determining the daily alkalinity consumption

[yraveh]

Good morning,
I intend to use limewater to dose Calcium and alkalinity by using the still reservoir of my RODI water, and matching daily evaporative loss with Ca/alkalinity requirements. Randy uses it at his own home.
However, I cant decide what is the easiest way to determining the daily Ca/alkalinity consumption.
Please advise

 

[Optionman]

measure at the same time of day for several days without dosing and you should be able to determine your tank's usage

 

[yraveh]

I understand. I will get the deficit in meq/L but I am not sure the volume of my water column. I have the DT, sump and 2 containers with lots of LR.

 

[Vorog]

I'm doing the same thing myself with testing my tank. I keep a log of my tests to compare results. I test alkalinity every day, and calcium every other day, and magnesium once a week. I've noticed my tank uses about .2 dkh a day. And I loose about 5ppm of calcium every 2-3 days. But my corals are just starting to grow in so I stay on top of testing and water changes. Keep in mind not every tank is the same some use way more some use less and water changes are enough to keep parameters in check. I could probably use kalk but I don't want to mess up my ATO pump. And I think in the long run I'd rather buy a doser than a kalk stir/reactor.


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[scooter31707]

Here, try this.

http://www.garf.org/calculators/tankvolumecalculator.asp

 

[jd371]

You beat me to it. This calculator has different shaped tanks and adds the volume from the sump also.
http://reef.diesyst.com/volcalc/volcalc.html