BRS 2 Part Dosing

[Luke Schnabel]

I've been using BRS two part Calcium and Alk solution. I feel like I'm dosing crazy high.
For thoes of you that use the BRS two part... How much of each are you dosing a day, what times and what kind of corals do you have.

 

[Mark9]

Heavily lps stocked 65 gallon tank, I dose around 48 ml per day (ca & kh) of the brs 2 part.
Ca during the day, kh during the night.

 

[Luke Schnabel]

Omg my setting was over 300ml per day of each... I only have a few soft corals mostly Zoas. My Red Sea was saying I could be adding more. It all must be percipiting
out

 

[Luke Schnabel]

I'm sure more people on here use the BRS 2 part... Can anyone else say what they are dosing and what's in the tank?

 

[CStrickland]

Why are you dosing 2-part for a few zoa and softies?

 

[Captain smoke]

My 150g SPS/LPS I dose 1oz Alk and 2.5oz C+
Duh 9 Cal 430 it took a lot to get there.

 

[anthonys51]

i have a mixed reef. and I used to dose 50ml for 65 gallons of total water. i will tell you my Coraline algae grew like crazy and my alk and cal ran high 11 and 400. I cut the dose in half and Coraline slowed down and tank still looks fine. i would think with 300ml a day for 200 gallons for softies is too much. i would cut back

i also found when i was dosing more, my calcium would be harder to keep up. i would have to dose more calcium then alk. witch 2 me isnt correct. i mean it says 2 part for a reason

 

[civics14]

Omg my setting was over 300ml per day of each... I only have a few soft corals mostly Zoas. My Red Sea was saying I could be adding more. It all must be percipiting
out

are you testing for parameters before dosing??

 

[billdogg]

IMO you probably don't need to dose anything for softies.

My filled up 120 LPS/SPS uses about 120ml of each per day.

My old 60 that was stuffed full of soft corals, zoanthids and mushrooms never got dosed with anything more than waterchanges could provide in its 22 years of existence

 

[Luke Schnabel]

Thanks for the input guys. I use a Red Sea test kit for cal alk and mg every 4 days. I figured it was crazy high. But when I was testing I would be getting 440-400 cal and alk 9.5-11. My cal is percipiting out for sure.

So how should I go about handling this? I have the ability to do 50g water changes. I'm due for one tomorrow. I cut back my dose to 50ml per day. Cal at 9:00am and Alk at 11:00pm.

 

[BlackTip]

My tank is only about 3 month old. I have just few softies. I dose about 360ml of soda ash a day distributed over 12 doses in addition to kalk in TO, and I can't keep my alkalinity above 8dkh. I think it got something to do with new tank and dry rock. I am not sure though.

 

[CStrickland]

FWIW I don't take action until my levels drop below
Ca 380 ppm
Alk 7 dkh
Mg 1250 ppm

Some aim much higher, but those numbers are based on ocean levels for alk and mg, and experiments on the Ca level where coral actually grew slower; so that makes sense to me. Super saturating the water often drives down the very levels you're trying to raise, is expensive, and aggravates your tank with rapid swings. Steady mediocrity can be much healthier for a tank that's not full of stonies. It will leave you more $ for frags too
More info here: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

 

[gone fishin]

I dose 40ml of calc and 42ml of alk. I have a mixed tank but mostly LPS and SPS. Out of curiosity what is your mag reading?

Mag=1380ppm
alk=8 dkh
calc=410ppm

 

[Luke Schnabel]

My tank has been running... Cal 400-440 Alk 9.5-11 Mg 1360-1400... I've been dosing 300+ of each for the last month. But I have between 200-300 Zoa polyps, 15 mushrooms, Xenia baseball size, baseball size acan, a 3 headed blasto, and a 5 headed frogspawn.

I'm turning my dosing pumps down to 10ml a day... Doing a 50gallon water change and checking the levels the day after. I'm using Red Sea coral pro salt. I do a water change every week of 15-20 gallons. It should be enough for the tank don't you think?

 

[shifty51008]

The acan, blasto, and frogspawn are the only corals that need the dosing and i doubt they need 300ml a day unless your coraline is going nuts but even then thats alot by 10x imo.

Are you doseing them at seperate times and also in a high flow area? Does any of your equipment get alot of cal build up?

But your plan to drop to 10ml a day is a good start. The 15-20 gal a week should be good enough for the corals you have.

 

[MizTanks]

40B dominant LPS/SPS. Dosing 33ml of each daily.
Calc=430
ALK=8.4
Mag=1320

 

[hogfanreefer]

I would check on your pumps for precipitation. I'm dosing 80 ml with a moderate amount of SPS and LPS and lots of coraline algae.

 

[Luke Schnabel]

I set my pumps for 10ml per day, did my water change and tested the next day. Cal 380 Alk 7.8. I used BRS calculator and out in reccomend dose to raid to target level of Cal-450 Alk 10.. Spread everything out over a whole day of adding every two hrs... Tested next day and Cal is 460. Alk is 8.8.

Now is it ok do keep dosing more Alk using the BRS calculator to get it to 10 or do I have to add some calcium additive too

 

[shifty51008]

What is your mag levels?

 

[shifty51008]

You want to get your levels where you want then wait 24 hours and retest, once you know what your levels drop per 24 hours then set your dosing ammounts to that. When you do a water change make sure the nsw is the same levels as the tank before doing the water change.