Dosing and Water Changes

[Dahaker89]

I'll be starting to dose the new tank soon. Question I have for y'all, how will dosing affect my water changes? less or more changes? I do 10% once a week with Red Sea Coral Pro.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Downbeach]

There's a procedure I think it prudent to follow to help to minimize the effects of WC's on dosing. Although I think it good practice at any time.
First, if you're not using the entire package, would be to thoroughly mix the salt mix to make sure there was no elemental stratification that may have occurred during shipping, and you're getting the proper proportions of all the elements, i.e. Ca, Mg, Alk, etc., with each measure of salt mix when you make up your WC water.
Secondly, following proper mixing procedures, i.e. using RO/DI water, adding the salt mix to the water, etc., I would make sure to accurately get the SG you want, I preferred 1.026(35ppt), using a properly calibrated measuring device, i.e. refractometer calibrated with a 35ppt solution(not plain water), to ensure the same amount of these elements with each WC. Using a swing arm type of hydrometer, or other non/mis calibrated device can cause differences in your SG when you make up your WC water, and further skew a dosing schedule. Using a decent set of test kits, i.e. Salifert, Red Sea Pro, etc., measure your Mg first, making sure it’s between 1200-1400ppm, then your Alk and Ca.
Next, I would set and keep a schedule of WC's in terms of both frequency, i.e. weekly, bi monthly, monthly, etc. and volume, i.e. 10%, 15%/10 gal.,15 gal., etc. to help minimize any skewing that may normally occur, since this is where you're adding/replenishing those elements in an ongoing basis.
Depending on a particular load in any system, it's likely that you may need to adjust your dosing based on a particular WC schedule, i.e. the disproportionate use of Alk vs Ca supplement, since the WC is better at keeping up with the Ca needs. You may notice that, with regular WC's, you may never have to dose any Mg, since there is very little of it used (about 1/10th of your Ca use), and it’s replenished with regular WC's.

 

[Dahaker89]

Wow thanks for taking your time on this detailed explanation! Much appreciated

 

[Reefahholic]

Nice write up!

 

[Gustavo Martinez]

Awesome thanks

 

[dbl]

Nice write up indeed. Let me add one word of caution using the RS Coral Pro salt. It mixes to about +/- 12 dKh alk at 1.026. So unless you're running your system at that alk level, it can cause a small spike when doing your water change. It may or may not be an issue based on your dosing regiment but thought I should at least mention it.

 

[Dahaker89]

Nice write up indeed. Let me add one word of caution using the RS Coral Pro salt. It mixes to about +/- 12 dKh alk at 1.026. So unless you're running your system at that alk level, it can cause a small spike when doing your water change. It may or may not be an issue based on your dosing regiment but thought I should at least mention it.

Thank you! Definitely something I'll keep an eye on. I started the tank with coral pro so I'm going to stick with it unless something changes with them haha

 

[Salty1962]

Nice write up indeed. Let me add one word of caution using the RS Coral Pro salt. It mixes to about +/- 12 dKh alk at 1.026. So unless you're running your system at that alk level, it can cause a small spike when doing your water change. It may or may not be an issue based on your dosing regiment but thought I should at least mention it.

That's why I stopped using it.

 

[Salty1962]

I usually take my doser offline during a wc. For me I know to wait 2 days after the wc to turn the doser back on. If I'm in doubt I test the levels to make sure I don't put too much of an element. As @Downbeach mentioned, You need a good test kit to calculate levels! JME

 

[Dahaker89]

What do y'all use for testing? I'm all Red Sea, used API when I started with saltwater way back and did not like their kits at all, I heard salifert is really good?

 

[nicholaskho]

How do you guys maintain the alkalinity that you want ?

Let's say I'm aiming for 7.7dkh and my dosing is 15ml 3x per day. So once I reach 7.7dkh do I reduce my dosage or reduce the mix of my alkalinity ?

Thanks

 

[Dahaker89]

How do you guys maintain the alkalinity that you want ?

Let's say I'm aiming for 7.7dkh and my dosing is 15ml 3x per day. So once I reach 7.7dkh do I reduce my dosage or reduce the mix of my alkalinity ?

Thanks

Like Donwbeach said and how I plan to do so, test within a week and see how much your KH drops then dose accordingly. That way you'll have a set number to dose and you wouldn't need to turn off dosing once you get to whatever level you need. It will continue to maintain itself until you do your water change and so forth.

 

[nervousmonkey]

What do y'all use for testing? I'm all Red Sea,

Red Sea is great except for Mg... Use Salifert or someone else for mag.
@Downbeach explained it all perfectly. Something he said that is worth repeating is testing your newly mixed water to make sure that it matches what levels you want to keep your parameters. That may dictate the salt mix you use.

 

[Lninwa]

The Red Sea pro has a dKh in the 12ish range. I use this salt and since I'm aiming for 9-9.5 I placed my ato pump in plain RODI water overnight. After Friday's WC my Ca was up to 270 and my dKh was 9.7. Now this am it's Ca 440 and dKh 9.4

 

[Lninwa]

Forgot to say I'm running my ato with 3 tsp of kalk normally. Not many corals yet. But just added a sweet Bonsi this afternoon