans running (an indication that my lights are working), my water running (indication that the flow is running, so I know the system is up and I'm not suffocating my fish, etc, etc). I also have clocks on the walls (plural), music going too ... I dunno ... Maybe it's just me but I don't see the problem there .
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I technically should be off from my 'lunch break' but here I am with my big mouth (as it seems this week
I love it. . Yea these water noises are 3rd world problems. Lol. But the water is more than just water running trough pipes. I can hear the skimmer, stirrer, mp’s etc humming and running. And that’s not a bother. But this constant water height change daily is getting annoying to the point I’m almost regretting getting an external overflow tank. So to not trash it and start over I’m determined to find a solution that’s not just to deal with it. Water heights should be for the most part pretty consistently I would think.My ideas didn’t work. Water dropped again tonight just like every night. I turned the various down to 2 now, reset gate valve and see if water level rises by am. I also changed my feeding times from 7am and 7pm to 7am and 3pm. Going to see if maybe the skimmer not producing bubble after feeding is maybe the problem.
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Another fail. Water was running down the emergency drain again this morning. Will see what the day brings before changing anything again. Maybe the water adjustment was still from last night. Will see what today feeding schedule does to the water levels in overflow. I may go back to the u shape pipe in the over flow so when the water level does go low it will hit the pipe instead of wate keeping things maybe at a more tolerable noise level.
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Feeding schedule did nothing. Water level dropped again this evening. On a good not after putting my arm in the tank to right some snails the water level went back to tits normal level at it was at before I had arm in. This has never happened. Water level visually drops and wont go back up.
Today I removed the drain line at the water level and now just have the water pipe above the water line from the main drain. See if having all this air between does anything. Thinking maybe water pockets get stuck in the drain and this changes the Height in the overflow. I hope I can figure this out soon. I really tired of adjusting the gate vale twice a day.
Today I removed the drain line at the water level and now just have the water pipe above the water line from the main drain. See if having all this air between does anything. Thinking maybe water pockets get stuck in the drain and this changes the Height in the overflow. I hope I can figure this out soon. I really tired of adjusting the gate vale twice a day.
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Just an update. Feel like I may hav figured this overflow out. Made a few modifications and it’s seems like I’m getting very close to where it needs to be. Water level still moves around a lot but less noise.
Changed up the aquascape a bit. Had a rock structure from my old tank that I just didn’t like in this new set up so I broke the glue joint and set them in separated. Filled in the front much better. I need to pull a larger rock out and frag a mushroom that I left in hiding. It’s a cool green colored on and had gotten huge but I can’t even see it hiding on the back of the structure.
Ph won’t go over 7.9. I’m dosing kalk at max for evaporation. My alk is 9 and cal and mag are over the max the test kit can read. I’m trying to raise the alk a little at a time as evaporation gets a little more dialed in but hope the cal and mag will come down as alk goes up. Time will tell. For now things look like they are happy and dialing in.
Changed up the aquascape a bit. Had a rock structure from my old tank that I just didn’t like in this new set up so I broke the glue joint and set them in separated. Filled in the front much better. I need to pull a larger rock out and frag a mushroom that I left in hiding. It’s a cool green colored on and had gotten huge but I can’t even see it hiding on the back of the structure.
Ph won’t go over 7.9. I’m dosing kalk at max for evaporation. My alk is 9 and cal and mag are over the max the test kit can read. I’m trying to raise the alk a little at a time as evaporation gets a little more dialed in but hope the cal and mag will come down as alk goes up. Time will tell. For now things look like they are happy and dialing in.
Looks awesome!
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Im noticing that im starting to get alot of the green algae film on the bottom of the tank (bare bottom) and the film on the front glass. The front glass im needing to clean just about every day. Im curious if this is due to the amount of light I have on the tank? Still running the 4 t5’s for about 5 hours in the middle of the day, and I have two ai primes running also. Will post schedule. I was thinking If its the amounot of light I have going that maybe turning down the AI’s would maybe help the situation? And if so ideas on how much to turn them, down?
I started running a uv sterilizer a couple years ago and now I use one on every tank. Originally did it because of bacterial blooms. Now I keep them running because they keep away film algae for the most part. And the corals look happiest with the uv running. You still get a little film algae but scraping a tank down once a month vs everyday. I do still get turf/bubble/hair algae though. It is one more thing also as if yhe tanks weren't complicated enough.
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The film is new since adding your old light. I have to believe it’s increased par numbers. Some of my softies are still acclimating. I like the uv idea and have been considering it. but feels Like just another piece if equipment and if I’m adding something else I’ve been trying to research ozone as maybe something I Might add. time will tell.
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I replaced all the bulbs with new. I was thinking it’s just all the light since I did not have these issues on any of the tanks before running t5’s. I need to do some par reading at some point. That might help to figure it out.