Keeping ALK stable

[reeflover]

I have been having trouble keeping my alk stable, and I feel like my corals are suffering from it. I have tried dosing pumps but I always overdose which isn't good either. Any ideas on fixing the issue?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Start out the dosage low, and see where it settles, don't dose to high right at the start. Some have lil charts they use, and they dose quite a few times per day.

 

[zemuss]

First I would establish a base line before and after doing a water change.

Secondly I would not dose too much and you might decide on using a dosing pump which I would do. Or a Kalk reactor but no in line with RO top off.

Third see if this low amount helps eliviate the swings and if not increase the dose until the swing is lower. This should then be the base line for your dosing whether its a 1 mm or 7. Main tain that if you can.

Always test when doing this stuff and probably for a few weeks test daily.

 

[mike007]

you need to find out what your daily consumption is. Test your water and then go three days without dosing then test again.
Divide your results by three and that will tell you how much is being used each day. Then you can go to the reef calculator and it will tell you how much to add each day to maintain a stable level.

 

[reeflover]

Do I then set my timer on my rkl to turn on my dosing pumps to dose for however long I need to? Or does the amount I need to dose change frequently?

 

[mike007]

I have my pump to dose a certain amount each day in 24 increments.Once you figure out what your tank is consuming each day you can adjust the dosage to keep your parameters stable.

 

[JMSKI333]

There is a lot of good advice here.

First, what are your other parameters?

If you have low mag than it will be real hard to try and keep Alk and Calc stable. Alk and Calc directly effect each other. If your Alk is low than your Calc is probably low too. You're going to want to raise them together with a product like Kalkwasser.

 

[gregoryleonard]

I have my pump to dose a certain amount each day in 24 increments.Once you figure out what your tank is consuming each day you can adjust the dosage to keep your parameters stable.

+1, dose a little every hour to keep AK stable instead of doing the amount all at one time.

 

[DrewBrees713]

Or you could ghetto rig up a container with an airline valve and let it drip 24/7. Again, you'd still need to test your alk to know how much to add. I drip unbalked BS all day long into my sump.

 

[SloppyJ]

There's a good video on YouTube about setting up BRS dosing pumps with the RKL. You set them up on a timer and set that module to the timer.

 

[reeflover]

There's a good video on YouTube about setting up BRS dosing pumps with the RKL. You set them up on a timer and set that module to the timer.

Do you happen to know what it is called?

It's late here so I will test tomorrow but last time I tested it was 7.7. Should I manually dose my tank to get it to the point where I want it to be and then begin testing daily to find it's avg daily consumption? Or should I start testing now to find it? Is there a difference really?

Thanks for all the info! It's been greatly appreciated!

 

[reeflover]

Just checked my chart and the most recent test which was Feb. 3 and came out to be 9.9 which was after I dosed to bring it back up. Now 10 days later I am at 7.3.... Should just subtract 9.9-7.3 to get the total change and then divide that by 10 to get my avg daily consumption?

 

[DrewBrees713]

In theory you could. Though not a sure fire way to gauge your level of consumption. Did you add/remove any livestock in that ten day span?
If I were you I'd test everyday for about a week, preferably at the same time everyday. A test performed at 6am today and another one at 11pm the next day would not render an accurate rate of consumption. Hope that help...GL.

 

[rock_lobster]

Alkalinity demand can be very variable for sure! FIRst you must understand that ALK is your buffer it maintains the pH of the tank. Second bacteria produce acid which eats your buffer up! The more you feed the tank the more bacteria consume the food and produce acid. Also, if something in your tank dies (god forbid) it will decimate your alkalinity. So you must pay attention to your livestock. When establishing a baseline you need 1) everything in the tank thriving and 2) you need to feed the exact same food each day for a week or so while testing how much your alkalinity is dropping. Then if your parameters are all stable you can go and calculate exactly how much alkalinity you need to add to your tank for a 3-4 day period.

For example start your alkalinity at 9.5 and let it drop for a week or so (I wouldnt let it go below 7 just to be safe.) when it hits 7 go to BRS alkalinity calculator and calculate how much carbonate is needed to increase your alkalinity from 7 back to 9.5 based on how many gallons your aquarium is. set up your dosing pump to add that amount over the allotted time span and your are in business:)

 

[Tek]

I test AlK in the morning. Then test again at night. I run my doser based on the calculator and keep track of how much I had to run to get it back to where it was in the morning. Test in between doses instead of overdosing. Divide that number by however many Times the doser will run in a day and go with that. Tweak when necessary.

 

[reeflover]

Alkalinity demand can be very variable for sure! FIRst you must understand that ALK is your buffer it maintains the pH of the tank. Second bacteria produce acid which eats your buffer up! The more you feed the tank the more bacteria consume the food and produce acid. Also, if something in your tank dies (god forbid) it will decimate your alkalinity. So you must pay attention to your livestock. When establishing a baseline you need 1) everything in the tank thriving and 2) you need to feed the exact same food each day for a week or so while testing how much your alkalinity is dropping. Then if your parameters are all stable you can go and calculate exactly how much alkalinity you need to add to your tank for a 3-4 day period.

For example start your alkalinity at 9.5 and let it drop for a week or so (I wouldnt let it go below 7 just to be safe.) when it hits 7 go to BRS alkalinity calculator and calculate how much carbonate is needed to increase your alkalinity from 7 back to 9.5 based on how many gallons your aquarium is. set up your dosing pump to add that amount over the allotted time span and your are in business:)

When it gets back to 9.5 then do I use the daily consumption and dose that each day? So after I feed the same food and everything is thriving for 1 week, and I test everyday at the same time, is it safe to say that is my avg weekly consumption? Then put it into the brs reef calculator and get the amount of alk solution needed to bring it back to 9.5... Then divide that by 7 to find out how many ml I need to dose daily? (My daily consumption) Sound right? I think there is something that is not clicking with me which is why this is making it so difficult!
Thanks everyone sooo much!!!


Thank you so much for all the info everyone!!

 

[Tek]

There is no need to check weekly drop rates unless you were only dosing weekly. Below is a faster way to dial it in.

For example starting at 9dkh. Leave the tank alone for 2 days and test. If it dropped to 8dkh you will divide 1dkh by 2 which gives you a .5 daily consumption rate. Use one of the online calculators to figure out how much it takes to raise your tank .5 and set the doser for that daily dose spread over 24 hours. Remember to raise the dkh back to where you started before activating the doser. Test again in 2 days to see if it stayed where you wanted it or if you need to reduce or increase dosage.

 

[reeflover]

OK...that make a lot more since! Thank you! I will try it and let everyone know how it goes!