Dosing question-how much at once?

Lynnmw1208

New member
Ok so my levels have finally dropped so I want to raise my calcium from 415 to 440 and reef calculator says I need 195ml to do so of ESV b-ionic. How much can I add at once? If I do 1/3 of the dose it would be around 64ml, would that be ok? I just want to make sure I don't have this huge change in one day. For alkalinity I am assuming one dose of 30ml is fine. My tank is 125 gallons. Thanks in advance!
 
Changing your calcium level by 50 ppm should not be a problem at one time, at least IMHO.

I would raise it 1/3 or 1/2 the total amount and test the results to see that you are pretty close to what you expect. Depending on how low a change in calcium your test kit can detect will also influence the results. If your kit can only detect 50 ppm calcium change this will be difficult.

You can adjust the total water volume in Calculator to match your results, although this may be easier using an alk increase.
 
Changing your calcium level by 50 ppm should not be a problem at one time, at least IMHO.

I would raise it 1/3 or 1/2 the total amount and test the results to see that you are pretty close to what you expect. Depending on how low a change in calcium your test kit can detect will also influence the results. If your kit can only detect 50 ppm calcium change this will be difficult.

You can adjust the total water volume in Calculator to match your results, although this may be easier using an alk increase.

ok cool so alk is the only one you can't increase suddenly due to pH increases but calcium is ok? I have the red sea test kit so it can detect pretty small changes. I think it's by 5 or 10 ppm. I guess I'll start with a half dose of calcium and half of alk and see where I am. Thanks again highlander!!
 
You're welcome. ;)

The biggest concern when increasing your alk, calcium and/or mag levels is the contaminates which are always present in the supplements to some degree. It is usually not recommended to increase calcium more than 100 ppm at one time (I feel 50 ppm is safe), alk not to increase by more than say 2 dKH (some hobbyists feel 1 dKH is safer) and mag raised by 100 ppm (again 50 ppm should be safe).

The purity of the supplement used makes a big difference and for the most part, we don't know these chemicals' purities of contaminates like copper that can cause problems in reef tanks. :)
 
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