Dosing Alk... how often can I do it?

[FBNitro]

My Alk is currently in the 2meg/L range... so I'm dosing it up w/Baking Soda. How often can I dose without worrying about calcium precipitate? (24 hours, 48 hours etc...)

The tank is 10g, I'm dosing 1/3 to 1/2 a teaspoon (mixed in water) at a time.

 

[reefworm]

I'd wait at least 24 hours, and keep testing. You can also supplement with a kalkwasser drip for top off and to keep things stable. What test kit are you using?

 

[FBNitro]

It's a Seachem kit. I'm using a salt that's always low for alk (Red Sea Coral Pro), so I do trust the kit readings.

I noticed above I said meg/L, oops that should be meq/L.

I don't have a setup where I could do a kalkwasser drip... I manually top off, and I don't have a sump.

 

[seapug]

Precipitation only occurs when the combination of Alkalinity, Calcium, and pH pushes past the "breaking point." There is a set of known values for each at which this can occur. I think they are outlined here:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rhf/feature/index.php

 

[reefworm]

If you can find an aesthetically acceptable way to hang a bottle and drip line you can drip into the DT. I'd position it to drip in near a powerhead and/or area of high flow. You could also look into a topoff system that would fit in your stand. Just some thoughts.