Alk swings

[88rxna]

I have read all about alk swing and how sps do not like this. But i have not seen whats considered a big or small alk swing. I dose my alk at night. My tank uses 110ml a day. I dose this all at once raising it from 8.3 to 9.0. Is this a big change?

 

[XxreeffreakxX]

Personally I would turn that into to doses 55ml in the am and 55ml in the evening then it won't be such a swing compared to dosing 100ml all at once. I personally don't think what your doing now is a huge swing but dosing both the morning and evening will be a bit more stable.

 

[potterjon]

I don't think that is a big swing either. Mine was losing at least 2.5 dkh per day when I was manually dosing but I agree with ^. The more you can spread it out the better.

 

[Laddy]

I think its a big swing in my tanks, but in yours I'm not sure.

You are in essence losing one degree of alkalinity in a 24 hour period, every single day. If you think about it, your alk is never stable, its constantly in flux. If you had an entire tank of euphylia I don't think it would mind. Even montiporas can tolerate tank perimters swings......but if you are trying to keep the "harder" SPS, and are having a hard time with growth and color, I'd buy a couple of dosing pumps from BRS and two digital timers, and call it good.

 

[88rxna]

Actually, its in the works. I just picked up a reefkeeper lite and now i need the brs doser pumps.

 

[Laddy]

Yea, small steps.

The way I approch this hobby is I believe we can improve our tanks every single day.