dosing question MAG/ALK/CA

[afamousjohnson]

I run a young 90g(4months old) well stocked with young pieces-sps lps etc. I do a 5g water change weekly. I have been testing the big 3 inbetween time and here is the gist of it. My starting levels after WC are mag-1400 alk-11.8 ca-420. After two days my kh will usually drop to around 9.8 other levels stay the same except sometimes my ca will rise to 450. At the end of the week before next WC the drop in kh hits down to 9 ca bounces between 420-450 mag stays at 1400. So should I be using product to dose with those numbers? Or wait until they start dropping more with more demand? Obviously I would like to bring my alk up but if dosing that alone I would have to dose the other two to keep things stable....right??

 

[Dr. Reef]

before i got a calcium reactor, i used to dose sodium bicarbonate.(baking soda)
it tends to lower ph a little temporarily. my tank runs a high ph of 8.3-8.4 so i didnt mind a temp low ph.
but if ur tank runs low ph then u can run sodium carbonate (soda ash), it tends to push ph up temporarily.
when i dosed baking soda, i calculated the amount through BRS calculator.
log ur numbers everyday at same time of alk. i figured i had a drop of 1.5dkh everyday so i added 7 tsp (according to BRS) in some rodi water and dose over 12 hrs.
after doing so everyday my tanks alk was 10 where i wanted it to be no swings.

 

[afamousjohnson]

Thanks bnumair. Ya im still new to the dosing game. Heard about the baking soda a bit ago and had tried it on another tank I had and talk about impecible timing of events. Let's just say the outcome was not good. It was an error on my part though now that I understand it a bit better. Gonna give it another go with the ash cause im on a low side ph.

 

[afamousjohnson]

I forgot to add that I have been dosing with the seachem products. I like them. Calcium alkalinity magnesium and strontonium and ph. Just not for the test week. All though I did dose today because I wanted my alk higher and the test week runs til thur. I just started thinking that I was wasting product dosing if it was unbeneficial or not needed at the time being for my tank.

 

[tmz]

I would wait and monitor the alk at least 2x per week . There isn't much consumption basedon the nos you cited and the low end noted is more than sufficient. BTW your calcium won't go up unless you add some via water change or otherwise ,so that rise is probably testing noise. What is the sg? What salt mix are you using? When you do need to dose ,limewater/kalk( calcium hydroxide) is a nice way to go.

 

[afamousjohnson]

I run it at 1.025. The tank was started on seachem reefsalt. But as of last WC it has been instant ocean reef crystals. I don't lime or kalk.

 

[afamousjohnson]

Looks like I should look a lil deeper into the lime/kalk dosing. I've seen pics of your tank tom and got to give out an atta boy on that one. I am looking to reach a stable consistant number so as I have a schedule it seems drip dosing and a reactor could help. I don't know any contacts/friends I have around here that limewater dose(that I know of) so its been a glance over for me thus far. Have to give it a better read.