Two-Part dosing schedule

[Dallascowboys16]

Hi everyone. In the last few months I started dosing two part in my 10 gallon reef tank since my alkalinity was typically on the low side. I have a few SPS in the tank along with a few hammer/frogspawn frags and the tank seems to consume around 1 dkh per day. My question is what is the best way to spread out the dosing? I know dosing enough alk solution to raise the kh in the tank 1 point all at once is a bad idea, so would I be better off spreading it out throughout the day? Also, can calcium be dosed a few minutes after the alk component without having to worry about precipitation? Thanks for reading and I look forward to receiving some tips on this.

 

[X-37B]

Tank "seems to use" 1dkh. Do you test? I ran my 25 nano for 2.5 years dosing once in the morning.
Ca was 5 minutes after alk with no issues.
Was dosing 45ml of alk/ ca in my 120 the same way before going to a carx. My 120 was using .8 alk per day at the time of setup and I had alot of coralline growth and 40+ corals in the tank.
Test alk the same time every day for a week to determine usage is best imo.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

I test every day, but it is tough to tell exactly what is being used gauging by color change. Not to mention I don't think I'm using the greatest alk test kit. I'm ordering a hanna checker because I'm sick of the ambiguity of the Tropic Marin liquid test. Thanks for the reply. I think I will have a better idea of the exact amount of alk the tank is using once I get a more precise way to test.

 

[X-37B]

I use hanna 95% of the time. Salifert is an easy color titration and accurate. Same with elos.
All 3 are within .3 of each other.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Ok great. I've got Salifert test kits for calcium and magnesium, but was just trying to use up the rest of the tropic Marin stuff.

 

[X-37B]

Ok great. I've got Salifert test kits for calcium and magnesium, but was just trying to use up the rest of the tropic Marin stuff.

I only test Ca maybe once a month. Mag maybe every other month.
Once Alk is stable the other are stable as well.
So get the alk test kit that is easy to tell what your dkh is.
How much are you dosing. On a 10g tank water changes should be enough to handle the big 3 at 1-2 gal a week.
I did 3 gal a week for over a year on my 25g nano with zero dosing needed. I only started dosing when I quit doing water changes around the 1 year mark.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

I only test Ca maybe once a month. Mag maybe every other month.
Once Alk is stable the other are stable as well.
So get the alk test kit that is easy to tell what your dkh is.
How much are you dosing. On a 10g tank water changes should be enough to handle the big 3 at 1-2 gal a week.
I did 3 gal a week for over a year on my 25g nano with zero dosing needed. I only started dosing when I quit doing water changes around the 1 year mark.

At one point I used to be able to maintain the tank with water changes and everything went well, but eventually I had pretty big parameter swings and started having troubles with the tank. With the SPS growing at a decent rate it burns through the alk at a decent rate and the parameters swing a little more than seems healthy.