How much do you dose?

[mseepman]

I have a fairly large tank (290g display and another 100g sump) and I'm struggling to keep my Alk up. My tank is 95% SPS.

My question is how much do you dose per day? I'm currently dosing about 290ml of Alk per day and I'm losing ground. My CA is also high...so I'm cutting back my dosing there.

Just thought I could get some examples of what other people have to put into the tank each day.

[asylumdown]

I'm at 165 mL of Alk and 162 mL of calcium a day using... can't remember the brand. One of the ones that comes in boxes and costs too much money. Mixed according to their instructions weighed out with a food scale.

I find it keeps my alk and calcium balanced, but as my tank has recovered from it's most recent disaster, I'm finding I can't keep on top of it either. I up the rate by 10 mL every week, and adjust it after the water change, but I've been having a hard time keeping it above 7. Calcium hovers between 360 and 400.

The amount you dose will have a lot to do with the concentration of your solution, what product are you using and what are you mixing it at (g/L)?

[Craigdillman]

I'm sure it is but is your mag staying at a good level Alk won't rise or stay high with a low or fluctuating mag level, that's about all I can think about. Also I've read some stuff on GFO and Alk levels changing out too fresh gfo can drop alk levels a bit

Just my 2 Cents

[mseepman]

Thanks for responding. I am using up the last of my BRS Soda Ash in my latest batch and I mix it as per their directions, 2 x 8oz cups for 1 Gallon of RODI water. My Doser does 1.1ml per minute and I dose 11 minutes every hour.

I haven't tested Mag in about a month but I was at 1320 last time I tested. CA is currently at 500 and I've cut back on the doser for this. It was maintaining at about 430-440 for the longest time, but something has changed and my CA went up over the last month.

I use a Kalk stirrer with my ATO but due to how it needed to be setup, very little of my ATO water goes through it (about 10% at max) while the remaining 90% is pure RODI.

[Doug]

Reactor Mark........:mrgreen:

[LeanneP]

My hose came off my doser last week and my alk has been low too and high Ca. I just cracked open a window last night beside the tank and it seems to have stabilized the alk a bit better. I read somewhere about having high CO2 the alk won't absorb as well. It could be just coincidence but my alk finally stayed over 7.

[monza]

About 500g of water and I dose 384ml per 24 hours, relatively new tank with Coralline algae growing like crazy lots of frags I use three part dosing.

Alk is @160ppm and Calcium is 410 and Mag is 1380

[CM125]

I have never dosed alk.. what do you have that you need to dose? Sorry newb question....

[mseepman]

I have never dosed alk.. what do you have that you need to dose? Sorry newb question....

No worries about the newb question. My tank is quite populated with corals, specifically SPS corals who absorb the CA and Alk and Mg during their growth. Without it, they stop and become very unhappy corals. You can offset this with water changes some but the larger your tank, the larger the water changes...which become cost prohibitive.

[gregzz4]

Alk is @160ppm and Calcium is 410 and Mag is 1380
Remind me what 160ppm is in dKh

[reefwars]

Remind me what 160ppm is in dKh

8.96

[CM125]

I have never dosed alk.. what do you have that you need to dose? Sorry newb question....

I don't have any SPS, so Im sure my water changes are enough to keep to keep the levels good

[reefwars]

I don't have any SPS, so Im sure my water changes are enough to keep to keep the levels good

Testing would be the easiest way to tell , but it's not just sps that use up Alk and calcium other animals like coralline , fish , urchins , snails lps and even soft corals all use there share ;)

It comes down to how much all these animals use as a whole , salt can often be enough but just the same it may not.

Some salts contain more or better chemicals while others have less.

Coralline alone can often suck up .5 dkh or as much as 2 dkh in some systems.

The best way to manage is to test and keep a log book , you never know if things could be better;)

[asylumdown]

Remind me what 160ppm is in dKh


Times it by 0.056

[asylumdown]

I don't have any SPS, so Im sure my water changes are enough to keep to keep the levels good


Lots of things consume carbonate ions, and thus lower alkalinity. Your skimmer exports quite a bit, organic acids produced by the things living in your tank, and all sorts of calcifying plants and animals you didnt buy make it in to every reef tank. It's a good idea to periodically test, even if you aren't dosing.

[reefwars]

Yes 1 ppm is the equivalent of 0.056 dkh :)

[mike31154]

I only have some monti caps for sps & hammer coral lps in addition to assorted soft coral. I've been somewhat delinquent in my testing routine, but when I do, I generally find alk to be chronically low. My dosing routine is erratic as well, consisting of throwing 7 to 14 teaspoons of either baked baking soda or calcium into my 7 gallon top off container. Sort of gauge it by when the last water change was as to what I dump in. I've had the tank running for a few years now and recall when I first started the alk being very high. I think that was probably my use of treated tap water from Kalamalka lake (high in calcium & alk) and the fact that I had little in the way of coral using those elements up. Since switching to RODI water years ago, alk is chronically low, no matter what I dose in my haphazard way. I use IO salt & when I test a newly mixed batch the alk is good. A few days after water change, tank tests low again & I'll dump some baked Arm & Hammer into the top off container. Once in a while I'll fire some Epsom Salt into the top off water as well.

Long story short, I tend not to chase numbers as much as I used to in the past. I see my tank every day, stuff looks good, calcifying coral like hammer & especially monti cap are growing like the dickens, there's an abundance of coralline all over the rockwork, back glass. I mostly rely on large water changes every 21 days, give or take, to keep the water chemistry levels suitable for the livestock.

[reefwars]

Lots of things consume carbonate ions, and thus lower alkalinity. Your skimmer exports quite a bit, organic acids produced by the things living in your tank, and all sorts of calcifying plants and animals you didnt buy make it in to every reef tank. It's a good idea to periodically test, even if you aren't dosing.

We need a chemistry forum on canreef:)

[CM125]

Lots of things consume carbonate ions, and thus lower alkalinity. Your skimmer exports quite a bit, organic acids produced by the things living in your tank, and all sorts of calcifying plants and animals you didnt buy make it in to every reef tank. It's a good idea to periodically test, even if you aren't dosing.

I do test it, it seems to stay in the recommended range, but i have upgraded to a bigger tank so i might need to start dosing.

[mike31154]

With respect to larger tanks needing dosing, I'm not sure that's a valid generalization. I haven't done the math & it would largely depend on the livestock one keeps, but the way I look at it, with more water volume, wouldn't it take longer to use up the chemicals than with a smaller tank? With more volume, you have a greater reserve of those important elements, no? Most of our systems are in a constant state of change, with livestock growing, dying, changing... so I reckon testing is a good thing, particularly if you've invested many $$$s in pricey coral. I think that's why I may be getting away with my lackadaisical testing/dosing routine, I enjoy my tank, but if I'm stressing over it due to a monetary investment, that enjoyment tends to fade quickly.

[reefwars]

With respect to larger tanks needing dosing, I'm not sure that's a valid generalization. I haven't done the math & it would largely depend on the livestock one keeps, but the way I look at it, with more water volume, wouldn't it take longer to use up the chemicals than with a smaller tank? With more volume, you have a greater reserve of those important elements, no? Most of our systems are in a constant state of change, with livestock growing, dying, changing... so I reckon testing is a good thing, particularly if you've invested many $$$s in pricey coral. I think that's why I may be getting away with my lackadaisical testing/dosing routine, I enjoy my tank, but if I'm stressing over it due to a monetary investment, that enjoyment tends to fade quickly.



ppm is ppm so a 1% water change on a 100 g tank with a calcium of 450ppm Will replenish the same as a 1% water change of the same on a 1000g tank:)


In respect though the animals use this , so a larger tank may often use more and require more but only if the animals that use it have higher demand or are more in numbers which is common as the ecosystem is larger :)

A 100g packed sps tank will likely have more demand than a new 1000g tank that has nothing in it for quite some time, it really comes down to who uses it and how much of it they use:) each animal and species is different and have different demands :)

[mseepman]

Thank you for everyone's input...obviously I shouldn't be worried about what I'm dosing yet as it isn't as much as I thought. I will continue with some steady bumps and measure to see how it's reacting.

[monza]

Times it by 0.056

Thanks I looked for the conversion before I posted, couldn't find one.

[Myka]

I have a fairly large tank (290g display and another 100g sump) and I'm struggling to keep my Alk up. My tank is 95% SPS.

My question is how much do you dose per day? I'm currently dosing about 290ml of Alk per day and I'm losing ground. My CA is also high...so I'm cutting back my dosing there.

Just thought I could get some examples of what other people have to put into the tank each day.

Hey Mark, your dosing doesn't sound unusually high to me. My old 90-gallon tank when it was setup SPS only I was pumping just under 125 mL per day into the tank and I had less than 100 gallons of actual water volume. I was using Fauna Marin sodium bicarbonate and I mixed it 125 grams per liter.