How does everyone dose?

[collie man]

Im trying to get my parameters rock steady but am having trouble. I am dosing a three part system Mag, Cal, and Alk. It is the bulk supplements from BRS. I have a 60 gallon total reef system and am dosing 30 ML manually.

I am trying to figure out when and how the best way to dose is. I normally do alk one day, mag the next morning, and cal that afternoon. I also top off with Kalk.

Can somebody help me get stuff straight. Sorry for all the wordiness. Any help is greatly appreciated.

-Jeremy K.

 

[tmgrash]

Dosing pumps or calrx that dose all day long are the best. With that said, I dosed to increase alk nearly 2deg and cal about 30ppm once a day for over a year until just a month ago, and everything was fine. Things seem to be doing better since the addition of the dosing pumps.

 

[collie man]

Well guess I need to go buy lots of test kits

 

[tmgrash]

Well guess I need to go buy lots of test kits

Absolutely, you NEED to know how much alk, cal, mag your tank uses everyday, then replace it. Out of the three alk is the most important to keep constant or stable. Mag lets you keep super saturated levels of alk and cal, keep it 1300-1400. Cal is probably the most forgiving, keep it between 320-500, the steadier the better.

 

[Chyendra]

I dose 10ml BRS alk manually first thing in the morning before class. I'm getting a ph probe soon so hopefully I can figure out when would be the best time to dose to this.
I test Ca every soon often and dose if needed. Oceanic salt keeps it pretty high, and my SPS are still pretty small.

 

[tmgrash]

I dose 10ml BRS alk manually first thing in the morning before class. I'm getting a ph probe soon so hopefully I can figure out when would be the best time to dose to this.
I test Ca every soon often and dose if needed. Oceanic salt keeps it pretty high, and my SPS are still pretty small.

Assuming its soda ash then first thing before the lights turn on is a good time. It raises your pH, and your pH will peak when your main lights are at the end of thier cycle (right before they turn off). So pH will be lowest right before they turn on.

 

[Chyendra]

yup soda ash, and that's pretty much what i've been assuming as far as my ph cycle, but I'd really like to be able to confirm it will numbers. My lights are on from 2pm-9pm and usually I dose at 7am. Would it be better to split up dosing, half at 7am and half at 1pm or so (sometimes I'm home at 1 but sometimes I'm not, so I couldn't consistantly dose this, but I could some days.)

 

[collie man]

So you test all three everyday?

 

[collie man]

im trying to get my dosing down pat. I also use natural sea water for my WC's. Which test kits to you guys use? are selfifert ok? elos? others?

 

[stevedola]

when youre dialing in the amount your system requires...yes. test to confirm youre not adding too much or too little. I always liked to use syringes when I manually dosed so I knew exactly how much is being administered each time. Otherwise you use a cap or bottle top and its a guessing game. alk and calc should be dosed in the same measurements...if not it can lead to imbalances. Mag is different, dose to maintain a 1300-1400 ppm level every few days. A good number to strive for is alk 9dkh and calc 420ppm...seem to be a good spot for my acros but theres always more than 1 waY to skin a cat.

 

[tmgrash]

So you test all three everyday?

No, and yes... I test for 4-5 days in a row at the same time everyday to see how much my tank is consuming (alk, cak, mag). Once I get a daily number I dose accordingly, then test once weekly (or so) to make sure the usage hasnt changed.

 

[Chyendra]

I use salifert. I don't test everyday now that I know how much my tank is using. You can stop dosing for 3 days or so and see how much it drops, use the reef calculator to figure out how much to dose, then try dosing that amount for a while and see how it goes. likely you'll need to adjust it, and as your coral grow and use more ca/alk you'll need to increase your dosing.
http://reef.diesyst.com/cf/chemcalccf.html

I test Ca every couple weeks, and eventually as I get my alk stable I'll test that less often too.

 

[collie man]

ya im figuring that out slowing but surely. i already use a syringe to dose. do you just plunge in whatever amount you dose at on time. or do you do it slowly over a period of time.

 

[collie man]

okay so one vote for salifert. Red Sea has the reef foundation which is mag, cal, and alk all in one. should i get that or not waste my money? the also have a coral color one that has iodine, potassium, and iron.

 

[tmgrash]

im trying to get my dosing down pat. I also use natural sea water for my WC's. Which test kits to you guys use? are selfifert ok? elos? others?

I use Elos for cal and mag and Tropic Marin for alk. But I am not sure they are better than others, just what my favorite lfs carries... The tropic marin alk test is much easier than the elos:thumbsup:

 

[collie man]

okay cool. my LFS has salifert but they are way over priced. i can get them online so which ever one works best is the one ill get.

 

[Chyendra]

I've had a bad experience with red sea mag test. It's difficult to interpret. I've never used their alk or ca.
API alk isn't half bad, mine tests almost the same as my salifert, the only thing is that it only measures in 1 dkh increments wherease salifert is 0.3dkh.


Question for Stevedola: When you say Ca and Alk must be added in the same amount what do you mean? If I add 10ml of Ca everyday, (like I do Alk) my Ca just keeps climbing. If I want to keep it stable, I dose far less than my alk supplement.

 

[colotl]

I dose equally 200mL of ALk and Cal daily on my 180 every morning. Firsy my Alk then about 15min later the Cal. I havent doesed Mag for months. My water changes since using seachem reefsalt have kept that up around 1380.

Once a week I check my parameters just incase some SPS decide to take off and grow like mad haha

 

[tmgrash]

I've had a bad experience with red sea mag test. It's difficult to interpret. I've never used their alk or ca.
API alk isn't half bad, mine tests almost the same as my salifert, the only thing is that it only measures in 1 dkh increments wherease salifert is 0.3dkh.


Question for Stevedola: When you say Ca and Alk must be added in the same amount what do you mean? If I add 10ml of Ca everyday, (like I do Alk) my Ca just keeps climbing. If I want to keep it stable, I dose far less than my alk supplement.

Mine is the same as yours. In literature they say alk is consumed in a constant equation with cal (somewhere around 1.4dkh to 20ppm cal). I have found that MY aquarium uses alk much faster than cal, about 2dkh to 15ppm cal, wierd.

 

[collie man]

yah well rub some of that growth of on mine!

i normally dose 30 ml of mag and cal one day, and then 25 ml of alk and cal the next. my cal seems to fall the fastest. i dose less alk because it seems to jump rapidly at 30 ml's