Have a Red Sea reefer about 125 gals including sump, less minus rocks and 3-4 inch sandbed. Have the common problem of trying to raise alkalinity and calcium to desired levels: 9dkh, 450 calcium. I hover around 5 -6.3 dkh and mid 300's calcium. Magnesium approx. 1200-1260. Trying to raise mag too a bit. Attached how I dose by hand every 10 days to 2 weeks approx. The more I dose the worse it is to raise levels. When I dose alk now I get white flakey precip that takes time to dissolve. Corals surprising doing great..SPS, LPS etc. all good. just battling a hair algae prob with NoPox and slowly reducing. Not concerned. Thanks for any thoughts.
Dosing - Trying to raise Alk and Calcium
- Thread starter Charley
- Start date
- Location
- massapequa long island
Charley which brand Alk and Cal are you using?
Your corals will do ok at those levels for the time being the issue will be raising it. You really need to go slow.
Your corals will do ok at those levels for the time being the issue will be raising it. You really need to go slow.
- Location
- Huntington
- Location
- massapequa long island
I would start off by dosing 10-15 ml each day added to your sump. See how much that brings your alk up each day. You really don't wanna move more then .5 dkh a day max with sps.
Use Red Sea Pro. Only do a water change every 3-4 mos. If I have to do more, I would rather leave the hobby. I did do a water change and did not move the needle on the alk and calcium. Was hoping it would as much as I hate it. No Apex yet, but I might in the next month....
Last edited:
- Location
- Long Island
Here is a link to a reef calculator to slowly bring levels to where you want them. Have you tried using kalkweiser in your top off water. That is a pretty easy way of keeping alk and Calc pretty stable especially if you have an auto top off system and your tank isn?t using a ton of alk and Calc.
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html
- Location
- Franklin Square, NY
Charley the problem is as things grow your consumption rate of elements, alk,cal, mag etc....increases and your not able to keep your desired #s because of the infrequent dosing. As mentioned a large dose every few days is asking for trouble.... smaller doses everyday is more desired to keep stability. An auto doser or cal reactor is the way to go with keeping SPS. Also check the #s on new water because a large change will throw #s off causing problems as well. That calculator works great for small dosing...been using it for many years.
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Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
You need to know your daily tank comsumption and dose ever day accordingly. You deffinelty can not do one big dose in a week. That explain Your alkinity are all over the place. That is alk swing. Very bad for SPS.
LPS can handle the dip. Your SPS looks fine for now. You will see the result in a month or so... SPS will suffer.
First Dose alk solution only, to bring your alk back in line. AND keep it in line. Choose a dkh number and try to stay in range from day to day. Now dose alk only and DO IT VERY VERY SLOWLY! Rush it and you will cause STN or RTN on SPS. Do not dose cal, don?t worry about calcium for now. But do test mag and cal weekly to make sure they don?t drop out of range.
Best low cost way is to get a doser and dose klakwasser. Klakwasser are equal part of alk and cal. Jabeo 4head doser is 75.00 on amazon. I have good luck with it. I use 5 gallon bucket of klakwasser solution next to the tank. I was dosing 1500ml of solution per day. I program the doser to dose 100ml every hour for 15hrs when the lights are off. There is and will be a limit of Kalk dosing amount by your daily water evaporation. If you dose two parts than you need less but do spread them out. Try not to dose whole days worth of alk at one time. Stablility is key.
People recommend dosing Kalk in ATO. I do not recommend this if you have a valve to control your return water level. Trust me! I change my return gate valve setting. The water level rise in display tank slowly over 12hrs. I came home to a tank that I can?t see 2? pass the glass! My water level rise in display tank by emptying the Sump, the ato think my sump evaparated so keep dumping Kalk into sump. It OD my Tank.
Owning a reef tank. You will need to do water change. No way around it. You are only dosing major elements. Minor element are used up. You must replenish major and minor elements.
Now calcium reactors. Calcium reactor will replenish major and minor trace Elements. It is dose ever second, every minute 24/7 = stability. Best of all the options but cost the most upfront. Long run is cheapest for large tanks. Even with cacium reactor you will still need to do water change to get rid of waste and toxins in the water. You can get away with less water change.
I have aquarium since 90s. From fresh water to saltwater to fresh and now back to salt water. Never have a tank I don?t do water change every week or 2.
Feel free to pm me if you need so,e advice.
LPS can handle the dip. Your SPS looks fine for now. You will see the result in a month or so... SPS will suffer.
First Dose alk solution only, to bring your alk back in line. AND keep it in line. Choose a dkh number and try to stay in range from day to day. Now dose alk only and DO IT VERY VERY SLOWLY! Rush it and you will cause STN or RTN on SPS. Do not dose cal, don?t worry about calcium for now. But do test mag and cal weekly to make sure they don?t drop out of range.
Best low cost way is to get a doser and dose klakwasser. Klakwasser are equal part of alk and cal. Jabeo 4head doser is 75.00 on amazon. I have good luck with it. I use 5 gallon bucket of klakwasser solution next to the tank. I was dosing 1500ml of solution per day. I program the doser to dose 100ml every hour for 15hrs when the lights are off. There is and will be a limit of Kalk dosing amount by your daily water evaporation. If you dose two parts than you need less but do spread them out. Try not to dose whole days worth of alk at one time. Stablility is key.
People recommend dosing Kalk in ATO. I do not recommend this if you have a valve to control your return water level. Trust me! I change my return gate valve setting. The water level rise in display tank slowly over 12hrs. I came home to a tank that I can?t see 2? pass the glass! My water level rise in display tank by emptying the Sump, the ato think my sump evaparated so keep dumping Kalk into sump. It OD my Tank.
Owning a reef tank. You will need to do water change. No way around it. You are only dosing major elements. Minor element are used up. You must replenish major and minor elements.
Now calcium reactors. Calcium reactor will replenish major and minor trace Elements. It is dose ever second, every minute 24/7 = stability. Best of all the options but cost the most upfront. Long run is cheapest for large tanks. Even with cacium reactor you will still need to do water change to get rid of waste and toxins in the water. You can get away with less water change.
I have aquarium since 90s. From fresh water to saltwater to fresh and now back to salt water. Never have a tank I don?t do water change every week or 2.
Feel free to pm me if you need so,e advice.
- Location
- Glendale,Queens.
Seems to me you like the idea of having a saltwater tank cause of the beauty of it but you don't want the responsibility of owning one
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