Dosing Help Needed

[LeanneP]

My tank has been at 7 dkh for the past week or so and I have had high calcium. My calcium is now back to 410. I have been dosing 3x the amount for alk. I am assuming that I need to start dosing calcium again. My alk has been stuck at 7-7.3. If I have done water changes to try and get my alk up but then it goes back down to around 7 and I was assuming this was happening because of my high calcium. Should I wait until my alk starts to rise more before starting to dose my calcium or start right away? I am not sure if I should be dosing the same amount of calcium to alk right away since it is so much more than I usually dose (3x more), but I am worried if I decrease the amount of alk it will drop below 7 again.

[reefwithareefer]

a long read, but I found it extremely helpful in answering the same question


http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/

Ooops, wrong one

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by LeanneP

My tank has been at 7 dkh for the past week or so and I have had high calcium. My calcium is now back to 410. I have been dosing 3x the amount for alk. I am assuming that I need to start dosing calcium again. My alk has been stuck at 7-7.3. If I have done water changes to try and get my alk up but then it goes back down to around 7 and I was assuming this was happening because of my high calcium. Should I wait until my alk starts to rise more before starting to dose my calcium or start right away? I am not sure if I should be dosing the same amount of calcium to alk right away since it is so much more than I usually dose (3x more), but I am worried if I decrease the amount of alk it will drop below 7 again.

calcium adding has no effect on alkalinity so if you need to dose calcium do so it wont lower or raise your alk ( provided your using calcium chloride)

the drop after a water change is the salt not being able to supply the demand of your animals , this is very common

only dose even amounts once everything is where you want them and your using a 2 or 3 part recipe, if your raising alk then youll need more alk then calcium if calcium is roughly in range

[vanreefer]

You should also make sure ur MAG is where it should be... It needs to be in range to keep ur ALK up...
Myka has a must read sticky on reef chemistry