Alk and cal dosing with red sea

[jwesley5480]

Good day. I had a fight with Dino’s recently and in that fight I let my tank stay with the same water for a while. Now I have lower parameters and it seems like my tanks doing better as things are growing. With that my alk has dropped from 7.9 to 6.8 over the last 7 days while the remaining parameters are good for cal and mag. So I’m going to dose my all to get it back up verse a WC.
That leads to my question. I have Red Sea ab+ foundation and used a online calculator. It suggests that I add 13.9 ml of all to my tank and 9.9 ml of cal to balance it. Do I add this all at once? If not how much do I add at one time?

 

[blaxsun]

Without knowing the size of your tank I couldn't verify. I assume it's probably daily. Just FYI, I only dose about 12.5ml of AB+ daily in my 200-gallon system and less than 6ml of calcium to maintain levels.

 

[jwesley5480]

Without knowing the size of your tank I couldn't verify. I assume it's probably daily. Just FYI, I only dose about 12.5ml of AB+ daily in my 200-gallon system and less than 6ml of calcium to maintain levels.

Sorry should have posted that. My tank size is 32.5 gallons but with rock and sand is say more like 30 gallons. By my calculations I’m consuming .08 alk daily.

 

[blaxsun]

Sorry should have posted that. My tank size is 32.5 gallons but with rock and sand is say more like 30 gallons. By my calculations I’m consuming .08 alk daily.

On such a small tank I'd be reluctant to add large amounts of any supplement (better to gradually increase the levels). I don't do water changes on my tank, so I use a bit more supplements to maintain levels, ie:

• 80ml/daily alkalinity
• 6ml/daily calcium
• 2ml/daily magnesium

This is on a 200-gallon system, so if you're doing regular 10%/every 2 week water changes you'll need far, far less. Reef Energy AB+ I'd start at maybe 2.5ml daily, 2ml of alkalinity and 2ml of calcium and test daily until you reach the desired levels.

I aim for 8.25-8.5dKH, 450-500ppm calcium and 1350-1450ppm magnesium myself.

 

[jwesley5480]

On such a small tank I'd be reluctant to add large amounts of any supplement (better to gradually increase the levels). I don't do water changes on my tank, so I use a bit more supplements to maintain levels, ie:

• 80ml/daily alkalinity
• 6ml/daily calcium
• 2ml/daily magnesium

This is on a 200-gallon system, so if you're doing regular 10%/every 2 week water changes you'll need far, far less. Reef Energy AB+ I'd start at maybe 2.5ml daily, 2ml of alkalinity and 2ml of calcium and test daily until you reach the desired levels.

I aim for 8.25-8.5dKH, 450-500ppm calcium and 1350-1450ppm magnesium myself.

Excellent thank you. Before my battle with Dino’s I was at 9 dKH 450ppm and 1400 on magnesium. But since the last two weeks when I feel I beat it my levels have been dropping but I see way more coralline algea and my gsp is taking off. I was hoping just a water change could fix it back to my higher levels but I would have to do a 50% WC to get back there and feel that’s to risky after my battle with Dino’s.

 

[blaxsun]

Just stick with your regular water changes. These will slowly (over time) replenish most of your elements anyway, so you should only need to supplement for a short while (maybe a week or two at most).

 

[jwesley5480]

Just stick with your regular water changes. These will slowly (over time) replenish most of your elements anyway, so you should only need to supplement for a short while (maybe a week or two at most).

Thanks. I’ll follow your advice probably only add 2ml a day to keep alk close to 7 and build from there. I’ll do multiple WC through the next couple weeks to slowly build things back up.