Calcium and Alkalinity Dosing Methods

Hunter90 HD

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Hi All,

I am relatively new to reefing but learning a very steep learning curve which has been great fun, now my water parameters are very stable and i am now in a position where i can see my coral nutrient demand, i am looking to 'fine-tune' my dosing.

So the past two weeks i have been dosing Kh daily and i have achieved a very stable Kh of around 9.0, but i am now looking to dose calcium since i can now see that my tank is consuming around 50ppm of calcium per week, so i am starting to dose calcium daily as from yesterday.

I have read throughout a lot of forums about dosing kH and Ca together is not advised due to evaporation and i get the general feel to dose Kh then leave it for a good few hours whilst the Kh stabilises and then dose Ca - So this has been my plan since yesterday and the water parameters are stable with Calcium being kept at a stable 440ppm.

I just wanted to see how folks on here dose calcium and alkalinity correctly, i currently dose manually.

My tank is 57litres with a few LPS corals

I am using Red Sea Foundation ABC+ supplements (no Magnesium at the moment).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,

Happy reefing! :D
 

Spare time

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Basically just figure out your daily consumption (doesn't have to be exact), and then dose the proper amount of ml to replace that. In your case, you can just split up what time of day you are dosing. Just remember that Red Sea calcium and alk are NOT dosed in even proportions.
 
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Hunter90 HD

Hunter90 HD

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Basically just figure out your daily consumption (doesn't have to be exact), and then dose the proper amount of ml to replace that. In your case, you can just split up what time of day you are dosing. Just remember that Red Sea calcium and alk are NOT dosed in even proportions.
Thanks Spare Time :)..

Yeah i did notice, so at the moment i does 0.5ml of Kh and 1.9ml based on demand which i test Kh daily and Ca and Mg weekly.

I did notice that because the aquarium is small, water evaporation really effects the salinity, which i do top up daily but i have installed a Tunze Nano Osmolator so again fine-tuning keeping the levels stable 24/7 instead of 1 top-up 1x every 24hrs.

I have not really seen a demand to increase Mg which i have read is ignored by alot of reefers but is very important, last week the Mg started at 1280 then end of week 1240, but i don't see the need to dose this.

Would you dose Mg to keep the 1280 stable throughout the week?

Lee
 

Spare time

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Thanks Spare Time :)..

Yeah i did notice, so at the moment i does 0.5ml of Kh and 1.9ml based on demand which i test Kh daily and Ca and Mg weekly.

I did notice that because the aquarium is small, water evaporation really effects the salinity, which i do top up daily but i have installed a Tunze Nano Osmolator so again fine-tuning keeping the levels stable 24/7 instead of 1 top-up 1x every 24hrs.

I have not really seen a demand to increase Mg which i have read is ignored by alot of reefers but is very important, last week the Mg started at 1280 then end of week 1240, but i don't see the need to dose this.

Would you dose Mg to keep the 1280 stable throughout the week?

Lee

I currently use a DIY all in one dosing solution, but previously would only dose magnesium once a month (I dropped around 100ppm magnesium a month before). Daily dosing of magnesium is far from needed unless your tank uses an insane amount of elements. A lot of people don't bother dosing it as their water changes keep up with it but in bigger tanks those water changes are much more of a pain to do.
 
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Hunter90 HD

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MG up first to 1360 to 1410.
Then manage Alk consumption, it the main driver
Thank you Unlce99, from the Red Sea recipe for a mixed reef, great colour and okay growth is shows a Mg of 1280, I’m assuming 1410 will encourage quicker coral growth?

Lee
 

Uncle99

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Thank you Unlce99, from the Red Sea recipe for a mixed reef, great colour and okay growth is shows a Mg of 1280, I’m assuming 1410 will encourage quicker coral growth?

Lee
Nope. Not more growth (that I no of) I do not agree with Red Sea on this parameter.

I do love Red Sea, just not that recommended level.

It’s hard to overdose MG, unless you start going beyond 1600ppm.

I run 1410 as my salt is 1410 and my torches and hammers seem fuller at this level.

For bette4 colour and growth, I run 11.5dkh, CA 465ppm, nitrates a 10-15ppm and phosphate at .1ppm.
 

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