Which Alkalinity Do You All Dose With?

[BrianneG]

I am sure this is a age old question, so sorry to have it asked again. I have just poured the last of my Fritz Alkalinity into my doser container and am looking to buy more Alkalinity.
What brand are you all using ? Suggestions?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

For ease of use and addition of other needed materials, I use and recommend All for Reef. I do recommend an alk and calcium method in general, not just random alk boosts. But if you rarely need alk, baking soda is a fine plan.

I used kalkwasser for 20 years in my old tank, and it too is a fine choice.

This has a lot more discussion:

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/pros-and-cons-of-alkalinity-and-calcium-dosing-methods.1069/

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I am a huge fan of AFR!

 

[John Neuzil]

I use All for Reef

 

[MrCosi76]

I use All for Reef. Very convenient.

 

[Jasonak]

Randy's recipe for sodium hydroxide.

 

[slythy]

I use Kalkwasser for 1 gallon a day of ATO throught a reactor. Then the rest is done with the BRS Alk, Cal and Mag. Depending on if I need sulfer I change what I dose for mag,

 

[TX_REEF]

I use Fritz myself when I need to make adjustments that my kalk dosing can't handle.

 

[NanoSteam]

Another one for AFR because of ease of use, second place for me is Kalk.

 

[exnisstech]

AFR in medium / small tanks and ESV 2 part in large tanks. I don't normally dose alk only unless I need to bump my AFR due to a growth spurt then I'll use some ESV alkalinity to bring it up since the AFR takes a while to show up.

 

[Jimbo327]

Baked baking soda.

 

[ColorMeGone]

Baking soda

 

[KStatefan]

Sodium hydroxide for normal dosing.

Baking Soda when I need to make an adjustment.

 

[Pod_01]

AFR at the moment.

 

[FrugalReeferJon]

ESV 2 Part

 

[BrianneG]

So thosw if you that use All For Reef, are you including the sump volume into your overall water volumes? My guess is yes.

So for my tank which is 115 gallon DT and 25 gallon Sump. Total volume is 140 gallons, when i use the calculator on Tropic Marin, i got the volumes on the screen shot. Initial dose i get, but lost on the rest of it for the maximum per day. Any recomendations or clairty comments would be appreciated.

 

[Pod_01]

So thosw if you thatbuse All For Reef, are you uncluding the sump volume into your overall water volumes? My guess is yes.

So for myntank which is 115 gallon DT nad 25 gallon Sump. Total volume is 140 gallons, when i use the calculator on Tropic Marin, i got the volumes on the screen shot. I initial dose i get, but lost in the rest of it for the maximum per day. Any recomendations or clairty comments would be appreciated.

So I dose All For Reef based on Alk construction. If Alk goes down I will increase the dose, if it goes up I will decrease the dose. I wait at least a day to see what the general trend is before making any additional adjustments.

The estimate they provide may be a good starting point but maybe start with 1/4 the recommendation and go from there.

Good luck,

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So thosw if you that use All For Reef, are you including the sump volume into your overall water volumes? My guess is yes.

So for my tank which is 115 gallon DT and 25 gallon Sump. Total volume is 140 gallons, when i use the calculator on Tropic Marin, i got the volumes on the screen shot. Initial dose i get, but lost on the rest of it for the maximum per day. Any recomendations or clairty comments would be appreciated.

Yes, when estimating a dose to give a particular alk rise, use your best estimate of the total water volume.

Forget any maximum dose amounts as its not important whether you are above or below that, and adjust actual doses going forward on maintaining alk, not anything else.