Just tested my Alk and Calcium....Alk is at 5.0 and calcium is at 390.....my alk is too low....I added a buffer, enough to raise it by 1.5, but I was wondering if I could add more...?? Not sure if I should raise it slowly over the course of the next few days, or just keep dosing tonight until the reads higher....also, how fast can I get a decent reading after dosing the buffer?? Any help for a dosing noob?
Alk at 5.0....Help
- Thread starter bur01014
- Start date
OwenInAZ
New member
What buffer are you using? No matter what you're using, your best bet is to take the increase slowly. The old adage is that nothing good happens fast in your tank. Take a few days and bring it up gradually.
You should be able to get an accurate reading pretty quickly after adding, assuming your water mixes rapidly from high flow. I'd give it at least 10 minutes or so before testing if it were me.
You should be able to get an accurate reading pretty quickly after adding, assuming your water mixes rapidly from high flow. I'd give it at least 10 minutes or so before testing if it were me.
VacavilleFC3S
Active member
no, you should never raise it that fast, stop dosing start reading
Tang Salad
Algae skeptic
Maintaining it at 7 is perfectly fine. Measure it every day for a week or so, figure out how much it drops per day, then calculate your dosing schedule from that.
zachfishman
Active member
I've been working on this myself, everytime I test my 29 it seems the alk has dropped more (was ~7 yesterday). Trying to hone in on the consumption rate.
bur01014: This is a great reef chemistry calculator, even though it doesn't have Brightwell buffer as a selection: http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html
***Always double-test when you get readings that would result with you dosing a lot of something to "fix" your water. Once I got an alk reading of 6, but upon retesting a few times I found it was actually 8 and something went screwy with the first test.
OwenInAZ
New member
In case I didn't mention this before -- take it SLOWLY. You don't want huge jumps in chemistry in your tank. That's a great way to shock your corals and crash your ecosystem.
Watch you calcium and alkalinity levels over the next few days. You're going to have to figure out for yourself how fast your system consumes these chemicals. You should also be looking at magnesium levels, since the amount of magnesium plays into the solubility of other ions and thus the amount you can dissolve in your tank.
When you think you have dialed in your dosing regimen, keep testing every day for a week or so to make sure you can maintain constant levels. After that, remember that you'll still have to test, maybe once a week, because your needs will grow over time as the corals grow.
Let's recap:
DO IT SLOWLY
Test daily (calcium, magnesium and alkalinity) until you know you're dialed in
Keep testing regularly to account for changes in tank needs
