Is it time to dose?

[flatreefer]

"I just don't want my alk to bottom out and loose my sps"

If you listen to some of the advice in this thread you will, trust me. Want to put money on it?

As per my 1 million or so comments on this alk is very unstable in young tanks and typically drops quite aggressively. Quite often this drop has nothing to do with SPS consuming it. However, you do need to keep alk up or you will lose SPS.

Easiest way and cheapest way to do this is with a box of baking soda and the online reef calculator. However, a rule of this forum is to make simple things complicated to generate web traffic,

Get a box of baking soda and use the online reef calculator. Done. Test alk every couple of days and adjust. It's stupid simple. You do not need a dosing pump. I doubt your calcium level has changed much from your default salt mix level because nothing is consuming it. You need a lot more fast growing SPS to dent calcium, and you don't have it.

What's more important is you aren't stating what your nutrient levels are, and this is just as important as anything else in a young tank. I'm seeing some nuisance algae and a lot of water changes, which means nitrate and or phosphate are likely low or zero. This will kill that neon green birsdnest in about a month.

You should not introduce SPS in a young tank with nuisance algae present because you will have nasty nutrient swings that will bleach and ultimately kill SPS. If you raise nutrients to make things stable you feed the nuisance algae. See the problem?

You can get the worlds most expensive dosing pump and Elon Musk certified alk and calcium test kit. Unless you can get nutrients stable you will lose those SPS.

I'll test all parameters at 8pm tonight,

My nitrate is usually at 2-5ppm
Phosphates was .o3ppm last test

I used cultured rock from my LFS

So your saying skip the 2part and dose baking soda?

Conflicting suggestions I'm getting

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

Okay so last Sunday was my waterchange and the dkh was 8.82 (in the picture on original post) and today it is dkh7.7 so could I not just use those parameters to judge off of? Or should I just wait until water change day? I just orders seachem fusion 1 and 2 it won't be here until Saturday anyways so,

I just don't want my alk to bottom out and loose my sps

Randy Holmes has a 2 part calculator that you can use as well I don't know the link to but you can Google it.

 

[flatreefer]

Alk: 7.7dkh
Cal: 425
Mag:1280
Nitrate:2.5ppm
Phosphate: 0.03pm

I'm going to try (baked) baking soda and see what happens until my 2 part comes

Also I feel like my mag is a bit low?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I use brs soda ash which is esstenially oven baked baking soda. Lol.
Yes u will want to dose to incease ur alk. I agree prob not much cal consumption.
Dose 3ml. Test. Dose. 5ml. Test ect.
Dont dump 1/4 of the bottle in or dose 40ml ect. Lol. Little changes.
Hths you
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I prefer to dose individual alk. Cal. And mag vs. Just dosing a 2 part to cover it all. Allows for more control and manipulation.
D

 

[flatreefer]

I use brs soda ash which is esstenially oven baked baking soda. Lol.
Yes u will want to dose to incease ur alk. I agree prob not much cal consumption.
Dose 3ml. Test. Dose. 5ml. Test ect.
Dont dump 1/4 of the bottle in or dose 40ml ect. Lol. Little changes.
Hths you
D

I Should wait like 30mins after dosage to test I assume ?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Yes wait 20-30mins.
If u see a steady decline. Just up ur dose. Im currentl doseing 3-5ml every 8hrs.
D

 

[flatreefer]

Okay so last night I dosed .8g of sodium carbonate to the tank

The tank was at 7.7dkh with the dosing it raised it to 7.95 dkh

Now today I got home from work and tested

The alk is 7.7 dkh again..... the corals look happier than yesterday tho

But the alk went back to where it was

With the sps I have in the tank is it possible they are consuming 0.25dkh?

Should I dose another 0.8g of soda ash now and then redose tonight another 0.8g tonight?

Also how do you guys dose soda ash?
I just weighed out the soda ash and took some tank water mixed it together then slowly added it over a hour (every 15mins till it was empty)

 

[Uncle99]

Is th mag portion of fusion 1 and 2 incorporated or should I be buying one aswell?

Fusion 2 is Alk
Fusion 1 is CA
Aquavitro (Seachem) Ions for MG.

This is not an advertisement for Seachem, Red Sea, Kent Tropic Marin all have different products doing exactly the same.

I love the pre mixed stuff as they never clog my doser.
4 years, never cleaned my doser.

No matter how much I mixed the powder, jammed my doser in a couple of months…….and that can be very bad and expensive.

 

[Uncle99]

Okay so last night I dosed .8g of sodium carbonate to the tank

The tank was at 7.7dkh with the dosing it raised it to 7.95 dkh

Now today I got home from work and tested

The alk is 7.7 dkh again..... the corals look happier than yesterday tho

But the alk went back to where it was

With the sps I have in the tank is it possible they are consuming 0.25dkh?

Should I dose another 0.8g of soda ash now and then redose tonight another 0.8g tonight?

Also how do you guys dose soda ash?
I just weighed out the soda ash and took some tank water mixed it together then slowly added it over a hour (every 15mins till it was empty)

Possible, maybe a mix of consumption and hobby grade test results.
Sure, dose that again and see what it does.
I have no concern with 24 hour drops of .5dkh, however, as usual, the less flux the better, especially Alk.

 

[Explorer12]

You can, I calculated a 1 dkh drop in 2 days so .5dkh daily.
Iam just concerned that your using only 1 data point and how accurate is that. The more you test, the more you’ll learn about consumption.
As long as your testing every day, or couple of days, you’ll see if your bottoming out, and can take the necessary action.

Accurate readings for Alk, Salinity and Temp are the top contributors to stability.

I try and test every other day and know my doses that I do manually.

 

[Uncle99]

Alk: 7.7dkh
Cal: 425
Mag:1280
Nitrate:2.5ppm
Phosphate: 0.03pm

I'm going to try (baked) baking soda and see what happens until my 2 part comes

Also I feel like my mag is a bit low?

Mg is low, I run 1400ppm, this keeps my torches and hammers happy.
I run phosphate at 0.08ppm and I need to dose this daily.
Lower than 0.05ppm and my corals lose colour and don’t extend.

 

[flatreefer]

Possible, maybe a mix of consumption and hobby grade test results.
Sure, dose that again and see what it does.
I have no concern with 24 hour drops of .5dkh, however, as usual, the less flux the better, especially Alk.

Okay so I should dose the same dose today or should I increase?

Is the mag being Slightly low affecting the alk?

 

[attiland]

Have a look at Red Sea calculator for target figures. Good place to start anyway.

I agree with @Uncle99 1280 of mg is the low end of ideal. You may want to up it a bit for sps just go really slow.

Swings in mg in my experience is not welcomed by many corals. with ALK I had the same experience. Spread it out during the day if you can. I haven’t seen the same with calcium.

just a thought though many will not agree with me doser will help you even if you need little amount to do. I think you mentioned you have ordered one already

 

[flatreefer]

So I have been managing to keep the alk between 8.5-8 dkh with hand dosing soda

So at 1:45pm (1.5 hour after dosing) the alk was at 8.5dkh

Now same day I tested at 930pm and it dropped to 8.26dhk

So my question is, is my tank actually consuming .25dkh in 8 hours??

Or does it have something to do with it being a newer tank?

 

[attiland]

So I have been managing to keep the alk between 8.5-8 dkh with hand dosing soda

So at 1:45pm (1.5 hour after dosing) the alk was at 8.5dkh

Now same day I tested at 930pm and it dropped to 8.26dhk

So my question is, is my tank actually consuming .25dkh in 8 hours??

Or does it have something to do with it being a newer tank?

If you can repeat this a few times in a row you can say yes

 

[flatreefer]

Just tested again today, I tested 3 times in a row

First 7.7dkh
Second 8.26dkh
Third 7.98dkh

I beginning to not have trust in my red sea reefer test kit

Any suggestions?

 

[flatreefer]

Test number 4

.57ml used = 7.98

 

[flatreefer]

Test number 5

.56ml used = 7.84

 

[attiland]

So 8.26 out and you have 7.7-7.9 you don’t really need any more close reading as it really doesn’t matter.

by the way by repeating I meant in a few days in a row.