ALK Drops but not CAL

[Bayareareefer18]

What is ORP?

Oxidation reduction potential

Think of it as a measure of how clean your water is

To me it wouldn't be important unless I was running ozone

 

[izzyishh]

@Bayareareefer18 yeah same isnt important to me Ill do more research and maybe pull the trigger later on First a dosing pump lol wonder if the Coral box can connect to APEX......

 

[Bayareareefer18]

@Bayareareefer18 yeah same isnt important to me Ill do more research and maybe pull the trigger later on First a dosing pump lol wonder if the Coral box can connect to APEX......

I'm sure there is a way. Any dosing pump you can plug into the apex outlets should work

I am looking to start dosing soon as well. I am going to go with the apex dos mainly because I have an apex. I like that you can set your dosing amount for the day and select the time period you would like to spread out your dosing and it will calculate the dosing increments for you

Before I got the apex I was considering the coral box wifi doser as well.

 

[izzyishh]

I will have to figure out if i want an apex first then buy my doser with that in mind.

 

[Bayareareefer18]

I will have to figure out if i want an apex first then buy my doser with that in mind.

Probably a good idea

 

[Oshengems]

Btw a lot of people including apex users opt out on the apex doser because of the price for just 2 heads compared to others with 4 heads

 

[izzyishh]

Yeah just looked up apex doser ill pass on the doser lol

 

[Joe Heavy]

Check out the voss water bottle DIY dosing containers

Walmart also has containers that have ml measurements and accept John guest fittings they are like 2.50 us and are plastic which might not be your liking but cheap big and narrow. My two cents just put a tiny breathing hole. They accept John guest fittings like they were made for them. Snip the lid strap off and good to go!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Like it says i dose B-Ionic 2 part. I keep my DKH at 8 and my cal sits at 450-460. For some reason my tank consumes alk way faster than cal. Is it ok to just dose alk and cal as needed or do i have to dose each one in equal amounts?

Just to clarify, the tank probably consumes quite close to the ratios supplied by B-ionic, but other husbandry factors can mess with the demand ratio, and the lower the demand, the more those other small factors may become apparent.

Biggest effect is water changes with a mix that does not match the tank. Obviously, that creates a demand imbalance.

Rising nitrate depletes alkalinity. This is very common in newer tanks.

nitrate dosing to maintain nitrate adds alkalinity.

A sulfur denitrator depletes alkalinity.

Top off with tap water can alter the ratio since calcium and/or alk are often present.

 

[izzyishh]

NO3 at 1-3ppm

Can you clarify the following @Randy Holmes-Farley
"Rising nitrate depletes alkalinity. This is very common in newer tanks.

nitrate dosing to maintain nitrate adds alkalinity."

Are my levels of No3 fine? or would they deplete ALK?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

NO3 at 1-3ppm

Can you clarify the following @Randy Holmes-Farley
"Rising nitrate depletes alkalinity. This is very common in newer tanks.

nitrate dosing to maintain nitrate adds alkalinity."

Are my levels of No3 fine? or would they deplete ALK?

Stable nitrate at any value does not alter alkalinity. IMO, 0.2 to 10 ppm nitrate is a fine range for most any reef tank, and at the higher end of that if alk is very high and SPS corals are present.

it is the consumption and production of it that do. If those are balanced to give a stable value, there's no net change to alk.

But a rise of 50 ppm nitrate (by normal aquarium processes, not simple addition of sodium nitrate) will deplete 0.8 meq/L (2.3 dKH) of alkalinity.

And likewise, an addition of 50 ppm nitrate (by simple addition of sodium nitrate) that then gets consumed will add 0.8 meq/L (2.3 dKH) of alkalinity.

i discuss the chemistry of this effect here:

When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance? by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm

 

[izzyishh]

@Randy Holmes-Farley thank you so much for your input means a lot I have read a lot of your articles and follow you here a lot. As of now everything seems pretty balanced nothing rises or drops much. Tank over all is pretty stable all the coral look nice and healthy. I was just over thinking the instructions of adding equal parts of each cal and alk. But if the tank doesn't need cal Im not required to add it even tho it says add both parts equally.