Increasing 2-part

[kodiak23]

How quickly do new SPS corals start using\lowering calc and alk? I currently have a good amount of acans and zoas, but only 2 SPS frags right now. I am getting 7 new 1-2 inch SPS frags and looking for a rough idea and how often I should be testing for calc and alk. Should I test daily for a while? How often should I increase dosage if its low? Should I increase the dose the day I get the new corals? My calc was a bit low a couple months ago, so have only been dosing a very small amount daily 5.5ml each. My calc is 440 and my alk is 8. I am sure all tanks differ and depends on water changes, types of SPS, Mg, etc. etc. Just want to see if anyone has seen calc and alk decrease within a day or more like 2 weeks. Anything else I should look out for? And yes I know I probably should not add so many at once

 

[Reef Bass]

No, you shoudn't ever test daily. You'll end up "chasing your tail", as it were.

I'm also a big believer in testing alk, ca and mag.

The simple answer is that twice a week testing will reveal your needs. If you are able to maintain alk around 8, ca 420 and mag 1300, you're doing great.

If your levels are lower, dose more. If they're higher, dose less. Go particularly slowly on alk adjustments, no more than say .5-1 dkh per day.

When you've dialed in your system you can back off the testing frequency some.

At one point I had a bunch of large acros and several large monti caps, one of which was 18" across and was a ginormous calcium sponge. I was dosing like 250+ ml ca daily, with corresponding alk and mg demands.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Test your tank before adding the frags, and then wait about four days and test again to see how much the new corals are using up(probably not much), make some fine adjutment and then test again in four days. After the corals encrusted and start growing is when they will start consuming larger amount

 

[kodiak23]

Thanks guys, just what I wanted to hear. And wow 250ml a day is crazy; I just checked and I am actually only dosing 2.75ml per day (on the hour from 1am-10am for only 15 seconds at 1.1ml per minute) I assume my very small dose is not doing much. Lets hope I start seeing some growth and get to up my dose!! I guess a mg test kit is next on my list. I saw a Red Sea mg test kit at AOA that I might pick up.

 

[Grant W]

Cody, I dose 125 for alk and about 95ml per day for ca.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Thanks guys, just what I wanted to hear. And wow 250ml a day is crazy; I just checked and I am actually only dosing 2.75ml per day (on the hour from 1am-10am for only 15 seconds at 1.1ml per minute) I assume my very small dose is not doing much. Lets hope I start seeing some growth and get to up my dose!! I guess a mg test kit is next on my list. I saw a Red Sea mg test kit at AOA that I might pick up.

Most of the time I only test for Alk, when I see my Alk drop then I test the rest. When you Alk is starting to drop you will also notice that your corals are begining to grow and consume more.

AOA got a great price on those test kits, I bought mine before I saw them at the store otherwise I would have bought it there. Plus your 15% discount you got an awesome deal.