DOSING ALKALINITY ONLY, Please Help

[dnguyen1]

I was told I need to be careful if I dose Alkalinity only, was hoping for some guidance... I got my soda ash from BRS and BM Doser ready.. never dosed before tank is 7 months old now.
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Parameters after a 10% weekly water change (been doing 10% weekly since SEP 2017)... this is a 70g w/ 40g sump (mixed reef planning on SPS 50% 1 small colony and frags at this time)
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Calcium 440 ppm (Nyos)
Mag 1440 (Salifert)
Alk 105ppm (HANNA) -> 5.87 dkh
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AFTER 1 week of use
Calcium 420 ppm
Mag 1350
Alk 101 -> 5.646 dkh
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So it looks like if I'm trying to get to 8-9 dkh consistently. I'm already at a deficit even after the water change with a start point of 5.646
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Based on 70g total volume to achieve 8.5DKH I have this from BRS Calculator
142.7 ml
4.8 fl oz
28.5 tsp
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BRS says 1.4 dkh is MAX raise per day so let's say I go 1DKH to be safe... I need to raise about 3 dkh to get from 5.646 to 8.5.. would that mean the 142.7ml should spread thru 3 days? I hope I'm right w/ that, if I am then I am not sure how it plays into my typical "use" and how to dose from there to maintain at 8.5dkh?

Thanks guys hope this question makes sense, this is as far as I've ever taken a tank in 10+ years... can't believe it's been this long where I just relied on Water changes

 

[Optionman]

DOSING ALKALINITY ONLY, Please Help

With only 1 sps your daily usage is minimal. Slowly boost the Alk to your desired level and monitor.

Not sure what salt you are using but you might want to find alternative with parameters that better match your desired Alk/Ca levels. I use Ref sea coral pro which mixes really high (Alk 10-11) just check the posted specs.

Once your Ca and Alk are at your desired level, and you determine daily usage, dose BOTH equally to maintain.

Good luck


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rjjr1963]

Go slow and test. I wouldn't rely on formulas and calculations right now. I've been slowly raising mine over the last month from 5.6 to 8-9 range. 1 dKH per day seems like a pretty big jump.

 

[ramseynb]

Go slow and test. I wouldn't rely on formulas and calculations right now. I've been slowly raising mine over the last month from 5.6 to 8-9 range. 1 dKH per day seems like a pretty big jump.

+1 I would jump that much in one day. That might be enough to kill your SPS and make you ur other corals angry.

 

[Dr. Reef]

IMO 1 dkh is ok to raise on 1 day as long as its spread over 24 hrs and not in 1 or few doses. if i was dosing 1 dkh i would dose small amounts over 24 hrs.

 

[RobZilla04]

IMO the best course of action to bring up Alk would be a larger than 10% WC first. If you have 50g total volume (estimated w/ sump volume minus rock/substrate displacement) and you change out 20g using regular IO salt, you'd net an Alk value of around 8dKH. This would likely be less irritating to coral because you'd be refreshing all the depleted trace elements along with removing a bunch of nuisance nutirents.

Next it would give you a solid baseline from which to calculate consumption. Most tanks end up starting with Alk dosing alone at first, then move to requiring Cal, then Mag.

 

[homer1475]

I bolus dose 1 DKH all the time with no issues to the 1 SPS, or the several LPS corals I have.