Dosing to bring alk back to where i want it

[DomiD]

hey everyone I'm just about to dose for the first time using red sea abc foundation and my head hurts from trying to figure it out

I looking to raise the alk level which is currently 7 my understanding from the research I've been doing online is to only raise it by 1 dkh at a time my target is 9 possibly 10

So according to the red sea calculator I need to add 22ml to get from 7 to 8dkh and I believe this can be done in one go adding slowly to high flow area so when do I dose again to go from 8-9?

My other question is I know I'm suppose to dose alk equally with calcium but calcium is at 480 do I still add the same amount of calcium to keep the balance or none at all

And my mag is 1320 so at what point do I dose this I'm assuming from what I've read and watched that I add at later date once test levels show me that the level has depleted

As always thank you to all you lovely people out there taking the time to read the above

 

[homer1475]

Any reason for 9 to 10 DKH? Natural sea water has a DKH of 7.

Before you raise ALK that high, what are your nutrient(nitrate, phosphate) levels?

With all that asked, you can certainly raise ALK without adding CAL. MAG is dosed when needed, just keep testing it, but you'll find that mag doesn't drop much specially if your using a salt high in MAG and your doing regular water changes.

 

[DomiD]

Any reason for 9 to 10 DKH? Natural sea water has a DKH of 7.

Before you raise ALK that high, what are your nutrient(nitrate, phosphate) levels?

With all that asked, you can certainly raise ALK without adding CAL. MAG is dosed when needed, just keep testing it, but you'll find that mag doesn't drop much specially if your using a salt high in MAG and your doing regular water changes.

Thanks for the reply
all was running fine at 9 now things have started to grow its dropped to 7 everything was going well till this dropped happend then lost 3 head off torch and duncan faded away both were doing well before at the higher dkh I'm also losing to bits of sps and were doing well
Params are as following
Phos 0.03
Nitrate 5
Ph 7.8
Salinity 1.027
Calcium 480
Mag 1320
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Alk 7
Lights 2 red sea 90
Tank is a 3 ft mix of mainly soft and lps with 2 pieces of sps

 

[homer1475]

Its not the actual number causing you issues, its the sudden drop from 9 to 7 that is causing it.

You'll be fine with those nutrient numbers and higher alk, just be aware 10 is at the higher end of the scale. Also keep in mind while your rasing your ALK, it's best to go slow like .5DKH a day is what I like to do, but 1DKH/24H is also fine.

 

[DomiD]

Its not the actual number causing you issues, its the sudden drop from 9 to 7 that is causing it.

You'll be fine with those nutrient numbers and higher alk, just be aware 10 is at the higher end of the scale. Also keep in mind while your rasing your ALK, it's best to go slow like .5DKH a day is what I like to do, but 1DKH/24H is also fine.

Thank so so much this has been bugging so bad

So the if I raise the level by .5 dkh over several days once I get to the desired level then test daily to see drop then dose daily accordingly is that right?

 

[homer1475]

Exactly.