amature dosing advice .

Reef257 · Dec 9, 2020

Hi all
Hope everyone Is doing good.

My alk is current Very low .thought of increase it but not use how to increase since I dont understand the labels .I'm such a noob.

Current Test result
Ph 8.0
Alkalinity 7.0
Calcium 450
Magnesium 1600
Salinity 1.025

Tank size 120 gallons

I want my alk from 7 to 8.5 (any recommendations most softies and LPS)

1 .I have got red sea alkalinity .
Not sure how much I need to dose.

2 once I get to the target i want to use a product called red sea skeletal elements .
How much do i need to add this product once a week to try to achieve stability.

Thanks In advance. I don't understand the labels .

driftin · Dec 9, 2020

My opinion, your Alk is low but not terribly low. A lot of people maintain Alk levels in the upper 7's with very successful tanks.

Regarding the dosing, not knowing what you have in the tank and how sensitive they may be to changes I would target doing a smaller increase each day for a couple days, rather than a single jump to 8.5 (if you keep that as your target level).

Interpreting the label - keep this easy and start off by assuming your 120 gallon tank has 100 gallons of actual liquid. All the equipment and rock in your tank takes up space and decreases your actual water volume. It's an estimate, a starting point, and the dosing will help you determine your actual water volume. The label suggests that a 1mL dose in 25 gallons of tank water will raise the Alk 0.1 dKH. So assuming your tank is around 100 gallons of water volume, a 4 mL dose would increase Alk 0.1dKH.

I would try dosing 8 mL, which should raise you somewhere around 0.2 dKH, and then remeasure your Alk again a bit later that same day. You can use your measured increase in Alk to determine the true volume of water you have in the tank - if your Alk didn't go up 0.2 dKH, then you have more water volume than 100 gallons. If it went up more than 0.2 dKH, you have less water volume.

The next day, at roughly the same time that you last measured and before you dose again, do another Alk measurement. This will tell you how much dKH your tank consumes in a 24 period - this will help you understand your maintenance dose to keep levels stable. If it doesn't change enough to measure accurately (again, not knowing what's in your tank) you can wait 48 hours or even longer to remeasure the Alk. Just don't re-dose the supplement in between measurements if you're trying to learn your consumption rate.

Reef257 · Dec 10, 2020

driftin said:
My opinion, your Alk is low but not terribly low. A lot of people maintain Alk levels in the upper 7's with very successful tanks.

Regarding the dosing, not knowing what you have in the tank and how sensitive they may be to changes I would target doing a smaller increase each day for a couple days, rather than a single jump to 8.5 (if you keep that as your target level).

Interpreting the label - keep this easy and start off by assuming your 120 gallon tank has 100 gallons of actual liquid. All the equipment and rock in your tank takes up space and decreases your actual water volume. It's an estimate, a starting point, and the dosing will help you determine your actual water volume. The label suggests that a 1mL dose in 25 gallons of tank water will raise the Alk 0.1 dKH. So assuming your tank is around 100 gallons of water volume, a 4 mL dose would increase Alk 0.1dKH.

I would try dosing 8 mL, which should raise you somewhere around 0.2 dKH, and then remeasure your Alk again a bit later that same day. You can use your measured increase in Alk to determine the true volume of water you have in the tank - if your Alk didn't go up 0.2 dKH, then you have more water volume than 100 gallons. If it went up more than 0.2 dKH, you have less water volume.

The next day, at roughly the same time that you last measured and before you dose again, do another Alk measurement. This will tell you how much dKH your tank consumes in a 24 period - this will help you understand your maintenance dose to keep levels stable. If it doesn't change enough to measure accurately (again, not knowing what's in your tank) you can wait 48 hours or even longer to remeasure the Alk. Just don't re-dose the supplement in between measurements if you're trying to learn your consumption rate.