DKH, Meq/L, or PPM & dosing.

Browncoat · Jul 15, 2014

Alright i've done alot of reading and there is so much info out there about this. What do you perfer to use DKH, Meq/L, or PPM to test your alkalinity at and why? Also i'm starting to dose Calc and Alk. I've read that the calc drops so much per alk if so how much? 2 alk to 1 calc is what i've read is this right? My last tank i set up was mostly softies so i have dosed alk plenty of times, but used Dkh as my measuring unit didn't know if there was much of a benefit to measure by Meq/L? I now am getting some good sized SpS and now need to start dosing alk and calc so needing a bit of help in the right direction, i'll be using 2 part for now, maybe Kalk if i'm ballsy enough. Please keep this simple stupid lol for me and any others who are just venturing into dosing and testing. sorry if this has been posted before.

mcarroll · Jul 15, 2014

dKH is antiquated, but popular in the hobby.
meq/L I think is more standard/modern.
ppm is the most currect/correct for us.

For better or worse, all units are interchangeable (1 meq/L = 50 ppm = 2.8 dKH) so people apparently don't want to settle on one - and practically never use anything but the oldest, most stale unit: dKH.

The people I followed most closely when I was learning (those having the most success at what I wanted to keep) measured in meq/L so that's what I use now out of habit, but honestly ppm is really the easiest.

If I get the rest of your question correctly, you want to be testing for BOTH calcium and alkalinity if you plan to dose them separately. Dosing them together in a balanced way is correct, BTW. They should only be dosed separately when you're making a correction to a situation where calcium and alkalinity are out of balance.

Understand and use the Reef Chemistry Calculator when you make changes.

-Matt

mike007 · Jul 15, 2014

I like ppm myself and if I need to convert I go to the Salty conversion table. As far as dosing you first need to figure out what your tank is consuming. If you are planning on using a dosing pump or manually dosing get your parameters where you want them and the go 3 days without dosing and then retest and divide results by 3 and that will tell you your daily consumption. Then you can go to the brs reef calculator and it will tell you how much to dose every day to maintain.

Browncoat · Jul 15, 2014

thank you all, makes things a bit more easy for me lol, yes i use the reef calculator.

So then if i dose Alk i also need to dose Calc that same day but at separate times if i understand correctly? And then how do i know how much calc to dose if i need to bring say alk up 1 meq/l? Or am i looking at that the wrong way?

mcarroll · Jul 16, 2014

Browncoat said:
thank you all, makes things a bit more easy for me lol, yes i use the reef calculator. So then if i dose Alk i also need to dose Calc that same day but at separate times if i understand correctly? And then how do i know how much calc to dose if i need to bring say alk up 1 meq/l? Or am i looking at that the wrong way?

That's all in the Reef Chemistry Calculator's results....unless you're talking about making adjustment to correct an imbalance. But in that case, you only dose what needs adjusting.

-Matt