Adding water volume to an established system

[Sabellafella]

Hey randy! I'll try my best to make it short, I'm adding 80 gallong of water volume to an established system. On my established system, I dose full top up saturated kalk, along with 2 part. Totals up to about 2.3 dkh daily.

When I tie my 80 gallon setup into my established system(120g). do I need to adjust my dosing to account for 2.3 dkh overall water volume, or do I keep it the same dosing routine? If you could explain the answer, that would be fantastic! I'm almost positive I have to up the dosing about 60 70% of what it's at now. 2.3 dkh for me is literally playing with lava, so I'm trying to be as cautious as I can.

Thank you! Chris

 

[joethenathan]

You won’t have to change how much you’re adding unless you add more things that will consume it. For example, if you’re adding carbonate for the corals to consume, and if they’re consuming 5g of carbonate a day today, they will still consume that amount tomorrow, regardless of water volume.

 

[Sabellafella]

You won’t have to change how much you’re adding unless you add more things that will consume it. For example, if you’re adding carbonate for the corals to consume, and if they’re consuming 5g of carbonate a day today, they will still consume that amount tomorrow, regardless of water volume.

This is exactly the reason why I questioned this question, based on consumption not by volume. But, for some gut feeling, i still don't think this is correct. I guess I'll wait to see everyone's opinion to see what I can make from this, and try to understand better

 

[joseserrano]

The gentleman who commented is correct. Its about consumption not water volume. The larger volume will give you a longer/bigger buffer though.

 

[Waynerock]

Hey randy! I'll try my best to make it short, I'm adding 80 gallong of water volume to an established system. On my established system, I dose full top up saturated kalk, along with 2 part. Totals up to about 2.3 dkh daily.

When I tie my 80 gallon setup into my established system(120g). do I need to adjust my dosing to account for 2.3 dkh overall water volume, or do I keep it the same dosing routine? If you could explain the answer, that would be fantastic! I'm almost positive I have to up the dosing about 60 70% of what it's at now. 2.3 dkh for me is literally playing with lava, so I'm trying to be as cautious as I can.

Thank you! Chris

I have to agree with the consumption over water volume.
*Sorry quick hijack* I have seen your posts on here since last year when I joined and always wanted to say, dang man you can grow some corals! I aspire to do what you do sir.

 

[joethenathan]

I have seen your posts on here since last year when I joined and always wanted to say, dang man you can grow some corals! I aspire to do what you do sir.

Now I gotta go look...

EDIT - yup

 

[Sabellafella]

I have to agree with the consumption over water volume.
*Sorry quick hijack* I have seen your posts on here since last year when I joined and always wanted to say, dang man you can grow some corals! I aspire to do what you do sir.

Thank you! I'm actually pretty educated throughout the hobby, because almost everything fascinates me. This is such a common sense question and for some reason I'm having trouble trying to comprehend the appropriate action I need to take here.

Its driving me crazy LOL. All it takes is for my tank to skip a day of dosing for some bad stuff to hit the fan, I guess it's best to be as careful as I can.

 

[Sabellafella]

I have to agree with the consumption over water volume.
*Sorry quick hijack* I have seen your posts on here since last year when I joined and always wanted to say, dang man you can grow some corals! I aspire to do what you do sir.

And thanks again for the kind words!

 

[KrisReef]

And thanks again for the kind words!

It’s like how many happy meals do your kids eat?
If you get a bigger car, do the kids eat more because they have more room?

But, when you add the new water it needs to be at the same tank parameters (levels) just the same as we do when we do a regular water change. This time your just adding more water(your kids have more space in the car!)

If that doesn’t help, at least I had fun trying. good luck and keep on reefing!

 

[Fishfinder]

I have to disagree. I think It is based on volume of water

 

[Fishfinder]

2.3dkh consumption in 100gal will not be the same dkh consumption in 200gal

 

[Fishfinder]

Dkh is the concentration of carbonate per volume of water. If you were measuring the weight of carbonate consumed it will be equal in both tanks. But the dkh drop will be different

Think of it on a grand scale. If you put your coral in a 1000gal system they won’t pull out 2.3dkh daily

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The total alk consumed will not change much. Note that it isn’t measured in dKH, but in molar equivalents of alkalinity, so is independent of the volume. Thus the amount dosed will mostly not need to change.
BUT, there will be changes. Especially in evaporation and the limewater top off. Evaporation will likely increase so that method adds more now.

depending on how often you dose the two part, you may see more stable alk levels and that might allow corals to grow more, increasing demand.

pH may change as the air/wAter interface is increased. I can’t be sure what direction that takes it in your setting, but that too might alter daily demand.

 

[Sabellafella]

Dkh is the concentration of carbonate per volume of water. If you were measuring the weight of carbonate consumed it will be equal in both tanks. But the dkh drop will be different

Think of it on a grand scale. If you put your coral in a 1000gal system they won’t pull out 2.3dkh daily

It’s like how many happy meals do your kids eat?
If you get a bigger car, do the kids eat more because they have more room?

But, when you add the new water it needs to be at the same tank parameters (levels) just the same as we do when we do a regular water change. This time your just adding more water(your kids have more space in the car!)

If that doesn’t help, at least I had fun trying. good luck and keep on reefing!

Lol I spoke about this with my buddy's today, and the analogy were very funny!

I figured if I'm putting all of those grams of supplements in, my corals/critters are producing that with growth. What got me thinking as to why would I would add more two part? My nano tank was using about 1.5 dkh daily, witch was a very small amount of two part. I assumed that when transfering everything into my main system, I upped the dosing to account for that and my chemistry never changed. The whole process had me pondering.

I had cured some Haitian rock that I had gotten about 1 1/2 years ago. Did water changes and whatnot on the container with the rock since I got it so i assume it's perfectly clean. Hopefully the whole bacteria on fresh surfaces process doesn't butcher my ph. I tried to minimize that by filling the system with tank water for (now) 3 weeks first. Ph inside the tank now is pretty high fortunately so I think I should be ok. I already have a .5° swing daily in ph from everything growing.

 

[Fishfinder]

Wow that ph swing see pretty big. But it’s obviously not hurting anything.

You shouldn’t use more dosing supplement with the larger volume unless your adding more corals as well. But with the large volume it will be a smaller dkh usage daily

 

[Sabellafella]

The total alk consumed will not change much. Note that it isn’t measured in dKH, but in molar equivalents of alkalinity, so is independent of the volume. Thus the amount dosed will mostly not need to change.
BUT, there will be changes. Especially in evaporation and the limewater top off. Evaporation will likely increase so that method adds more now.

depending on how often you dose the two part, you may see more stable alk levels and that might allow corals to grow more, increasing demand.

pH may change as the air/wAter interface is increased. I can’t be sure what direction that takes it in your setting, but that too might alter daily demand.

Incredible! So I'm actually now very happy that I can add more kalkwasser. Two part is getting expensive and I had maxed out with kalk. I actually dose it with a dosing pump because of all the inconsistencies, sediment and everything that goes along with not dosing.

I use a gravity fed topoff just incase the evaporation increases due to hot weather or pump cleanings(more surface agitation).

I'll most likely have to up the dosing just a little bit because I'm already shy with daily consumption. I'll be testing twice daily until I get it figured out

Thank you for taking the time out to reply. Almost darn near added an extra gallon of kalk along with 60 MLS of concentrated twopart.

 

[Sabellafella]

Wow that ph swing see pretty big. But it’s obviously not hurting anything.

You shouldn’t use more dosing supplement with the larger volume unless your adding more corals as well. But with the large volume it will be a smaller dkh usage daily

I hear you! One everything settles in, I'll be adding more corals. Just very scared because for 4 years everything's been doing extremely well. I even ran ro water through the PVC for 5 days just because I was scared about the glue solvent.

I had taken every precaution I had thought about. The only two things that have stopped me from tapping the system into my display was the two part issue, and the 25 snails that I put into the frag tank from my display - spawned immediately. So I'll have to run this skimmer for another day or two before turning the return pump on.

The only swing I should have is ruffly a .4 .5 raise in alkalinity, witch is nothing considering I do a 20% weekly with 5 dkh higher salt mix.