Newbie to dose or not to dose?

[themadman]

I've got a 60 cube with a 24 gallon sump. With rock and sand I'm guessing I have maybe 65 gallons of water or so total volume. I do 5 gallon water changes twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Would like to maybe get down to one 5 gallon change a week but doing 2 is not a big deal. My alk was consistently at about 8 dkh after cycling with fish only and good coralline growth. Now my alk is consistently between 7.0 and 7.4 after adding some corals. Sometimes from the Sunday change to the wed change I'll get down to 6.9 then after change it'll be 7.1'ish. My calcium seems to stay steady at a fairly high range of 440-460 with my Hanna calcium checker. The dkh is also done with Hanna checker. Salt I am using is hw marinemix reefer. I'm guessing my alk is a little low and should be more 8-9? But with the calcium staying up not sure if I should dose kalk? I already have BRS kalk but haven't dosed anything yet. Question is do I need to dose and if so what kind of kalk/water ratio should I use to raise it initially while I determine how much it uses per day. Thank you!

 

[ngvu1]

It's to measure and need to measure :-)

 

[themadman]

It's to measure and need to measure :-)

Haha I figured that! I just mean more how much to dose to raise it and how fast initially? I'm guessing from what I've read I don't want to go from 7 to 9 in a day? Also not sure I should raise alk if it is going to push my calcium too high? As stated newbie questions.

 

[ngvu1]

I would do a daily measure to see how your tank consume then make adjustments bases on that..My numbers had been stable and i got lazy and stop testing. ....1 of my 2 part dosing liquid was out for the last week or so alk drops to below 7. From 8.5...luckily i don't have much sps. can't never be too lazy :)

 

[ngvu1]

Haha I figured that! I just mean more how much to dose to raise it and how fast initially? I'm guessing from what I've read I don't want to go from 7 to 9 in a day? Also not sure I should raise alk if it is going to push my calcium too high? As stated newbie questions.

I would start with kalkwasser first then see how that goes

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Would you use an ATO to dose the limewater (kalkwasser)?

 

[themadman]

Would you use an ATO to dose the limewater (kalkwasser)?

No, I would use dosing pump. I also just realized I have sodium bicarbonate which says it just raises alk so if my calcium is good I could use this just for all for now?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd personally use the limewater instead of baking soda since you will want to be maintainiong calcium too (and it boosts pH), and if you just dose alk with bicarbonate, you'll suddenly find you need a bunch of calcium, while with the limewater it will add both proportionally and keep calcium about where it is (not appreciably raise it).

FWIW, a boost of 1 dKH with limewater only adds about 7 ppm calcium, so it will not push calcium too high to use it in your current situation.

But if you want to, using the bicarbonate in the dosing pump now will also be fine. :)

 

[themadman]

I'd personally use the limewater instead of baking soda since you will want to be maintainiong calcium too (and it boosts pH), and if you just dose alk with bicarbonate, you'll suddenly find you need a bunch of calcium, while with the limewater it will add both proportionally and keep calcium about where it is (not appreciably raise it).

FWIW, a boost of 1 dKH with limewater only adds about 7 ppm calcium, so it will not push calcium too high to use it in your current situation.

But if you want to, using the bicarbonate in the dosing pump now will also be fine. :)

Awesome, thank you so much for the info! I will just use the limewater.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing. :)

 

[themadman]

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing. :)

Ok I have one more question if you wouldn't mind or if you can steer me to where I can calculate this? I've tested DKH daily and my tank uses about 0.1 DKH per day at this point. I've got a BRS dosing pump that pumps 1.1 ML per minute. If I use the max dilution rate of 2 teaspoons of kalk per gallon of RODI water how do I determine how much to pump in to replenish the 0.1 DKH per day? Thanks again!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This calculator will help:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html

Knowing tank volume and dKH needed, you can determine the amount of limewater (kalkwasser) needed. :)

 

[themadman]

This calculator will help:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html

Knowing tank volume and dKH needed, you can determine the amount of limewater (kalkwasser) needed. :)

Thanks again!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing. :)