Am i dosing alkalinity right?

[mooputingtong]

i tested alkalinity of my 2 months old reef tank and it came as 7.5. Im trying to raise it to 8 or 8.5 using red sea alkalinity product. My LFS recommended to put 3 separate doses of 1ml per day which will increase about 0.1dkh per day. My target goal is 8-8.5 so it will take several days and several doses. I currently do hand dosing and will eventually get doser in the future. Am i dosing it right without harming my corals?

 

[T-J]

Your tank is 2 months old, and you already have stony corals in it???
I don't know what Alk solution you're using, or how big your system is, but yes, the key to raising alk is over time. Going from 7.5 to 8.0 isn't a big deal, and can be done in a 24 hr period.

 

[mooputingtong]

Your tank is 2 months old, and you already have stony corals in it???
I don't know what Alk solution you're using, or how big your system is, but yes, the key to raising alk is over time. Going from 7.5 to 8.0 isn't a big deal, and can be done in a 24 hr period.

i added 3 small sps frags few days ago so i think its not the corals that affecting kdh(i only have few corals). It might be the salt im using. So raising .5 or 1kdh in a day isnt really going to harm my corals?

i have red sea 250 and using red sea foundation b alk.

 

[Bfragale]

Personally I don’t think .5 is a huge increase. Over a day or two should be ok. But with so few corals, sounds like your salt mixes around 7.5. I would try a salt that mixes at your desired salinity. This wouldn help keep it stable and wouldn’t require dosing at every water change. At this stage I don’t think you need to dose if your salt mix is right. Just food for thought.
Happy reefing!

 

[mooputingtong]

Personally I don’t think .5 is a huge increase. Over a day or two should be ok. But with so few corals, sounds like your salt mixes around 7.5. I would try a salt that mixes at your desired salinity. This would help keep it stable and would require dosing at every water change. At this stage I don’t think you need to dose if your salt mix is right. Just food for thought.
Happy reefing!

I got instant ocean reef for 35 bucks 160 gallon. its 3 times cheaper than most of the salt out there and it has good reviews. If the salt is causing low kdh, i will just dose it to replenish. what will be the ideal kdh for most of the reefers out there? Will 8.5 be perfect level? Thank you!

 

[Bfragale]

I personally shoot for 8.5 - 9. My salt mixes much higher and I still have to dose occasionally. I’m probably ready to set up the auto doser.

A lot of people use IO salt with great success. Can’t beat the price. I’ve been using REd Sea blue bucket. But this is a loaded conversation when it comes to Salt mixes lol.

I think more then The actual number- consistency
Is key. As long as your within acceptable ranges AND consistent I think your be fine.

Take care and Happy Reefing!

 

[T-J]

I personally shoot for 8.5 - 9. My salt mixes much higher and I still have to dose occasionally. I’m probably ready to set up the auto doser.

A lot of people use IO salt with great success. Can’t beat the price. I’ve been using REd Sea blue bucket. But this is a loaded conversation when it comes to Salt mixes lol.

I think more then The actual number- consistency
Is key. As long as your within acceptable ranges AND consistent I think your be fine.

Take care and Happy Reefing!

I'm in the same boat as you. I was an IO user for years, then switched to Red Sea blue bucket. I also target 9 dKh.

To the OP: With your tank being this new, and you just putting some small frags in, your salt mix should be enough to keep up with Alk and Calc concerns through water changes. Once the tank is well established, and you start to see serious growth (and coralline), then dosing should seriously be looked at.

 

[mooputingtong]

I'm in the same boat as you. I was an IO user for years, then switched to Red Sea blue bucket. I also target 9 dKh.

To the OP: With your tank being this new, and you just putting some small frags in, your salt mix should be enough to keep up with Alk and Calc concerns through water changes. Once the tank is well established, and you start to see serious growth (and coralline), then dosing should seriously be looked at.

im thinking about getting a powder one. its about 3 times cheaper than a liquid and will last long. Once coraline takes a serious growth i guess i will need to dose more and often.

 

[Pistondog]

i tested alkalinity of my 2 months old reef tank and it came as 7.5. Im trying to raise it to 8 or 8.5 using red sea alkalinity product. My LFS recommended to put 3 separate doses of 1ml per day which will increase about 0.1dkh per day. My target goal is 8-8.5 so it will take several days and several doses. I currently do hand dosing and will eventually get doser in the future. Am i dosing it right without harming my corals?

In a mature tank with growing corals, alk must be replenished by dosing.
To raise alkalinity, you can add baking soda, mixed in ro water.
For example, my 100g total is starting to use more alk, as I added some stuff. So the alk depletes to 7.5 over a week. Add 1 Teaspoon of baking soda mixed into some ro, poured into high flow to bump to 7.8 dkh.
Now adjust dosing up 10% to keep up with coral load.
Test alk and repeat.

 

[schuby]

People keep their reef tanks at alkalinity levels from 6.5 to 12.0 dKh. There is no "perfect" level. Many people successfully keep well-growing, beautiful SPS corals at 7.5 dKh. One is @Chaswood79 . If your new salt water mixes at 7.5, then keep it there. Start dosing when normal water-changes don't replenish it back to 7.5 or so.

In general, higher Alkalinity levels require higher nutrient levels (phosphate and nitrate). Your reef is very young. Focusing on stability is more important than a specific Alkalinity level.

Good luck!

 

[cshouston]

You really don’t need to be dosing. Your tank is really too young and unstable for SPS, so you may have a tough road ahead. That being said, first off, 7.5dKH is fine. Natural seawater is 7dKH. You don’t need to be messing with all of that right now; stability is more important. Secondly, three small frags aren’t going to be utilizing enough alkalinity or calcium to require dosing. Just a 10% water change weekly is advisable, and will be enough to maintain all of your levels where you want them to be. Don’t overthink things, and be patient! Nothing good comes fast in reefing.

 

[mooputingtong]

In a mature tank with growing corals, alk must be replenished by dosing.
To raise alkalinity, you can add baking soda, mixed in ro water.
For example, my 100g total is starting to use more alk, as I added some stuff. So the alk depletes to 7.5 over a week. Add 1 Teaspoon of baking soda mixed into some ro, poured into high flow to bump to 7.8 dkh.
Now adjust dosing up 10% to keep up with coral load.
Test alk and repeat.

So store bought baking powder and major companies products are same ? i think they just make big money out of it by making it fancy and more convience.

 

[cshouston]

So store bought baking powder and major companies products are same ? i think they just make big money out of it by making it fancy and more convience.

Yes, unless it’s labeled pharmaceutical grade. The boxed stuff from the grocery store may have impurities.

 

[mooputingtong]

People keep their reef tanks at alkalinity levels from 6.5 to 12.0 dKh. There is no "perfect" level. Many people successfully keep well-growing, beautiful SPS corals at 7.5 dKh. One is @Chaswood79 . If your new salt water mixes at 7.5, then keep it there. Start dosing when normal water-changes don't replenish it back to 7.5 or so.

In general, higher Alkalinity levels require higher nutrient levels (phosphate and nitrate). Your reef is very young. Focusing on stability is more important than a specific Alkalinity level.

Good luck!

i dont want it go fall lower than 7.5 dkh. I want to be stable at around 7.5-8.0 dkh. I tested right after water change and results came as 7.5dkh. So i guess my salt has 7.5dkh at 1.25 salinity.

 

[mooputingtong]

Yes, unless it’s labeled pharmaceutical grade. The boxed stuff from the grocery store may have impurities.

I will get the red sea powder and mix it for my self. Its still way cheaper than a liquid one.

 

[Spieg]

I think that IO Reef Crystals should be mixing to higher dkh than 7.5 (usually mixed between 8-9 in my experience). You might want to mix up the salt in the bag/box/bucket a little as the Alk component may be more toward the bottom (stratification is common in many salt brands, especially bargain priced salts).

 

[Pistondog]

So store bought baking powder and major companies products are same ? i think they just make big money out of it by making it fancy and more convience.

Please be careful
Baking SODA is sodium bicarbonate, which is what we want
Baking POWDER is something else, we don't want unless we are baking cookies

 

[mooputingtong]

I think that IO Reef Crystals should be mixing to higher dkh than 7.5 (usually mixed between 8-9 in my experience). You might want to mix up the salt in the bag/box/bucket a little as the Alk component may be more toward the bottom (stratification is common in many salt brands, especially bargain priced salts).

I only have around 10 frags of lps and a toadstool, 4 frags of sps ( recently added) and water change weekly. I tested right after water change and it was 7.5 dkh, also at LFS it was 7.5dkh. What is causing my alk to go down if its not the salt? I will definitely test pre mix salt to see what dkh level at 1.25 salinity. I wanna stay around 8 dkh so it wont go lower than 7.5 dkh.

 

[cshouston]

I only have around 10 frags of lps and a toadstool, 4 frags of sps ( recently added) and water change weekly. I tested right after water change and it was 7.5 dkh, also at LFS it was 7.5dkh. What is causing my alk to go down if its not the salt? I will definitely test pre mix salt to see what dkh level at 1.25 salinity. I wanna stay around 8 dkh so it wont go lower than 7.5 dkh.

Nitrification consumes alkalinity. How many fish do you have?

“The nitrification reaction (that is, the conversion of ammonia to nitrate) consumes 7.1 mg/L of alkalinity as CaCO3 for each mg/L of ammonia nitrogen oxidized.”
Source

 

[mooputingtong]

Nitrification consumes alkalinity. How many fish do you have?

“The nitrification reaction (that is, the conversion of ammonia to nitrate) consumes 7.1 mg/L of alkalinity as CaCO3 for each mg/L of ammonia nitrogen oxidized.”
Source

i have 5 fish but its all nano size. So it might be the fish?