daily 2-part usage

kevensquint · Feb 22, 2015

Hello, I have been using two part for years now. The Alk is cooked arm&hammer the Ca is BRS calcium chloride. My tank is a 75 packed with sps. I am wondering if my daily usage is unnecessarily high. I dose about 120ml/day of each. I have slowly increased dosage over a year or two to constantly maintain 7.5 dkh and 410 ppm of Ca. I'm wondering if by not increasing Alk and Ca always simultaneously, if they play off one another giving the illusion that my daily consumption is actually 120ml when it is less. I am nervous to try, but say I reduce both to 60ml/day would I likely continue to maintain levels, or would they drop? I get zero calcium buildup on pumps and heaters, also my DSB in the sump where elements are dosed is loose and fluid. Which make me think maybe my tank does use in fact all that I dose. Unsure..

fishman77 · Feb 22, 2015

I think cutting the dosage to half would be too much. You don't want the alk to drop below 7 and you don't have a lot room to play around with were you're alk is at now. I would keep the dosage at the level you have it now.

kacrocorals581 · Feb 22, 2015

I wouldn't drop from what I've read I think your about right with what your dosing for a heavy sps tank

kevensquint · Feb 22, 2015

Just wondering, since at this dosage every few days I gotta dump out a cup or two of tank water since all this 2-part slowly raises salinity. Kinda annoying especially when leaving the tank for a vacation etc..

DFW · Feb 23, 2015

What is making you wonder about your dosing possibly being too much? Your tank tells you how much it wants through your testing, doesn't it? If you are maintaining magnesium at the proper level, I would trust the test kit to tell you how much alkalinity, and calcium to dose!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 23, 2015

I agree, in that I'm not sure why you think it too much, but dropping the dosing and watching if alk drops too much for your preference is the easy way to test it.

You are only adding about the equivalent of 2.3 dKH per day. That's not much for an SPS heavy tank.

kevensquint · Feb 23, 2015

I once asked BRS when I was around 100ml daily. Their answer was, that is surely too much for my sized tank. That response has lingered in the back of my mind for a while. But I'll just stick with it as-is. Thanks.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 23, 2015

Maybe they misunderstood the volume.

Even a soft coral tank can use that much if coralline is growing well.

hart24601 · Feb 23, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I agree, in that I'm not sure why you think it too much, but dropping the dosing and watching if alk drops too much for your preference is the easy way to test it.

You are only adding about the equivalent of 2.3 dKH per day. That's not much for an SPS heavy tank.

Sounds about right. I have had medium to heavy stocked SPS tanks that drop 3dkh/day. Or a large clam that can suck up that much alone.

fragguy · Feb 23, 2015

Determining SPS density is kind of arbitrary, but your numbers don't seem out of line to me. I'm dosing 500mls of BRS 2 part a day on my 350 which I consider to be heavily stocked with SPS frags and large colonies. Alk is holding at around 9 to 10dkh.