Alkalinity Confusion

Andygator · Nov 16, 2018

Maybe somebody can help figure my dosing situation out. I am dosing ESV Bionic 2 part. I have about 80 gallons of water. For several months the only big consumer was a fast growing clam and a good bit of coraline . I was dosing 15ml of each/day. The last few months I have been slowly adding corals and decided recently that I should probably check my dkh and Ca to see if I needed to increase dosing. I checked the alkalinity using a Hanna checker and found a dkh of 9.1 and I the calcium read 420 with a Salifert test. I waited 72 hours and checked again and found the alkalinity had fallen to 8.4 and the calcium was 415. I used the online calculator and found that I used roughly 90ml over the three days. So I took a logical approach (I thought) and increased the DOS to 30ml/24 hrs to hold the current levels. I just tested and found the alkalinity had increased to 9.0 and the calcium was 410. I rechecked the alkalinity and it read 9.4. So now I am really confused. I thought that at 30ml I would be roughly holding the same alkalinity and calcium. Plus, the inconsistency with the Hanna checker has added to my confusion. Side note: I used Tropic Marin Pro salt; 14 gallon water changes every two weeks. I changed the water a day before I started this dosing adventure.

saltyfilmfolks · Nov 16, 2018

I may be mistaken but that salt is an alk of 8.
You should check to see what the cal is.

What is your target alk?

Several of those resuls are well within the test error range on the cal.

The alk does seem a bit off.

Hitman · Nov 16, 2018

Andygator said:
Maybe somebody can help figure my dosing situation out. I am dosing ESV Bionic 2 part. I have about 80 gallons of water. For several months the only big consumer was a fast growing clam and a good bit of coraline . I was dosing 15ml of each/day. The last few months I have been slowly adding corals and decided recently that I should probably check my dkh and Ca to see if I needed to increase dosing. I checked the alkalinity using a Hanna checker and found a dkh of 9.1 and I the calcium read 420 with a Salifert test. I waited 72 hours and checked again and found the alkalinity had fallen to 8.4 and the calcium was 415. I used the online calculator and found that I used roughly 90ml over the three days. So I took a logical approach (I thought) and increased the DOS to 30ml/24 hrs to hold the current levels. I just tested and found the alkalinity had increased to 9.0 and the calcium was 410. I rechecked the alkalinity and it read 9.4. So now I am really confused. I thought that at 30ml I would be roughly holding the same alkalinity and calcium. Plus, the inconsistency with the Hanna checker has added to my confusion. Side note: I used Tropic Marin Pro salt; 14 gallon water changes every two weeks. I changed the water a day before I started this dosing adventure.

What is your MG? If MG is low it will throw your levels out of wack. I use B-Ionic and dose 40 ml each and 1500 ml kalk daily, I also need to add about 50 ml of mg monthly.

Andygator · Nov 16, 2018

saltyfilmfolks said:
I may be mistaken but that salt is an alk of 8.
You should check to see what the cal is.

What is your target alk?

Several of those resuls are well within the test error range on the cal.

The alk does seem a bit off.

I don’t really know what I should target. My nitrate is 5ppm and phophates have been undectable via Hanna. I was thinking something between 8-9 dkh.

Andygator · Nov 16, 2018

Hitman said:
What is your MG? If MG is low it will throw your levels out of wack. I use B-Ionic and dose 40 ml each and 1500 ml kalk daily, I also need to add about 50 ml of mg monthly.

Mg has been consistent at 1350.

Hitman · Nov 16, 2018

How long have you been using B-Ionic? It took me about 2 months to get things leveled out. In its defense I went a lot slower then recommended when making adjustments as I was not on this forum and didn't have all the wonderful help you will get from this group!