Two Part Dosing

saltysailor2329

saltysailor2329

New member
So I have added quite a bit of coral over the last month or so and finally decided to test.

Ph 8.0
Amm 0
Trite 0
Trate 5
Alk 3.92 dkh
Mag 1100
Calc 350

Obviously, the last three are all low. I have my two part from BRS all mixed up and ready to go. My question is what should I add first?

I was thinking I should raise the Alk first, then either the mag or calc. Let me know.

Thanks
 
Slowly it is. BRS says not to raise more than 100 per day. So I took the amount needed to achieve my desired level and split it over 5 days. Tomorrow I will test again before I add anymore just to make sure.

Thanks for the help guys.
 
FWIW, I would not wait 5 days to boost the alk. If that is accurate, 4 dKH is very stressful to hard corals. Again, if real, your values suggest that aragonite may be slowly dissolving, including coral skeletons. You can boost alk now to 7-8 dKH without concerns about magnesium. :)

What is the tank salinity? It may be low, and hence be the reason everything is low. Coral use didn't drive those values down to what you have.
 
As I read the first couple of replies I was thinking, mag is low, but not that low, alk is way down and very hard on some sps corals. I let mine slip to 5.0 and lost 3 nice plate corals (one was huge) in just 2 days. It took me a week to get it back up to 7.0 and had to drip dose the soda ash so as not to cause precipatate (600ml of soda ash in a gallon of RO water dripped into the sump every day).
 
Randy Holmes-Farley said:
FWIW, I would not wait 5 days to boost the alk. If that is accurate, 4 dKH is very stressful to hard corals. Again, if real, your values suggest that aragonite may be slowly dissolving, including coral skeletons. You can boost alk now to 7-8 dKH without concerns about magnesium. :)

What is the tank salinity? It may be low, and hence be the reason everything is low. Coral use didn't drive those values down to what you have.
Click to expand...

I tested two more times after reading your post and received same results as such, under your suggestion I raised Alk to 7.5 dkh.

Salinity is 1.026 tested with refractometer.

I did dose mag and got it up to 1220. I'll test everything again tomorrow and go from there.

Thanks for the help
 
Ok so here is an update...

Ph 8.0
Amm 0
Trite 0
Trate 0
Alk 6.16 dkh
Mag 1350
Calc 320

These were the readings last night before I dosed some more. I am trying really hard to get the Alk up, but I am struggling. I will see where it is at tonight and go from there. Mag is looking good, but calcium dropped a bit.

I'm keeping a log of my daily tests and adding what I dose so I can figure out what I am going to add on a daily/weekly basis to keep my numbers in the proper range.
 
Ok so numbers for the evening...

Alk - 8.4 dkh
Calc - 390 ppm
Mag - 1250 ppm

I'm getting really close now. Only had to dose a bit of each tonight. Once my numbers get to where they need to be what is the recommended testing schedule to determine how much I need to dose back each day, week, month?
 
I'd test every few days until you land on a dosing scheme that keeps alk stable. No need to measure the others very often as they move very slowly and should follow along OK if you are using a balanced two part. Once alk is stable, then you can test less and less, till it becomes a fairly rare event to just make sure things are on track. :)
 
It is gud to see that your levels are becoming more stable and also remember that your magnesium levels needs to be above 1300 ppm to get calcium to its proper levels..... Gud luck and keep us posted
 
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