Question about frags

[Jarrett]

So scattered through out my tank i have all types of sps but all are 1 branch or 2 branches i didnt buy any colonies. as of right now i dose alk 20 ml a day and it keeps it steady at 8.4 but my calcium i cant seem to get past 420 i upped my dose to 40 ml a day today to try to get it to 450 now this might be a stupid question but when sps start out small do they use up more calcium because they are all trying to grow or would it be the same thing as if i had all colonies in my tank. i just worry because i dont know if 40 ml a day of calcium is to much for my tank even though my levels come back ok it just seemed like alot to me i guess sps really takes up that much calcium? my mag is 1360 btw and its a 75 gallon reef with 20 gallon sump, im new to sps so forgive the naive question lol.

 

[mbg75]

Have u tried another test kit? If the tank isn't packed out, that sounds like a lot.
I'm at 20ml of cal and 25 Alk a day.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[Jarrett]

for alk no i have always used red sea but for my calcium i was using salifert which was giving me basically the same reading more towards 430/440 and then i tested with red sea last night and it told me 420 and as far as packed out i have alot of corals but it doesent look "packed" because none of them are really grown yet all are little branches. do you think i am dosing to much of both? or just the calcium. i was just told that 420 was a good range for my alk being at 8.4 so i think i am just going to try to maintain it there, all corals seem happy.

 

[KathyC]

So scattered through out my tank i have all types of sps but all are 1 branch or 2 branches i didnt buy any colonies. as of right now i dose alk 20 ml a day and it keeps it steady at 8.4 but my calcium i cant seem to get past 420 i upped my dose to 40 ml a day today to try to get it to 450 now this might be a stupid question but when sps start out small do they use up more calcium because they are all trying to grow or would it be the same thing as if i had all colonies in my tank. i just worry because i dont know if 40 ml a day of calcium is to much for my tank even though my levels come back ok it just seemed like alot to me i guess sps really takes up that much calcium? my mag is 1360 btw and its a 75 gallon reef with 20 gallon sump, im new to sps so forgive the naive question lol.

Don't forget Coralline algae also tanks up calcium, do you have much of that growing yet?

 

[Jarrett]

yea its all over the back wall

 

[MIKE NY]

every tank consumption rate will be different even if you have the same water volumn also that rate will increase slowly over time so try and test each day at the same time so can make adjustments in the dosages....also if your getting more into SPS think about a doser or reactor...your going to need it because your going to use alot more than 20ml when things grow out in a 75...unless you like pouring cupulls in every day which if not spread out during the coarse of the 24 hr period will cause too big of a swing in the alk and cal if poured in all at the same time...just an example I was over 180ml each of cal and alk a day in my 90 just to maintain 400 and 8 before I got a reactor.

 

[Jarrett]

Thanks for the advice mike. i dont mind doing the manual dosing right now because i am just getting into it maybe when i get more advanced ill invest in those tools. but for now i dose every morning when i wake up before i go to work and school and i test pretty much every night when i get home and the levels havent swayed to far from each other ever really only my calcium but my alk has been consistent 8.4 for the past 3 weeks.