Another Dosing Question (Hand Dosing)

[Bells>Waimea]

Hi guys,

First time dosing! Have a few questions.

I just started hand dosing. I had been losing about .1dkh per day, but since I added a bunch of stuff I'm now losing .3 or .4dkh per day so I got the BRS 2 part.

I have been dosing 3.2ml of ALK per day to keep the tank at 8.5dkh. One question I have is: Are swings of .3 to .4 dkh in a 24 hours period too big to be considered "Stable" for SPS or otherwise?

Also, I read/hear that I should be dosing EQUAL amounts of CAL and ALK when dosing. Does this mean that reef tanks are consuming EQUAL amounts of CAL and ALK?

So, once I'm at my preferred levels of ALK and CAL, if I'm dosing 3.2ml per day of ALK should I then be dosing 3.2ml of CAL as well?

ALK is what we are basing this number off of? Not CAL? I guess the dosing equal parts of both ALK and CAL is what's confusing me.

Many thanks to those who take the time to answer a dosing noob.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Most tanks will use a balanced 2 part in equal parts. There are some instances where less of one maybe used with certain nutrient control methods. But most tanks, if one parameter is off dose both at equal amounts till both alk and cal are at stable numbers using a balanced dosing amount.

for Aquacultured sps, a drift of under .5 dkh a day is usually fine. Wild or maricultured corals i find that they handle swings much more poorly so would aim towards .2-3dkh
And a lower tank dkh overall around 7-7.5.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

If you are using the brs two part then yes. Every time you dose one, wait a little and dose the same amount of the other.

As mentioned above, it is rare that cal and all are not consumed at the same rate. AND..adding one makes the other go down...so, now you know

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

When demand is very low, the minor things that can lead to unbalanced demand get proportionally larger. But the reason to use alk is that it is very hard to see the calcium changes associated with an alk change as small as yours. Then if you wait a week or two without dosing calcium, you will likely find the needed addition is not far off of what you would have dosed all along (unless water changes alter levels).

so use the alk change to get the daily dose of both, then monitor calcium weekly or so and slowly adjust that dose as needed.