Alkalinity and Calcium manual dosing

[RomoFL]

I have a fairly fresh tank - started Sept 2018 and now has soft corals and 3 fish - clown, fire fish and coral beauty. It’s a 20g nano peninsula with a nano sump equivalent to a 10g due to peninsula design. It has a media basket with Prurigen, ChemiPure and polyfill in the intake bank, middle bank has an eshopps skimmer and last bank is main pump.

My Alkalinity is a tad low at 7.5, Magnesium good at 1400 and Calcium at 435.. these were determined using Salifert tests.

I purchased the NatuReef Hardness Plus and Alkalinity Plus. It suggests auto dosers but I would like recommendations on manually dosing. Are there any calculators online or does anyone have good experience with these NatuReef products?

 

[RomoFL]

Pic of tank

 

[mta_morrow]

It should have come with instructions for dosing.

For example x ml will raise x gallons, x amount.

Then dose that amount manually. You are just taking the place of the doser

 

[RomoFL]

It says no more than 5ml should be used at one time.. and it says that in a doser 5 minutes of run time will provide 2meq per gallon but it doesn’t say how much is being dosed in that 5min run time? I am assuming 5ml? It isn’t very clear.

 

[mta_morrow]

It says no more than 5ml should be used at one time.. and it says that in a doser 5 minutes of run time will provide 2meq per gallon but it doesn’t say how much is being dosed in that 5min run time? I am assuming 5ml? It isn’t very clear.

That’s about the lamest instructions I have ever heard.

I’m not an expert at dosing, I manually dose 2 ml every other day. But that’s about to change as I am now adding some sps.

Let’s ask for some advice from those who have more experience as we don’t want to mess this up.

#reefsquad

 

[DSC reef]

I would dose minimal amounts and see what that takes your alkalinity too and adjust from there with dosing once daily. Instructions I've found from companies are kind of a safety net for them. Once you learn your tanks consumption rate you can dial in your dosing. With our 75 reef rank we had to dose 20ml morning and night too keep alkalinity stable at 9-10 dkh.

 

[saltyhog]

One of the reasons I use 2 part dosing. There are calculators every where to help you find a starting point. I use the calculator on the BRS site.

Like DSC, said. Dose a small amount, test, rinse, repeat till you get where you want to go. Gradual increase is better than a sudden jump anyway.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Forget the run time.
Go with new per gal. Don’t go over 1 dkh.
The risk is in the alk or more correctly the ph boost.

And honestly, with a tiny all draw , I gave up on manual dosing and went with bi monthly water changes with a high alk salt. Sometimes kalk in the ato.
Yea, sounds wrong til you do it for a few years and have no problems growing anything.

 

[RomoFL]

Good idea.. my LFS only sells sea water but maybe I can find another that mixes.. or mix my own I suppose.

I’ll try small doses for now.. just put in 1ml each of the hardness and alkalinity and I’ll test again tomorrow.

Thanks all

 

[Brew12]

That’s about the lamest instructions I have ever heard.

Agreed, these directions are horrible. Let's see if we can decipher them.
"The NatuReef® Alkalinity Plus and Hardness Plus provide 9,500 mequ. of alkalinity and almost 200,000 mg of calcium hardness per gallon."
So 9500 mequ per gallon is 2510 mequ per liter or 2.5 mequ per mL.
So, 1 mL will raise 10 gallons by 0.25 mequ or 0.7dkh.

If you have 25 gallons, 1 mL will raise your system by roughly o.3dkh. This is some strong stuff!

 

[redfishbluefish]

First off, with softies only, your alk and calc demand most likely can be met by the salt you are using...with water changes. This would change if you have SPS or LPS or clams. Otherwise, there is no demand. FYI, 7.5 dKh is just fine.

Suggest checking this out:

How Much Two Part Do I Need

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

His fresh NSW is likely 7.5-8.
I’ve done that long term too with no dosing.

300-600ml of the clear part of kalk in 2-5 gal ato is prob fine.

 

[Big G]

went with bi monthly water changes with a high alk salt

Care to share your brand of salt?

 

[RomoFL]

First off, with softies only, your alk and calc demand most likely can be met by the salt you are using...with water changes. This would change if you have SPS or LPS or clams. Otherwise, there is no demand. FYI, 7.5 dKh is just fine.

Suggest checking this out:

How Much Two Part Do I Need

Thanks for that redfishbluefish! Great post!

 

[glb]

Agree with everyone that those directions make no sense. A dosing calculator will ask the product, water volume, current level and desired level you want by dosing. Usually on a bottle it will say “x” amount will increase “y” amount alk in “z” amount of water. If you’re dosing a small amount it’s easy to do manually. Does that make sense?