Calcium dosing

christa1421 · Jan 27, 2023

When do you know it’s time to start dosing calcium? My calcium has been on higher side for the last 2 or 3 months, but is now starting to drop just a little (419ppm) Do I let it get closer to the low side of normal before dosing? I’ve been dosing my alkalinity daily to keep it at 9.5 dkH for the last few weeks. Wasn’t sure if I need to keep calcium at a specific number or just within the normal range. I guess the better question is, what is a normal calcium swing and when would it be time to take action? Thanks!

Joe31415 · Jan 27, 2023

Decide where you want it, test it every day, or every few days (but more than once a week), and, if necessary, dose it back to that level. At some point you'll realize that instead of doing a little on Monday and a bunch more on Tuesday and then nothing for three days, and then a lot, then a little more the next day, then it's too high etc etc etc, you're now dosing about the same amount on a regular-ish schedule. That's when, IMO, it's a good time to start dosing. Do the math to figure out how much you dose, per day, on average. Set up the dosing pump to dose about that much (or a bit less) on a daily basis, then tweak the settings until it's dialed in.

Having said that, if you're not dosing and that's what you're numbers look like over the course of a bit more than a month, you probably don't have to worry about it. If you have been adding calcium and that's where the numbers are, getting it on a schedule will probably keep it a bit more stable.