Dialing in dose

[ken77]

How often do you measure you alk mg and ca?

 

[Anirban]

How often do you measure you alk mg and ca?

Dont tell anyone.....Alk almost daily but Ca may be once a week and Mg very rarely.

 

[ken77]

Hey @Anirban i am still waiting on my mg kit but i have continued to test alk and ca.
Ca was 420 and alk 7.17 tonight. I am a little troubled about my alk.
6/11 7.67
6/12 7.5
6/14 7.28
6/15. 7.17
I am worried that this is a trend. Please tell me what you think. I have not changed any thing on the tank but i am due a water change when salt arrives.

 

[Anirban]

Hey @Anirban i am still waiting on my mg kit but i have continued to test alk and ca.
Ca was 420 and alk 7.17 tonight. I am a little troubled about my alk.
6/11 7.67
6/12 7.5
6/14 7.28
6/15. 7.17
I am worried that this is a trend. Please tell me what you think. I have not changed any thing on the tank but i am due a water change when salt arrives.

Nothing to worry. Your reef is growing and that's why it's getting low. You have to add 10 to 20 ml of each component to keep it at there.

 

[ken77]

Ok thanks i will up the dose by 10 mls for each component.
Thanks
Ken

 

[Anirban]

Whenever you see a steady decrease of alk then up the dose a bit.

 

[ken77]

I am trying to make sure i am getting accurate readings from my hana checker alk. Do you shake the fluid before you use it each time?

 

[Anirban]

I do shake it before use. Also when it's almost fished it does give low reading.

 

[ken77]

That probably explains it then. I havent been shaking it and my reagent bottle was getting low.
My alk had continued to drop even after i increased the dose by the 10mls we talked about. I let it set two days it was still dropping so i incresed dose 10 more mls. We had talked of increasing 10 to 20 mls. I tested last night alk was 6.89. I decided to wait and test tonight. When testing i noticed the liquid looked pale in the syringe so i put it back in the bottle and shook it a little. I got 7.62 for alk this. That is about were i thought it should be. During this time ca went ul from 420 to 435. I should be able to resume test mg tomorrow. What do you think.
Thanks
Ken

 

[Anirban]

Let me know the results of all 3 today. if the alk stays at 7.5-7.8 range you are good. Your Ca looks good too.

 

[ken77]

Good evening @Anirban I got the Mg test in today. Here are those readings from all three components. Mg looks a little low.
Alk 7.84
Ca 435
Mg 1245
What is your opion?

 

[Anirban]

All good buddy. Let it be like this we will see in couple of days. The alk is what I need to be stabilised.

 

[ken77]

Yeah that is what worries me as well. I have had alk issues in the past.

 

[ken77]

Hello @Anirban how have you been? I let my tank sit for a few days with the dose being the same. My went up from 7.84 to 7.9 to 7.95 to 8.18 today.
Mg is 1440
Ca is 440
I was thinking of lowering the dose 5 or 10mls per day. What do you think?

 

[Anirban]

Why you want to lower it? It moved 0.3 total in 4 days.

 

[ken77]

I was worrying that it would continue that it would just continue to go up.

 

[Anirban]

Let it be there for 2 more days and keep an eye on it. If it move beyond 8.3 then lower dose 5ml.

 

[ken77]

I probably worry to much about small changes. What would you say is too much of a change?

 

[Anirban]

lol.....0.3 to 0.5 in a day may be

 

[ken77]

Lol yeah guess i expected it to not change once it is dailed in. But i should know better with a corals taking up the the nutrients. They are not going to use the same amount each day.