Right now I am manually dosing. I'll hooked up the pumps once we move into our new house and in all honesty doing it by hand is no big deal. All dosing is done at night (alk is dripped using recipe 1 w/ 1gallon of water) and testing is done once the lights come on in the morning. I know there are many things that can have an affect or impact on the levels. I have been in the hobby for 10yrs and have had my fair share at skewing numbers...For the past 3-4 yrs I have used the BRS recipe 1, so I don't see a problem using it to raise my alk like I always have and will continue to do so, no offense. All that is required to do so is a little more liquid than the normal dose to raise it. No big deal. If I have to go out an buy another chemical to raise it then neither is cost efficient IMHO and I will look into something else all together. I personally think a 100ml of Alk/Ca is all that is probably needed here to maintain my tank once its dialed in, it'll just take time for everything to come together.
I'm not too concerned about the mag and really don't know why it was ever brought up. I know its important but its not low and hasn't changed value. It stays consistent right around 1400 with only dosing once every couple of months and is the level I have always run it at. Anyone see a good reason to raise it higher? I have also explained why I don't like testing mag. Once the liquid is half gone in the solution bottles, the plastic tip draws air between where the syringe and plastic tip come together. If the bottle is full then its no big deal and doesn't draw air. I have used both salifert and tropic marin and both are the same once the reagent gets low. Push harder on the tip right? lol....As long as its close I'm not concerned about it. I can tell by extracting the liquid a few times to see if the level changes on each draw drastically, then just draw it very slow.
The only thing that has me concerned is my Ca. I was dosing 460ml for 3 days in row and it didnt put a dent in it. It took the 4th day to show an impact on my test (last night it read 460), when according to the BRS calculator all I need was 1 dose of 460ml to bring it up 40pts. My tank is not consuming 460ml daily, nor was it an user error using the test kits because I tested each one twice just to make sure and got the same results each time (except the mag, but as long as it stays between 1380 and 1410 each time I really don't care). So why would my Ca levels drop from 440 down to 410 (i know because I was increasing my alk), but then stay at 420 for 3 days while I was adding 460ml of Ca? Then the following day I add nothing but went ahead and tested it and it read 460? My alk read 9.5 so thats up, but the Ca is what has me stumped....
Since my alk/ca are up now I'm just going to dose them equally and see where they balance each other out, then go from there....Thanks for everyone input
