Time to start dosing. Need a little help pls.

Reefdiculous22 · Aug 19, 2023

Hello all. I seem to be at the point where I need to start dosing. The past couple of weeks my alk has been dropping. 3 weeks ago Cal was around 430 and DKH was around 8.2. Last week before my water change I had dropped to 5, Cal was still on par. This week before my water change I am again at 5for DKH again but my calcium is saying I’m at 570. This is consistent with the sample I took to the lfs today. Ph is 8.1 as of right now. It usually runs 7.9 in the a.m. up too 8.3 in the p.m
I’m about to do my water change. Gonna be around 34 gallons since I need to clean the sump. I have liquid BRS sodium carbonate I can dose. I’ve read that I should dose 1:1 ratio Alk and Cal. Since my Cal is already high do I still need to dose 2 part or can I just dose alk and wait for the cal to drop then start doing the 1:1 ratio. Oh, Mag is 1450-1500. I would really appreciate the help/advice. I would like to start correcting this before I start losing livestock. Thanks all and Happy Reefing

blaxsun · Aug 20, 2023

I don't know anyone that doses calcium and alkalinity in a fixed 1:1 ratio. It sounds like you can dose individually to meet your desired parameters...

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 20, 2023

Your calcium is not already high. It is fine, and I’d personally start off dosing 1:1. It won’t rise much, just as it didn’t fall much. It moves much more slowly and often is not easily seen to move with hobby kits. There’s also nothing wrong with 500 ppm calcium.

Reefdiculous22 · Aug 20, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Your calcium is not already high. It is fine, and I’d personally start off dosing 1:1. It won’t rise much, just as it didn’t fall much. It moves much more slowly and often is not easily seen to move with hobby kits. There’s also nothing wrong with 500 ppm calcium.

My test kit actually said 570. I don’t know if that changes anything or not? I’m getting ready to test now since I did my water change last night to see where I’m at now.
So once I dose today to get where I need to be I then have to test and dose daily to keep up with the consumption rate? Is that how it works?

Reefdiculous22 · Aug 20, 2023

blaxsun said:
I don't know anyone that doses calcium and alkalinity in a fixed 1:1 ratio. It sounds like you can dose individually to meet your desired parameters...

That seems logical. It’s just the majority are f what I read was 1:1.
I don’t know if it is just a coincidence or what, but I didn’t have this problem until I tried using kalkwasser. I used it for a week in my ato but it was sending stuff into my tank. So I cleaned my ato and stopped using it. Then a week later my alk is dropping

Pistondog · Aug 20, 2023

Ideally, you would like to start dosing with desired alk and calcium levels.
You can start dosing 1:1 with manufacturers recs.
Monitor alk every 2 or 3 days adjust doseup or down to get to consistent desired, levels. Or at least consistent.
If calcium is off after this dose extra or skip temporarily to get to target, then resume ma8ntenance dose.
Once you find this you can tweak away from 1:1 to suit tank needs.

Reefdiculous22 · Aug 20, 2023

Pistondog said:
Ideally, you would like to start dosing with desired alk and calcium levels.
You can start dosing 1:1 with manufacturers recs.
Monitor alk every 2 or 3 days adjust doseup or down to get to consistent desired, levels. Or at least consistent.
If calcium is off after this dose extra or skip temporarily to get to target, then resume ma8ntenance dose.
Once you find this you can tweak away from 1:1 to suit tank needs.

Awesome. Thanks for the reply. I think I’m starting to understand it now. Lol . I just want to do it right . I don’t really want to cause more issues in the tank.

Reefdiculous22 · Aug 20, 2023

I bought and mixes the dosing solutions a few weeks ago when I was starting the kalkwasser. Out of curiosity would anyone happen to know the shelf life of the solution by chance? Is it still good or does it dissolve or something fairly quickly?