How far will this system carry me in terms of alk consumption and elements?

[rennjidk]

20g Fusion (15g volume). I set up an AWC which will do 3g a month (10% bi-weekly) spaced out daily. My ATO is 5g and consistantly lasts 30 days. I plan on using kalk to supplement. I believe at full saturation, that's roughly 3dkh going in daily, but not 100% sure on that figure.

I'm going for a very clean build, and am willing to compromise on what goes into the tank, just not the system itself. This is what my time allows in this hobby now.

Should I stick with a soft/lps mixed reef, or would I be able to do a packed SPS tank full of sticks and caps? My biggest fear is getting 2 years in and realizing that alk, cal, or mag are dropping faster than I can replenish them like this.

 

[Gribbles]

3dkh daily consumption is enormous... do you know how much volume you'd be adding daily?

Did you mean .3?

 

[rennjidk]

3dkh daily consumption is enormous... do you know how much volume you'd be adding daily?

Did you mean .3?

Really? I seen a lot of posts saying they dose that amount daily. I thought that even coralline could use like 2dkh a day in a covered tank.

If I was fully saturating my ATO, 5g/30 is around a pint a day, and a pint of fully saturated limewater would be about a 3dkh bump in a 15g tank, atleast according to the calculator I used.

 

[rtparty]

I dose 2600ml of fully saturated kalk daily to my 250g system. It’s nowhere near 3dkh going in daily.

I’m not sure how much alkalinity I add in terms of dkh daily but 3dkh is way up there. Like wall to wall, top to bottom SPS packed in at every spot imaginable.

I would venture to bet that kalkwasser alone will be plenty for a long time. Maybe indefinitely

I will say I am curious now how much alkalinity my system uses each day. I dose the 2600ml of kalkwasser plus 100ml of BRS soda ash to maintain my levels

 

[ryanjohn1]

I do 550 ml fully saturated lime water daily in 100 gallons

 

[rennjidk]

I must have been looking at some monster systems, lol. Glad to know that kalk will take me that far.

 

[flashsmith]

Just do a 10% water change weekly and more than likely you won't need to dose in a tank that small.

 

[rennjidk]

If alkalinity is fine, should my WC schedule be able to maintain magnesium and trace elements? Worst case scenario, could I just manually dose magnesium during my monthly maintenance and testing, without any ill effects?

 

[braaap]

Just do a 10% water change weekly and more than likely you won't need to dose in a tank that small.

Once my sticks got going in my 20g I was dosing pretty significantly. I don't remember the exact figures but I was going through a gallon every 2 weeks.

I just can't believe his 5g ato lasts a month. My 2.5g last 8-9 days max.

 

[rennjidk]

Once my sticks got going in my 20g I was dosing pretty significantly. I don't remember the exact figures but I was going through a gallon every 2 weeks.

I just can't believe his 5g ato lasts a month. My 2.5g last 8-9 days max.

Yeah, I'm not sure why people insist that a WC is all you need to maintain alk. Even in nano tanks you'll quickly be forced to dose something.

My ato last so long because I have a glass lid for my tank. I let the skimmer and rear sump do the heavy lifting as far as gas exchange. When I take the lid off, I go through that same 5g in about 9 days.

Edit: I just took the screen out of the stock lid and had a piece of glass cut for $12 at a local shop. Drilled in a feed hole and siliconed it in.

 

[SliceGolfer]

Just do a 10% water change weekly and more than likely you won't need to dose in a tank that small.

LOL

 

[SliceGolfer]

20g Fusion (15g volume). I set up an AWC which will do 3g a month (10% bi-weekly) spaced out daily. My ATO is 5g and consistantly lasts 30 days. I plan on using kalk to supplement. I believe at full saturation, that's roughly 3dkh going in daily, but not 100% sure on that figure.

I'm going for a very clean build, and am willing to compromise on what goes into the tank, just not the system itself. This is what my time allows in this hobby now.

Should I stick with a soft/lps mixed reef, or would I be able to do a packed SPS tank full of sticks and caps? My biggest fear is getting 2 years in and realizing that alk, cal, or mag are dropping faster than I can replenish them like this.

TLDR; You will eventually need to supplement limewater if you go the SPS route.

I use Hazma’s reef calculator and came up with differing values.

If you change 3 gal per month on 15 gal water volume, you’ve changed 20% of the overall volume.

Additionally, if you dose limewater at 2 teaspoons per gallon in your ATO, and your calculation is that 5 gal lasts 30 days, that is 631ml dosed daily. That equates to 1.25 dKH addition.

I have a 15g SPS reef that I dose 510mls of limewater daily and matched my evaporation rate. I am now adding All For Reef in addition to the limewater, currently 3mls daily while I tune this in.

Good luck on your adventure!

 

[DanyL]

I dose 2600ml of fully saturated kalk daily to my 250g system. It’s nowhere near 3dkh going in daily.

I’m not sure how much alkalinity I add in terms of dkh daily but 3dkh is way up there. Like wall to wall, top to bottom SPS packed in at every spot imaginable.

I would venture to bet that kalkwasser alone will be plenty for a long time. Maybe indefinitely

I will say I am curious now how much alkalinity my system uses each day. I dose the 2600ml of kalkwasser plus 100ml of BRS soda ash to maintain my levels

I had the misfortune to have my dosing pump die on my 206g system, where I dose 550ml of saturated sodium bicarbonate.

I noticed it only the day after, and I’m honestly not sure how many hours later I did the Alk test to find it out, but it dropped around 3.5-4dKH in that timeframe.

So it’s somewhere up there, I’d say around 3dKh daily for systems packed with stony corals is probably reasonable.

Surprisingly (and thankfully), only one acro got STN through this whole event, I cut the base and the rest was saved. Corals were ticked though.

OP - sorry for hijacking the discussion, I don’t have a direct answer to your question, but what I can tell you is that you might want to focus more about growth rate rather than consumption - slow growing corals consume less, regardless of their type, and you wouldn’t need to frag them often either.

 

[rennjidk]

TLDR; You will eventually need to supplement limewater if you go the SPS route.

I use Hazma’s reef calculator and came up with differing values.

If you change 3 gal per month on 15 gal water volume, you’ve changed 20% of the overall volume.

Additionally, if you dose limewater at 2 teaspoons per gallon in your ATO, and your calculation is that 5 gal lasts 30 days, that is 631ml dosed daily. That equates to 1.25 dKH addition.

I have a 15g SPS reef that I dose 510mls of limewater daily and matched my evaporation rate. I am now adding All For Reef in addition to the limewater, currently 3mls daily while I tune this in.

Good luck on your adventure!

Thanks for the reply. I don't think it's actually 20% of the total volume because of diminishing returns. Very small daily water changes do not equate to 20% changed.

As for the limewater calculator, it amazes me just how different they all are. 1.3dkh to 3dkh is an astronomical difference in terms of dosing. I'm going to dig up the one Randy posts and try it there.

 

[rennjidk]

Additionally, if you dose limewater at 2 teaspoons per gallon in your ATO, and your calculation is that 5 gal lasts 30 days, that is 631ml dosed daily. That equates to 1.25 dKH addition.

I guess the other calculator I was using is wrong, because I came up with close to the same answer using this one.

 

[TokenReefer]

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[rennjidk]

Reef Chemistry Calculator

It's pretty much the same. I think the other calculator was just wrong.

 

[rennjidk]

I have a 15g SPS reef that I dose 510mls of limewater daily and matched my evaporation rate. I am now adding All For Reef in addition to the limewater, currently 3mls daily while I tune this in.

Would you happen to have a FTS of your 15g sps system? I found your 40 and lps tanks in your build thread. Getting a visual along with the dosing requirements you provided would go a long way for managing my expectations of what's reasonable with this build. Thanks.