Ball Park Dosing To Start?

cham

New member
Hey Guys,
Been awhile but I'm back in.

I'm starting up a 40g cube with a total system volume of about 90g. The 40g display will have the corals but will be all SPS and clams.

I have a Aquamedic Reefdoser dosing two part from bulkreefsupply and I'm trying to get an idea of how many mgl's I should start dosing per day as a starting point?

Any one have a tank this size and can give me an idea of your damands.

Or maybe someone has a larger tank and we can break it into proportion.

Just trying to get an idea of where to start this guy off at.

Thanks
 
FOR ME having about a total system of about 90~ im doing 2 mL of calc and alk a day. i only have a clam and 2 frags sooo yeah..
 
when I used to dose this is how I figured out how much.

test cal. and alk and then retest the next day around the same time, figure out how much you lost in that day. then use the calculator to figure out how much you need to dose.
 
Base it off your starting and target levels.

Test first.

Then do a one time adjustment so that Ca and Alk are balanced. Use the reef caculator to determin what you need to add to bring the Ca and Alk into balance.

Test for Mg and bring it up the appropriate level (or you'll have difficulty keeping the Ca and Alk balanced).

Test again for insurance. Pick a target level for one or the other and use the reef calculator to see what you how much you need to dose.

If you're tank is lightly stocked with few or slow growing corals, you'll probably have to scale back the dosing. As the tank matures, you'll proabaly have a high rate of consumption for both.

You should be testing as you tweak the dosing. It's ok (according to Randy's instructions) to test more frequently for Alk. If you've got a balanced Ca/Alk ratio at the start AND you are dosing equal parts of Ca and Alk, you may assume for the most part that your parameters with largely remain balanced (e.i. the consumption rate of both should be roughly even). Once a relatively stable dose amount has been established, test you Alk maybe once a week and your Ca every two weeks.

Did you consider dripping kalk? It might be a better long term avenue than two part for a high demand tank with SPS and clams.

Hope this helps.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12878441#post12878441 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fambrough
Base it off your starting and target levels.

Test first.

Then do a one time adjustment so that Ca and Alk are balanced. Use the reef caculator to determin what you need to add to bring the Ca and Alk into balance.

Test for Mg and bring it up the appropriate level (or you'll have difficulty keeping the Ca and Alk balanced).

Test again for insurance. Pick a target level for one or the other and use the reef calculator to see what you how much you need to dose.

If you're tank is lightly stocked with few or slow growing corals, you'll probably have to scale back the dosing. As the tank matures, you'll proabaly have a high rate of consumption for both.

You should be testing as you tweak the dosing. It's ok (according to Randy's instructions) to test more frequently for Alk. If you've got a balanced Ca/Alk ratio at the start AND you are dosing equal parts of Ca and Alk, you may assume for the most part that your parameters with largely remain balanced (e.i. the consumption rate of both should be roughly even). Once a relatively stable dose amount has been established, test you Alk maybe once a week and your Ca every two weeks.

Did you consider dripping kalk? It might be a better long term avenue than two part for a high demand tank with SPS and clams.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info!
I may use kalk but my last tank quickly over ran the abilities of kalk even at 2 tsp/gallon.

This tank I will be buying colonies only and I already have 3 large colonies at my LFS waiting for my tank to get ready. So I'm anticipating higher demands than kalk can provide.

Here is a look at my system
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1414891
 
Actually, I've been watching your thread. I love the shallow cube idea. You're doing a great job. Wish I had started so well. I might do something very much like what you're doing.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12878543#post12878543 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fambrough
Actually, I've been watching your thread. I love the shallow cube idea. You're doing a great job. Wish I had started so well. I might do something very much like what you're doing.

Thanks!
The only reason I've started off so well is from a million mistakes and lessons learned over the last system I had.

Its coming along. I'm hoping to pick up my stand in about and hour and plumb it all up this afternoon.

If I can go without any leaks or major issues I've already got fresh salt water ready to fill it this weekend.
crosses fingers
 
Agreed--just measure the rate of loss of alkalinity from the system for a couple of days and you'll know how much you need to add. I'd probably measure twice per day at the same times (morning and evening) to get a good feel for how fast calcium and alkalinity are getting used up. Then you can dose accordingly, and over the course of a week or two you'll see if you need to make small adjustments.

Chris
 
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