Acceptable alk swing range?

[jx.reef]

I'm trying to figure out 2 part I can safely dose to avoid any major problems as I try to dial in the routine. Just some background on my tank: SPS dominant 29 gallon with a flame angel, yellow tail damsel, and six line wrasse. I run an oversized BH1000 reef octopus skimmer and feed heavy (fish 2x daily and corals get oyster feast + reef energy).

Alk - trying to maintain at 8 dkh (hanna)
Ca - 420 (salifert)
Mg - 1260 (salifert)
Nitrate and Phosphates - undetectable on API

Most of my SPS frags are starting to take off, causing larger alk swings. I've noticed that my alk can sometimes drop 1.1 dkh overnight but remain unchanged other nights. Dosing 5 ml of 2 part whenever I see a drop to maintain it at 8 dkh. I'm scared to do water changes with my red sea coral pro salt because it mixes at 10-11 dkh. My Tierra del fuego frag got burnt tips and browned out when I last did a minor water change. Now it looks awful while the others are still noticeably growing.

TLDR
Are the burnt tips on that one frag a sign of worse things to come? How can I safely change the water with my RSCP salt? Am I supposed to dose 2 part until I maintain the tank at 10 dkh?

Thanks for reading!

 

[chefjpaul]

Id personally just switch salts if you want the mix and maintain lower. Try the blue bucket.
I accualy did this before, worked better for me.

What is the consistency of the drops over a set period of time, and durring what time of testing?

 

[jx.reef]

I've had my numbers range between 6.9 - 9.3 dkh over the past 2 weeks with testing done between 1-2 pm daily. The average drop is between 0.3 - 0.6 dkh each night when I keep it around 7-8 dkh. When I bump it up to 8-9 dkh, that's when I sometimes get the larger 1 dkh drops overnight. I think part of it is also caused by the coralline algae taking over my tank recently.

Is it typical for there to be high alk consumption some days but remain unchanged other days? Is there any way to setup a dosing schedule to account for this? I'd like to try keeping my alk around 9 because I noticed growth stops when it drops down to 7.

 

[Scorpius]

Buy a dosing pump. Only way to makes things more stable. I had BRS dosers on cheap digital timers recently until my timer died and didn't dose alk for almost 48 hrs. Lesson learned. I bought this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=28180

 

[jx.reef]

Sounds good. I actually already have a dosing pump ready to go so I'll get it running. Thanks everyone!

 

[chefjpaul]

Remember to focus on stability, not numbers

 

[jx.reef]

Yeah I'll start the doser at 3 ml a day and manually add extra if need be.