How much are you dosing a day?

[AJsTank]

Just curious as to how much you're all dosing the big 3 a day? I'm just trying to figure out at what point I need to get a calcium reactor online. My tank is only going to be 100% SPS and right now it's packed with SPS frags.

Right now per day, I'm at


100 mL for Alk
230 mL for Ca
120 mL for Mag

 

[revhtree]

Bump! I'll get my numbers soon. Just starting to dose Cal.

Do you have your Mag on a doser?

 

[Pete polyp]

Just curious as to how much you're all dosing the big 3 a day? I'm just trying to figure out at what point I need to get a calcium reactor online. My tank is only going to be 100% SPS and right now it's packed with SPS frags.

Right now per day, I'm at


100 mL for Alk
230 mL for Ca
120 mL for Mag

What size tank is this? Are you using kalk? Total system volume? Current tank parameters? What exactly are you dosing?

My 29 gallon (no sump)

430ca
9 dkh
1400 mag

1/3 gallon lime water daily
2 ml part 1 daily
6 ml part 2 daily
9 ml magnesium weekly
Potassium as needed

Lime is Mrs. Wages
All others are oceans blend

The calcium is normally 410-430
Alkalinity is usually 8.4-9
Magnesium is usually 1350-1450
Potassium is usually 390-400

I check alkalinity each morning, calcium about every 3 days, magnesium once a week, potassium every 2 weeks.

 

[thanhreef]

I use Reef Crystal salt and total water is 130 gal. My big 3 level:
ALK: 8.9
Ca: 420
Mg: 1410

dosing daily from Monday to Friday:
ALK: 100ml
Ca: 96ml
Mg: 72ml

 

[Pete polyp]

I guess the salt we use is of importance also. I'm using instant ocean.

Have you tried using kalk? You are having to dose quite a bit for that size of a system. My dosing would increase by over 2x if I weren't using kalk in my topoff.

 

[ReefMadScientist]

I only dose Alk and Calc once a week.

 

[mike007]

I am dosing 75ml of calcium and alkalinity per day via doser. 10mg. magnesium a day In a mixed reef. I try to keep my parameters stable with adding ca. and alk. in equal parts.

 

[Jonreefer]

i have 40 breeder with a 20L sump and say my volume of water is around 50gal.
are we just talking what we dose for 2 part or everything we dose daily?
I use red Sea Coral pro and all my testing is done with the new Red Sea test kits

everything I dose
B ionic 2 part
5ml Alk
10ml Calcium
no mag cause my 2week water changes keeps that in check for me
Alk 8.8
Mag 1360
Calcium 440

I also does everyday buffered powder Vitamin C 1/4tsp
2ML red sea reef energy
and as lights are about to go into moonlight mode 1ml of seachem zooplankton for corals
I have mixed SPS/LPS/zoas my SPS frags are pretty small still so thats why i only need little a day

 

[Triggreef]

It really seems like very high numbers. Imo & ime the specific 2 part your using makes a big difference. But also how much & how often. I use regular red sea regular salt but do very few water changes, relying on carbon dosing for no3/po4 & the 2 part for keeping up elements.

My system is about 270g total. I have about 45+ different acros, about a dozen different stylos, nests, pocci, porites, a couple good size pavona, probably about 2 dozen monti's & a dozen or so Lps. Ranging from frags to good size colonies. I only dose 42 ml of each part per day. I use c-balance & each part is dosed every other hour & alternating.

I think it is a mistake to dose different amounts of each part. These additives are designed to work together to balance your parameters, & in theory your live stock should be using equal parts. If you have to dose one part twice as much as the other then one part is most likely working against the other possibly causing some precipitation.

I had similar issues a long time ago & found myself dosing much more alk then ca. I emailed the company to inquire about it & they s suggested to bring up alk with baking soda a little at a time, which would cause some ca to precipitate & get the levels more in line. Next recommendation was to dose each part at least a half hour apart, & in equal amounts as needed from there.

Using that advice, & the amount that I quoted above, I consistently maintain about 8.5 alk and 430 ca. Also, look for a 2 part that contains as many other elements as you can. I like c-balance because it contains strontium, iodide, potassium, magnesium, & others. Hopefully this helps someone.

I should also add that I dose 25ml of brightwell aquatic vit c in my top off which lasts 4 to 5 days. And 10ml acropower per day. I'm sure neither of those contribute to my other 2 part dosing.

 

[Pete polyp]

I agree with having a diversity of ingredients

I have to dose more alk than CA whatever reason, I'm not sure. I don't dose close together at all, most of the time several hours apart. I see the point being made with precipitation if the calcium consumption was more than the alkalinity. From my understanding of calcium and alkalinity consumption reefs tend to use a slight amount more of alkalinity than calcium.

Alkalinity2 for our purposes here is comprised of bicarbonate and carbonate. The vast majority of alkalinity depletion in most tanks also comes about by the precipitation of calcium carbonate, as described above. In this process, as alkalinity is depleted by 1 meq/L, calcium will be depleted by 20 ppm. There are some other processes that can lead to alkalinity depletion, including partial cycling of nitrogen (from organic compounds to nitrate and no further) and the incorporation of magnesium into calcium carbonate, but these are generally much less important than calcification.Consequently, alkalinity depletion in most tanks (especially in short time frames) is tightly coupled to calcium depletion, and if one supplements calcium and alkalinity in proportions equal to those that they are being removed, then it is MUCH less likely that calcium and alkalinity will becomeimbalanced4 and thereby trickier to correct. That is, the only problems that you will encounter are those in zones 1 and 2 (not enough or too much of these additives). Using a balanced scheme, you should not ever end up in zones 3 and 4, where you have substantial imbalances between calcium and alkalinity.


Source:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry

 

[saltyhog]

155 gallon. Reef Crystals.
ystals. 30 gal water change every 2 weeks..

Alk 9.0
Ca 450
Mg1380

145 cc BRS 2 part both alk and ca via dosing pump.Dose Mg manually every two weeks or so.

About 15 sps small colonies (soft ball size), 6" clam 10 lps.

 

[AJsTank]

Bump! I'll get my numbers soon. Just starting to dose Cal.

Do you have your Mag on a doser?

Yes I do. Tank is starting to get loaded with SPS and my numbers have dramatically increased so I can stay within range.

 

[AJsTank]

What size tank is this? Are you using kalk? Total system volume? Current tank parameters? What exactly are you dosing?

My 29 gallon (no sump)

430ca
9 dkh
1400 mag

1/3 gallon lime water daily
2 ml part 1 daily
6 ml part 2 daily
9 ml magnesium weekly
Potassium as needed

Lime is Mrs. Wages
All others are oceans blend

The calcium is normally 410-430
Alkalinity is usually 8.4-9
Magnesium is usually 1350-1450
Potassium is usually 390-400

I check alkalinity each morning, calcium about every 3 days, magnesium once a week, potassium every 2 weeks.

8.4, 380 (it's low because of all the SPS I added 2 weeks ago, working on getting it up) and 1400 - Total system volume is about 470 gallons