Ca, Alk, and Mg. What are you dosing daily?

[EPo]

Hey just curious what amounts people are dosing at per day. If you use an automated doser or by hand. Please post your display tanks volume. coral load ranging from low, med, high in coral including softies, lps, and/or sps. The brand you use. I know it's vague but just trying to get an overall feel as I add more corals to my system what I can expect to be dosing daily. Thanks all

 

[cginter]

I have mixed reef I'd say medium coral amount. Using BRS 1.1ml dosers for ALK and cal. Dosing 60ml of each/day. I do not dose mg. my tank does not really consume it for some reason.

 

[mike007]

In order to know how much you need to dose you will have to figure out your daily consumption. Get your parameters where you want them and then go 3 days without dosing and retest. Then divide the results by 3 and that will tell you your daily consumption then you can go to the reef calculator and determine how much you need to dose each day to maintain parameters. Presently on my 100 gallon mixed reef I am dosing 60mls. of ca. and alk. spread out 24 hours a day With dosing pump.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I give guidelines for starting dosing my DIY two part (as BRS sells), which may help provide the rough info you are looking for. Note that most people; use Recipe #1:

An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

from it:

[TABLE="width: 515, align: center"]
[TR="bgcolor: #006699"]
[TD="colspan: 3"]

[SIZE=-1]Table 1. Suggested starting daily doses of this supplement in different aquaria.[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: #CCECFF"]
[TD="width: 183"][SIZE=-1]Tank Description:[/SIZE][/TD]
[TD="colspan: 2"]

[SIZE=-1]Suggested Starting Doses:[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 183"][/TD]
[TD="width: 150, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]Recipe #1[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[TD="width: 160, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]Recipe #2[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 183"][SIZE=-1]Fish-only with live rock[/SIZE][/TD]
[TD="width: 150, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]0.1 mL/gallon[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[TD="width: 160, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]0.2 mL/gallon[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 183"][SIZE=-1]New tank, few corals[/SIZE][/TD]
[TD="width: 150, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]0.2 mL/gallon[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[TD="width: 160, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]0.4 mL/gallon[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 183"][SIZE=-1]Low demand[/SIZE][/TD]
[TD="width: 150, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]0.3 mL/gallon[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[TD="width: 160, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]0.6 mL/gallon[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 183"][SIZE=-1]Mixed tank[/SIZE][/TD]
[TD="width: 150, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]0.5 mL/gallon[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[TD="width: 160, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]1 mL/gallon[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 183"][SIZE=-1]Heavy demand (SPS corals)[/SIZE][/TD]
[TD="width: 150, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]1 mL/gallon[/SIZE]​

[/TD]
[TD="width: 160, bgcolor: #E1E1E1"]

[SIZE=-1]2 mL/gallon[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=-1]
[/SIZE][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[EPo]

Thanks guys and yes I did follow the recommended starting dosage that came with the BRS 2part. I was just curious how much one could be dosing. For instance a mature tank could be consuming 1ml/gal. I wasn't aware of that.

Second question. Salt mixes. How does that affect my parameters. I want to keep my tank in the range of Alk 9dKh, Ca 420, and Mg 1300. I am using Red Sea salt mix which has slightly different parameters. Will my water changes and salt mix affect the overall tank? Would it be better to try to match my salt mix parameters? Or find another salt mix that is closer to what I want. Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Each water change will tend to push the parameters toward the salt mix, but usually the effect is small.

For example, a 10% change with an 11 dKH salt mix will push a 9 dKH tank to 9.2 dKH.