A4R Tropic Marin Dosing

[chipchipbro]

… one more

so I am dosing AFR again (I needed to raise salinity to 35 first) for a few days..
now I dont understand something…

I started dosing again on 11. january and dKH was 7

- I dosed 3ml
12. january: didnt test
13. january: dKH 7.7
- I said ok lets dose 2ml because it went up
14. january: dKH 7.3
- I said lets dose 3ml again because it went down
15. january: 7.7 dKH

What should I do?

I mean 1ml A4R shouldnt drop/raise dKH that much in relation. Right?

Tank is 20gallons

Ca: 490
Mag: 1470
Salinity: 35
Temp: 24.9
po4: 0.07
no3: 5

 

[Shirak]

No I don't think 2 or 3 ml of AFR will impact the Alk that much in one day.

Are you testing at the same time of day? I get different readings during the day, I think based on pH changes. But either way testing at the same time of day will eliminate anything like that. I am also not sure one day or even two is enough time to fully break down the AFR calcium portion into measurable Alk.

I think you need to start with something like 2ml/day everyday. Test Ca at the start. Test your Alk each day. After a week test your Ca. TM recommends dosing based on your Ca level so that is what I do. I find my Alk needs a periodic boost once or twice a week with a little sodium bicarb.

I think you will find that your alk will need a little supplementation at least initially but obviously if it starts going up noticeably above your target then stop dosing but would be surprised at 2ml/day being an issue. If you are worried about 2ml then do 1ml/day for a week. From my experience though at least a week at a particular dosage to really see how the tank will respond.

 

[chipchipbro]

Well, I will then dose 2ml for now each day.

My Calcium got pretty high because I had to to raise Salinity from 30 to 35 slowly for 10 days… So I put saltwater in my ATO - i did it this way.

I checked now and saw 2ml will more decrease my Alk level.. Would you still go with 2ml or just go with 3ml and check each day? Usually I measure it on the same time - yes.

I mean 3ml raised Alk and 2ml it went down.

Better to dose 2ml or 3ml for about a week now?

 

[Shirak]

What is your calcium level? If it's higher than you want then some water changes or let it come down by just dosing alk for now. I would get the calcium where you want before starting the AFR.

I am uncertain if your limited data for a few days regarding 2 and 3ml dosages is sufficient to say for certain 2 will lower it and 3 will increase it. What is your target Alk?

I would start with 2ml and monitor Alk and bump it up if it needs it but I would also wait a few days before doing anything other than the AFR. The one thing you do not want is to bump the alk with something like bicarbonate before the AFR has had enough time to be broken down. I don't know how quickly that is but it may take a few days when starting out for the bacterial population to compensate for the formate in the AFR.

I am dosing 30ml/day with the dosing pump turning on every hour, into 50g frag tank system. I would call it medium to heavy stocking but still quite a bit more than you are considering and it looks like you have some pretty decent size SPS and some LPS. I am surprised that you are seeing any sort of rise from 3ml, makes me think it's just testing error or partly some daily swing in alk the test kit is measuring.

 

[chipchipbro]

My Calcium Level is 490 and my target Calcium is 450 and Alk 8

Well, my calculations with A4R is that 1.17ml for my 70Litres raised Alk by 0.1 dKH. So 3.57ml should raise Alk by 0.3 dKH and Calcium by 2.15ppm (hope thats correct)

So I dont understand why Alk raises so much with 3ml should only raise 0.3… all my corals should be able to consume 0.3 dKH because there are some ok-sized SPS and LPS as you pointed out.

Testing errors should be not the case as I tested with Hanna Alk checker and Salifert Alk testkit. Always the same results…

Well, I might need to drop Calcium a bit maybe..