Dosing with double the water volume and BAD test kit.

[kaceyo]

Hi All,
I just moved up from a 50 gal to a 100 gal and all is going well...but, when I did an Alk test with my Red Sea Reefer kit The colors were so faint I couldn't tell when or even if there was a color change. Could the reagent have gone that bad due to the high temps we're seeing in my area? It's all I can think of to account for the change in the test kit. 10 days ago, when I did the last test I had no trouble with seeing the color change, but now the water is nearly clear when Reagent is added.
Second problem, I was going to track the alk in the new tank and adjust my dosing accordingly, but that's not happening now and I won't get my new Hanna Alk Checker for 8 days. Can I just continue to add the same amount of BRS Alk liquid to the 100 as I was in the 50, thinking the corals will use close to the same amount in either? or does the added volume of water change the dosing amount?
I don't have access to another test kit so I just have to decide on dosing amount via your your advice and and my best instincts and (shudder) hope for the best. I do have 5 or 6 acros and some other sps so I'm kinda worried about them.
Please let me know what you think.
PS My alk was at 8.2 and I used Red Sea Blue bucket which mixes up, via Red Sea, to 8dKH at 35ppm where I keep my tank.
Thanks very much,

Kacey

 

[kaceyo]

No replies? I really didn't word it very well. If you double the volume of your tank, should you expect to have to double the amount of alk you're adding to keep it stable at the same dKH as the smaller tank? Or add the same amount? Or are there too many variables to even make a close estimate?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If you change nothing but the water volume doubles and everything else is unchanged, the apparent drop in alk will be half as much, but it will take exactly the same amount of supplement to get back to where you were in alk or calcium.

 

[kaceyo]

Hey Randy, Thanks for the reassurance. That's exactly what I've been doing. Keeping the other params where they had been and letting the doser add alk exactly as before. I was pretty sure that was the way to go but worried there were considerations I wasn't aware of.
Thanks,

Kacey

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hey Randy, Thanks for the reassurance. That's exactly what I've been doing. Keeping the other params where they had been and letting the doser add alk exactly as before. I was pretty sure that was the way to go but worried there were considerations I wasn't aware of.
Thanks,

Kacey

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing.