Dosing for Alkalinity - how to dose ongoing?

[bsdubois00]

So I found the multiple calculators out there that give quantities for dosing but curious is this a one time dose, an ongoing dose, etc etc.

My Alkalinity is currently around 6.4 and wanting to bump it up to the 9 range - the calculators give me an amount to dose but I'm unsure if that's one time / daily / etc etc.

Help with a strategy please.

Thanks

 

[rishma]

So I found the multiple calculators out there that give quantities for dosing but curious is this a one time dose, an ongoing dose, etc etc.

My Alkalinity is currently around 6.4 and wanting to bump it up to the 9 range - the calculators give me an amount to dose but I'm unsure if that's one time / daily / etc etc.

Help with a strategy please.

Thanks

All calculators I’m familiar with give you a one time dose. You do not want to bump it from 6.4 to 9 in one shot in my opinion.

I like to raise my alkalinity about 0.5 dKH per day if I need to correct. More is probably fine. Maybe 1dkh/day.

Depending on the product, you might want to break the 0.5-1 dKH dose up into multiple smaller doses instead of all once.

A dosing pump or daily manual dosing for ongoing to maintain your alkalinity will require you to determine your daily consumption. Happy to help with that if interested.

 

[bsdubois00]

So let’s say I slowly raise it the 1 dKh / day - I eventually hit my goal of 9….what do I do ongoing beyond that is what I’m struggling to figure out.

 

[56longroof]

So let’s say I slowly raise it the 1 dKh / day - I eventually hit my goal of 9….what do I do ongoing beyond that is what I’m struggling to figure out.

Once you get it where you want it you can start dosing kalk.

 

[Jesse Sunday]

So I found the multiple calculators out there that give quantities for dosing but curious is this a one time dose, an ongoing dose, etc etc.

My Alkalinity is currently around 6.4 and wanting to bump it up to the 9 range - the calculators give me an amount to dose but I'm unsure if that's one time / daily / etc etc.

Help with a strategy please.

Thanks

Do you happen to measure Ca too?

I've found that Kalk raises my Alk nicely... I'm dosing about 1,000ml per day. I started with a simple dripper kit from BRS but recently switched to using my DOS.

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-diy-kalk-dripper-kit.html

 

[bsdubois00]

I’m light on space so was trying to find a solution that didn’t require a big reactor or jug in the side of the tank. Hence trying to go a route other than Kalk

 

[Jesse Sunday]

I’m light on space so was trying to find a solution that didn’t require a big reactor or jug in the side of the tank. Hence trying to go a route other than Kalk

With the dripper kit, you can use as large or as small container as you'd like. What size tank?

 

[bsdubois00]

70g display plus about 15~ in the sump.

 

[Reefering1]

Start testing everyday(at the same time) . Make a log. You should notice a steady decline(daily consumption). if you don't, you don't need to be dosing yet...

 

[rishma]

So let’s say I slowly raise it the 1 dKh / day - I eventually hit my goal of 9….what do I do ongoing beyond that is what I’m struggling to figure out.

there may be more to discuss regarding what product you are using, how you maintain calcium, etc. But I’ll keep it generic for now.

In my opinion, the easiest way to get started is take a guess. Say 0.2 dKH/day (assuming you have Coral or coraline growth consuming alkalinity) Test your alkalinity, dose the amount to provide 0.2dkh, test again the next day (or repeat that dose several days in a row and test again on day 4 before you dose).

If your alkalinity is declining by 0.1 per day, increase your daily dose to compensate. The new dose would be 0.3 dKH/ day in this example.

Keep tweaking and measuring until you are getting reasonably steady dKH. The test error will make the value vary a little daily, so I usually wait until I have at least 2-3 test results showing a trend before adjusting my dose unless I was way off.

 

[Jesse Sunday]

70g display plus about 15~ in the sump.

I literally just had a 1g jug sitting on top of my sump, dripping kalk.

(the jug is in the same spot, except now I have the DOS in place of the dripper)

 

[bsdubois00]

there may be more to discuss regarding what product you are using, how you maintain calcium, etc. But I’ll keep it generic for now.

In my opinion, the easiest way to get started is take a guess. Say 0.2 dKH/day (assuming you have Coral or coraline growth consuming alkalinity) Test your alkalinity, dose the amount to provide 0.2dkh, test again the next day (or repeat that dose several days in a row and test again on day 4 before you dose).

If your alkalinity is declining by 0.1 per day, increase your daily dose to compensate. The new dose would be 0.3 dKH/ day in this example.

Keep tweaking and measuring until you are getting reasonably steady dKH. The test error will make the value vary a little daily, so I usually wait until I have at least 2-3 test results showing a trend before adjusting my dose unless I was way off.

Gotcha - so basically just so I understand. Once I get it to the desired level I’m using testing and the calculators to essentially tell me how much to add daily to make up for consumption and replenish the alk.

 

[Kingsley_Reef]

Currently using my own DIY version of the kalk dripper kit to slowly raise my alk about 1DKH a day using sodium bicarbonate dissolved in 800ml or Rodi ,working well

 

[backbayreef]

I’m doing both: calcium reactor + kalk stirrer for pH boost.

 

[KrisReef]

I’m doing both: calcium reactor + kalk stirrer for pH boost.

This is what ai should be doing but I’m too lazy to set up the Kalk for pH booster.

And I don’t have one either.

 

[bsdubois00]

I just added a co2 scrubber for pH. Took me from 7.8 to around 8.18-8.2 - not too bad at all.

 

[backbayreef]

This is what ai should be doing but I’m too lazy to set up the Kalk for pH booster.

And I don’t have one either.

Laziness promotes creativity & automation! ;)
It was super easy for me — I was already pushing RODI from the reservoir at 8mls/min using the Kamoer so just fed that into a K1. My pH is between 8.2 to 8.3 since this was put in place.

 

[rishma]

Gotcha - so basically just so I understand. Once I get it to the desired level I’m using testing and the calculators to essentially tell me how much to add daily to make up for consumption and replenish the alk.

Yes. I’d you don’t have a lot of coral or things consuming alkalinity, you can simply not dose for a few days and watch it drop.

I do not recommend dosing alkalinity without also dosing calcium unless you have good reason to believe they are out of balance and need correcting. Alkalinity and calcium are consumed in (nearly) fixed proportions. So I believe it’s best to dose both in most cases.

 

[backbayreef]

I just added a co2 scrubber for pH. Took me from 7.8 to around 8.18-8.2 - not too bad at all.

I have that on my 150g SPS tank but might cost an arm & leg in media on bigger tanks.

 

[backbayreef]

I just added a co2 scrubber for pH. Took me from 7.8 to around 8.18-8.2 - not too bad at all.

I can peg it to 8.4 with a recirculating CO2 scrubber. Noticed that media is getting depleted in a week…