Cal and alk advice

reefpeeper · Jul 19, 2014

So I recently asked the question "do u think 70ml a day for cal and alk is alot in a 50g total system?" Alot of the answers were yes. Some people suggested that I stop dosing for a couple days and see how much my levels drop. Well I started with alk at 8.4dkh and cal at 400ppm. I didnt dose for three days and my numbers are now alk 7.7dkh and cal is 360ppm. I calculated the dose required to bring both of them back up to original level and then divided by 3 to get daily dose. So what I got is alk 9ml a day and cal 68ml a day. Does this seem correct or should I be soing something different? Seems way unbalanced of a daily addition. Any help would be great.

_sludgefactory · Jul 19, 2014

70ml isn't a lot of your system uses it. Who cares how Mich you dose, it's the end levels that matter.

reefpeeper · Jul 19, 2014

dkerns06 said:
70ml isn't a lot of your system uses it. Who cares how Mich you dose, it's the end levels that matter.

I may have been adding too much and it was precipitating out. Just weird I calculated such low number for alk now

tonymission · Jul 19, 2014

You have a lot of large sps colonies? I'm dosing 14ml a day in a 90g with a couple medium colonies and maybe 25-30 various size frags.

redfishbluefish · Jul 19, 2014

Your comment about ppt concerns me. What is your MAG level. If MAG isn't maintained at acceptable levels, calcium carbonate will precipitate.

The other concern, have someone else (with their kits) measure your levels of alk and calc. Test kits go south, and could be giving you bogus numbers.

reefpeeper · Jul 19, 2014

redfishbluefish said:
Your comment about ppt concerns me. What is your MAG level. If MAG isn't maintained at acceptable levels, calcium carbonate will precipitate.

The other concern, have someone else (with their kits) measure your levels of alk and calc. Test kits go south, and could be giving you bogus numbers.

My mag is at 1350. Also new test kits

reefpeeper · Jul 19, 2014

Should I be adding equal amounts of cal and alk daily or does it not matter

Lc310 · Jul 19, 2014

What test kit are you using

reefpeeper · Jul 19, 2014

Red sea

b_rad_G · Jul 20, 2014

Your test show an unbalanced consumption. With calcium dropping 40 ppm you should have roughly a 5 dkh drop. On the flip side with a drop in alkalinity of .7 dkh I would expect to see the calcium drop around 10 ppm. The ratio that corals use calcium and alkalinity is 18-20 ppm of can to 1 meg/l or 2.8 dkh. This is also close to what would be used in precipitation. Seeing a drop of 40 ppm ca and only .7 dkh alk makes me wonder.

This isn't the first time I've heard people having problems with BRS supplies. I'm not saying the BRS stuff is causing problems but I know the calculator can be confusing. I really suspect a testing error in your case.

If say for instance the accuracy of the car test is +-10 ppm. You could have started with 390 ppm and ended with 370. Then if the alk test had a +- .2 diy you could have been at 8.6 and gone to 7.5. That would get your consumption closer to what I would expect to see. I don't actually know what the range of accuracy of red sea test kits are but i am showing a small mistake both ways can make a big difference.

I can say for certain the mag test is a pain. You must follow the instructions exactly. If you don't wait the entire min between adding the last chemical and starting the regent it will be way off.

Get your ca and alk numbers back where you want them. Figure out how much supplement of each you need to add. Test before and after dosing to confirm that the amount dosed actually raised the level the desired amount. You might need to test 2-3 times to make sure exactly where your at.

If it was me I would get my alk and ca up where I wanted them. Then I would start a small dose. Maybe start with approximately .5 dkh and around 5 ppm ca. Manually dose this for 3 days and test and double check and triple check. Then you could adjust the dosing accordingly.