123 dosing schedule

[cbear44]

I have a young tank 180g system with some SPS frags and have been dosing 123 ~32mL once at night separated by a few hours each. I test Alk usually around 5-6pm to be consistent and have been maintaining Alk 7.6-7.8

Recently had a spike in alk consumption which I see as a good thing so need to go up. Should I keep dosing at night or start splitting up by adding a dose (or several doses) during the day (easy to do with my GHL doser)? Does this matter?

I can imagine more frequent small dosing similar to a CaRx would be a good thing. I guess I was trying to understand if the majority of Alk consumption from SPS is during the day or at night. I don't have a significant pH drop at night currently.

 

[Abhishek]

Well if its a new tank like mine, it will take time to stabilize. Many other micro processes will consume Alk and not only sps.
I am in the same boat as you and have manually configured my GHL to dose 12 times a day at regular intervals of 2 hours.
If pH is fairly constant, I would rather have Alk dosed at regular intervals to maintain stability as close as possible.
It might be true that Alk consumption is higher at night but to me personally , it makes more sense to regularly dose new tank with stable Alk for atleast 6-12 months before making changes.

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[cbear44]

Well if its a new tank like mine, it will take time to stabilize. Many other micro processes will consume Alk and not only sps. I am in the same boat as you and have manually configured my GHL to dose 12 times a day at regular intervals of 2 hours.
If pH is fairly constant, I would rather have Alk dosed at regular intervals to maintain stability as close as possible.
It might be true that Alk consumption is higher at night but to me personally , it makes more sense to regularly dose new tank with stable Alk for atleast 6-12 months before making changes.

Regards,
Abhishek

That makes sense - Even AF recommends dosing at night - I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out.

 

[Anirban]

You can definitely split the dose all through the day without any issue and we all do that.