best way to stabilize alk

[melonheadorion]

before i dive deep into focusing on SPS, i feel that the very last thing i need to hone my skills on is stability with alk and calcium. i dont need to know about products to use with raising them, as this is something i have a good grasp on already, but what i question most is the best way to keep it stable? dosing those products specifically. obviously, dosing alk will have a by product of raising pH, which im not too worried about, and i may need to use a 2 part, or kalkwasser, or whatever is going to fit my needs most.
with regards to dosing, is it best to dose throughout the whole day? or just specific periods of the day, for example at night only? obviously, i will have to do the math to determine how much i will need to dose to keep it at whatever levels i want it. io guess i want to know the methods that you successful reefers use to keep your levels relatively the same each day,

 

[Lavey29]

I use a Red Sea doser and dose small amounts of alk throughout the day. I do the same for Calcium overnight to maintain both parameters. Magnesium I just hand dose a small amount weekly. I also dose trace elements once a week.

 

[melonheadorion]

when you say you dose small amounts throughout the day, do you drip dose all day, or is it x amount of times in the day a specific amount, to equal your daily dosage requirement? for example, instead of drip dosing all day, do you do something like 4 doses at equal distance apart equal amounts during those doses?

 

[Uncle99]

Bring MG up to 1350-1400ppm
Increase PH to 8.2-8.3
Measure current Alk and CA at say 2:00pm.
Making no changes, measure again both in 7 days, same time.
Divide the difference by 7, being your current daily consumption rate. This will change over time.
Now, we bring up Alk to whatever your salt brand mixes to.
From that point you need to put back what was consumed. It takes a bit of fiddling.
I dose 1ml of 2 part Alk every hour, on the hour, CA on the half hour.
I always dose MG first, then Alk, then CA, with some time between each.
I carbon dose only with lights on, when PH should be higher to compensate.
So each week, I do a 10% water change, measure, then make adjustments to the doser.
My Alk flux is 11.3-11.6 Dkh, (I use Red Sea Black)
Been there years.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Technically, more frequent, lower volume doses will contribute to less fluctuation over a given time period.
However, an additional critical tool is close monitoring. It's hard to have the accurate amount of dosing when you're not calculating for your tank's consumption or trends. Regardless of method, monitoring alk for sudden changes is a good idea.
Your tank's demand will also dictate what method is most cost effective. Some are more stable than others, but have a steeper cost.

Dose during the time corals are photosynthesizing is the usual route. I do mine an hour after lights on.

 

[melonheadorion]

Bring MG up to 1350-1400ppm
Increase PH to 8.2-8.3
Measure current Alk and CA at say 2:00pm.
Making no changes, measure again both in 7 days, same time.
Divide the difference by 7, being your current daily consumption rate. This will change over time.
Now, we bring up Alk to whatever your salt brand mixes to.
From that point you need to put back what was consumed. It takes a bit of fiddling.
I dose 1ml of 2 part Alk every hour, on the hour, CA on the half hour.
I always dose MG first, then Alk, then CA, with some time between each.
I carbon dose only with lights on, when PH should be higher to compensate.
So each week, I do a 10% water change, measure, then make adjustments to the doser.
My Alk flux is 11.3-11.6 Dkh, (I use Red Sea Black)
Been there years.

thats not necessarily what the question is persay. i know what i lose within a day, so i know what i need to dose in that day, assumiung that there arent any differences. i do understand that it will be something i have to still test on to see if my alk consumption has changed to make adjustments to what i dose, but right now, i dose what i need to replenish each day, all at once. the question is more along the lines of a better way of making that dose. obviously, the way im doing it is keeping it in a swing, each day. the lowest point is at, lets say 8.3, but when i do my dose, its at 9 (just for the sake of numbers). so daily, in this number example, i might have a .7 to 1 dkh change each day that gets replenished when i dose again. i want to eliminate a big swing like that, and want to know methods of some, to see what my best route of dosing might be, or doing that actual dose. drip through the day, small increments at only certain times of the day, etc.
i guess i am more curious in what mechanism you have in place to make the dose that you need, to keep you within .3

 

[melonheadorion]

Technically, more frequent, lower volume doses will contribute to less fluctuation over a given time period.
However, an additional critical tool is close monitoring. It's hard to have the accurate amount of dosing when you're not calculating for your tank's consumption or trends. Regardless of method, monitoring alk for sudden changes is a good idea.
Your tank's demand will also dictate what method is most cost effective. Some are more stable than others, but have a steeper cost.

Dose during the time corals are photosynthesizing is the usual route. I do mine an hour after lights on.

so, when you dose alk for example, you just do one "large" dose, or do y ou start a series of smaller doses at lights out?

with doing it that way, how much fluctuation do you have in your alk, if any?

 

[Wasabiroot]

so, when you dose alk for example, you just do one "large" dose, or do y ou start a series of smaller doses at lights out?

with doing it that way, how much fluctuation do you have in your alk, if any?

I dose a small amount at once (8mL AFR I'm a 50g with newer frags). But later on I will likely stagger it, especially once I get into double digits. My alk stays at 10.3

 

[Wasabiroot]

For a great read and better information than I can provide, I recommend consulting @Randy Holmes-Farley 's series of articles.

The Many Methods for Supplementing Calcium and Alkalinity

There is no aspect of reef aquarium chemistry more important than calcium and alkalinity. Many of my previous articles have described various aspects of these systems in detail. In reading those articles, aquarists will note one pervasive theme...

www.reef2reef.com

Here is a relevant one.

 

[glb]

If it’s just a small dose you could do it all at once. But once your corals take off your alk needs will increase, and you might want to dose 3-4 times/day. I use dosing pumps. I check the alk weekly and adjust the dosage based on the reading. I dose alk in the morning and ca at night. So far on my 40g I dose all at once. I don’t see a jump in ph when the alk goes in.