Dosing For noobies

[expo703]

I moved this to noobie section b.c i'm a noob and I need help ASAP I have LPS, SPS, BTA's and my levels are really bad.. I bought reef foundation from red sea and here are my readings today..

I dosed on sunday 10ml of alk/mag and 20ml of cal

Today my #'s are:

Alk = 8.62 ( hanna checker)

Mag = 1125 (salifert).. went down..?

Calc - 400 (salifert)

I dosed another 10 ml of alk,mag, and 20 ml of calc today.

Is it okay to dose bigger? Like 55ml+ of alk/calc/mag in one day or no? Is there a max dosage a day?

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html


Like the calculator says I need mag to dose~ 1433.2 ml; 48.4 fl oz; 286.6 tsp that is alot of product...??? doing 10 ml a day will take forever..:facepalm:

 

[expo703]

It says Concentration : 1ml/ 100 liters (25 gals) - 2ppm Ca 0.036 meg/l(0.1dkh) and 1 ppm of mg

 

[CStrickland]

I don't think you are in an emergency situation. I use the guidance from this article: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/ for my tank, attached is a pic of a chart from it that I keep on my phone for reference.

It's not uncommon for the numbers to go down because of how the elements depend on each other to stay dissolved in the water. The article explains why. It helps to spread the doses out during the day. All at once can get you in trouble. But generally speaking I've seen more people get in trouble trying to hit high numbers by cranking stuff into their tanks without understanding it, than I've seen people's tanks suffer from being a little low in magnesium. You really want to test for a few weeks and see how much your tank is using of those chemicals, and figure out how much help your salt mix needs to keep up with the demand, and then dose that much slow and steady or alk in the morning and ca at night, mg shouldn't be as frequent.

There's a big diff between a tank full of sps and one montipora when it comes to consumption.

 

[expo703]

I don't think you are in an emergency situation. It's not really surprising that the company that sells doses is giving you high numbers, right? I use the guidance from this article: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/ for my tank, attached is a pic of a chart from it that I keep on my phone for reference.

It's not uncommon for the numbers to go down because of how the elements depend on each other to stay dissolved in the water. The article explains why. It helps to spread the doses out during the day. All at once can get you in trouble. But generally speaking I've seen more people get in trouble trying to hit high numbers by cranking stuff into their tanks without understanding it, than I've seen people's tanks suffer from being a little low in magnesium. You really want to test for a few weeks and see how much your tank is using of those chemicals, and figure out how much help your salt mix needs to keep up with the demand, and then dose that much slow and steady.

Thanks that chart makes me feel more comfortable! I booked marked the article and will read it.. but I was told to get my #'s to SPS level and then monitor test everyday to see how much my tank is using. To get my levels to the optimal levels the fastest & SAFEST way using this red sea product is my question. I could buy some BRS starter kit i guess that will be better?


So i think I figured this out using the BRS calculator.. It says don't exceed 100pm a day of Mag, 1.4 dkH, and 50 ppm calcium a day. I will start doing max doses till I get my #'s where I want them then start monitoring how much its using etc. What do you guys use? Dosing pumps? Powder ? BRS I mean this red sea kit ill be done using it this week alone lol.

 

[CStrickland]

I wouldn't think there's much difference in brands of 2 part that it'd be worth switching.
Fast changes are not usually beneficial, even when they are in the right direction. Being in a rush is likely to cause a mistake, since your tanks not in any danger right now I'd pump the brakes and work out a plan first, then start doing stuff. .
I saw your thread in the chem forum, bertoni knows more about this than just about anybody. I'd do whatever they say.

 

[expo703]

Sounds good! ty! I have a Apex..I was looking at the neptune dos and reseivors but damn its expensive just curiouse how the powder, concertrated liquid, other products hold up whats the best option etc

 

[Mark9]

If I were you, i'd first get your mag up to around 1350.
2 doses, 1 a day for 2 days.
Then figure out your daily usage of ca & kh and dose that amount daily.
Easier to dose ca & kh when mag is correct.

 

[expo703]

If I were you, i'd first get your mag up to around 1350.
2 doses, 1 a day for 2 days.
Then figure out your daily usage of ca & kh and dose that amount daily.
Easier to dose ca & kh when mag is correct.

Will do thanks man!:bounce1:

 

[Fragaddiction]

I got my consumption rate by getting all my parameters right slowly. Then I tested & got my current parameters Alk, CA & mag. Waited six days & retested, then divided the difference by six & it gave me what I use on avg per day of each element. I use a dosing pump for alk & ca, mag is such low consumption I dose once a month by hand. I'm using me corals alk & ca w/ red sea powdered mag.

 

[OoooDRAGONoooo]

Definitely,concentrate on the mag only.get it up to around 1350 .let it stabilize and then test all the parameters again.