How fast can i dose Nano tank

[Drake2910]

Hi I have a 12g nano tank, just wonder how fast I can dose Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium in one hit?
Can I dose 100 ppm in an hour? Or should it be spread out?

 

[lil sumpin]

100 ppm in one hour is wild

 

[Drake2910]

100 ppm in one hour is wild

What do you recommend?

 

[Yang’s Blue Paradise]

Hi I have a 12g nano tank, just wonder how fast I can dose Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium in one hit?
Can I dose 100 ppm in an hour? Or should it be spread out?

It depends on which element I believe magnesium is fine if you do 100ppm for a day. But alk shouldn’t be more than 1 dkh a day. Not sure about calc. The slower your dose the better

 

[lil sumpin]

You really dont even need to dose in a nano if you’re doing consistent water changes. Do you have real demanding coral that your tank is overstocked with? If your parameters are really that wacky I would start with a series of small daily water changes over the course of a week and then do 30-40% weekly once things are stable.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Thats a strange question, why would you want to dose as fast as possible in one hit in such a small tank? What do you have in the tank and what is the situation?

 

[Pod_01]

Can I dose 100 ppm in an hour? Or should it be spread out?

You can if you have empty tank.

If you have corals rapid changes in water chemistry will shock / kill them. Even when going from bad situation to good situation change should be done slowly. The change should be done in the realm of days/ weeks not minutes or hours.
Reason for this is that corals want to be in equilibrium with the surrounding and this equilibrium takes time to achieve. Rapid increases or decreases are detrimental. Constant rapid swings are also detrimental.

If you have a new tank and your Alk, Calc and Mg are low, most likely your salinity is low.

Good luck,

 

[Drake2910]

You can if you have empty tank.

If you have corals rapid changes in water chemistry will shock / kill them. Even when going from bad situation to good situation change should be done slowly. The change should be done in the realm of days/ weeks not minutes or hours.
Reason for this is that corals want to be in equilibrium with the surrounding and this equilibrium takes time to achieve. Rapid increases or decreases are detrimental. Constant rapid swings are also detrimental.

If you have a new tank and your Alk, Calc and Mg are low, most likely your salinity is low.

Good luck,

How fast do you dose with corals?

 

[Pod_01]

How fast do you dose with corals?

There is no universal dose, each tank is unique.
For example I dose 30 times a day and the total is equal to what the corals / tank consumes that day.

Also different corals consume the big 3 at different rate. For example I have not dosed Mg for 4+ years.

First with daily testing you need to figure out your daily consumption and dose only what is consumed.
On new tank that might be zero or weekly water change might be able to keep up.

Good luck,

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

How fast do you dose with corals?

Let's get off the ambiguous fastness question and find out what you think you want to dose in total, and why.

That way we can give useful advice.

 

[Drake2910]

Let's get off the ambiguous fastness question and find out what you think you want to dose in total, and why.

That way we can give useful advice.

My Magnesium is sitting at 1145ppm and I want to bring it up to 1280ppm.

I'm using QUANTUM Aragonite Enhancers, Aragonite C for MAG.

Dosing calculator said it will need 60mL

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My Magnesium is sitting at 1145ppm and I want to bring it up to 1280ppm.

I'm using QUANTUM Aragonite Enhancers, Aragonite C for MAG.

Dosing calculator said it will need 60mL

So let's now push on that since magnesium testing is super prone to error. So much so that I recommend many folks not even do it:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/just-say-no-to-magnesium-testing-rmm-is-born.1017528/
How are oyu meauring it?

What salt mix are you using and what is the salinity (measured how)?

Have you tried that kit on some new salt water?

 

[Drake2910]

So let's now push on that since magnesium testing is super prone to error. So much so that I recommend many folks not even do it:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/just-say-no-to-magnesium-testing-rmm-is-born.1017528/
How are oyu meauring it?

What salt mix are you using and what is the salinity (measured how)?

Have you tried that kit on some new salt water?

 

[Drake2910]

Results are from LFS.
Salinity 1.026 measured with refractometer.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What salt mix are you using?

I don’t recommend boosting magnesium by large amounts based on an unverified lfs test.

 

[Floyd-]

I agree with Randy, I dont test mag.
In my nano tank (25g) I just do my weekly changes and just check salinity and alk. I use all for reef but only use a very small amount to keep the alk up between water changes.

 

[Drake2910]

What salt mix are you using?

I don’t recommend boosting magnesium by large amounts based on an unverified lfs test.

Are you saying don't trust there test?

 

[Garf]

Are you saying don't trust there test?

Read his link in post#12

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Are you saying don't trust there test?

Tests are more often wrong than a salt mix would be off by enough to give calcium at 576 ppm and magnesium at 1145 ppm.

What salt mix are you using?

To arrive there from most any commercial salt mix at sg = 1.026 requires a lot of alkalinity and calcium dosed over an extended period, slowly dropping magnesium by maybe 1 ppm per day. Assuming you did not do that, I expect error in the magnesium measurement.

 

[Drake2910]

Tests are more often wrong than a salt mix would be off by enough to give calcium at 576 ppm and magnesium at 1145 ppm.

What salt mix are you using?

To arrive there from most any commercial salt mix at sg = 1.026 requires a lot of alkalinity and calcium dosed over an extended period, slowly dropping magnesium by maybe 1 ppm per day. Assuming you did not do that, I expect error in the magnesium measurement.

I buy my salt water from the lfs also so I assume it's mixed correctly