Dosing Red Sea Foundation Supplements

Semper.Reefing · Feb 22, 2020

Hello everyone! Just looking for some advice. I have a 55 gallon mixed reef with a fair amount of LPS that are doing great, a lot of soft corals that are awesome and some sps to include 3 birds nest, one acro and one month cap. I just added the acro to see how well it might do in my tank. I have been doing a lot of reading and understand that they do not like big swings in water parameters.
I recently bought the Red Sea foundation kit to have on hand if needed. I do a small water change (5 gallons) once every 2 weeks. I guess you could say I’m nervous about having my first acro and want to make sure everything is perfect. My Ca is 420ppm pH 8.2-8.3, Alk 7dkh and have little to no nitrates and phosphates. Currently running 2 kessil 160we’s that ramp up to 80% intensity and have an ATI blue plus that turns on 2.5 hours each day. I mix kalkwasser in my ATO reservoir to help maintain water parameters.
I’m wondering if my parameters seem are good enough to keep my new acro frag happy. I feel like my dkh might be a little low from what I’ve read. If I need to raise it, what’s the best way to use this kit to dose? I do not have a Mg test kit and will be investing in one soon to find out where it is. Any input is greatly appreciated!

SyracuseMatt · Feb 22, 2020

Alk at 7.0 is at the very low end of o.k.. I don't think you'll have any problems at that level but, if it dips at all, you might have an issue. So, it's probably better to target a number closer to 8.0. Many people go higher but, I wouldn't go higher, at least to start.

Lots of people have great success with Kalk in their ATO. The basic issue with dosing alk and calc this way is that evaporation is controlling your dosing rather than your dosing being independent of evaporation. For this reason, many people move to dosing two part (one alk solution and one calc solution) either by hand or with dosing pumps. Personally, I dose BRS two part in both my tanks, one with the BRS dosing pumps and the other with a Neptune DOS. They both work but, I find the BRS dosing pumps to be easier to use.

Your light may also be an issue but, it's likely to be very hard to tell without a par meter. In a perfect world, particularly as your acros start to go out, you'll want nice, even lighting from multiple angles. Supplementing with T5s is a great way to improve 'spotlightly' LEDs but, a single bulb running for a couple of hours a day might not do the trick. On a 55 gallon tank, I'd probably run at least a couple of T5s for 4-8 hours a day (adjusting your LEDs down accordingly so you're not blasting things with too much light).

Matt

Semper.Reefing · Feb 22, 2020

Thank you for your insight! I was about to dose alk because I want to target around 9dkh. I would do this in small increments to slowly bring it up. I do eventually want to invest in a doser. I agree about the kalk in the ATO. Do I need to dose Ca along with alk? I also just did a PAR test on my tank last week and learned that it was pretty low. Which is why I ramped the intensity up a little more and added the T5. I will most likely buy another T5 fixture and run an ATI Coral plus.

SyracuseMatt · Feb 25, 2020

You will need to dose both alk and calc. 9 dkh for alk is fine but probably higher than I would go. Alk and calc consumption should be roughly the same. There is a product that has both but I forget the name. It is also relatively expensive. I tend to judge my tank health in part by the amount of alk and calc consumption. If its going up, that means my stoney corals and coralline algae are happy and growing.

Matt

0utworld · Feb 25, 2020

SyracuseMatt said:
You will need to dose both alk and calc. 9 dkh for alk is fine but probably higher than I would go. Alk and calc consumption should be roughly the same. There is a product that has both but I forget the name. It is also relatively expensive. I tend to judge my tank health in part by the amount of alk and calc consumption. If its going up, that means my stoney corals and coralline algae are happy and growing.

Matt

Are you thinking of Tropic Marin All-for-Reef? I've been using it for my 20 gallon, but it can be expensive for a 55.