Doing water changes while dosing

[ryboy707]

So I recently started dosing esv b ionic alk and cal via Neptune dosing pumps. After tuning in my alk and cal uptake i got my alk to stabalize at around 8.2. Well I did a water change (I use red sea coral pro) and my alk shot up to around 9.4. I understand that the salt has a high alk content and that's what caused it. Now my dosing pumps are off until everything gets back to normal. My question is how do ppl do water changes while dosing 2 part so that there's not this giant swing in parameters?

 

[Nihilus]

How big is the tank? How much water are you changing out? (10%, 20% etc) What are your Nitrates at?

 

[ryboy707]

29g biocube, I'm changing out almost a full 5 gallon bucket, so maybe 4 and a half gallons every week. My nitrates are at .1
I actually have to dose nitrates

 

[FL_Reefer]

I try and match the parameters of the salt I use, Red Sea regular. it makes it much easier at water change time.

 

[donnievaz]

I'm in the same exact boat as you except I'm using IO. My plan is to start doing a half bucket every other week.

 

[Sabellafella]

So I recently started dosing esv b ionic alk and cal via Neptune dosing pumps. After tuning in my alk and cal uptake i got my alk to stabalize at around 8.2. Well I did a water change (I use red sea coral pro) and my alk shot up to around 9.4. I understand that the salt has a high alk content and that's what caused it. Now my dosing pumps are off until everything gets back to normal. My question is how do ppl do water changes while dosing 2 part so that there's not this giant swing in parameters?

Theres not alot of discussions on this so thanks for posting the thread. Myself used to use red sea but switched to reef crystals for some reasons. Both their alk levels are a couple points over 12. Now my current alk is 9.5, when i do a 15% water change. My alk will spike at 0.3 dkh. So to make up for the alk spike, i dose a few mls less of bionic to account for the whole week alk drop thus keeping my alk between 9.5 and 10. Hopefully this can shed some light for you

 

[Jimbo]

The easiest way is to use a salt that comes closest to matching the parameters of your tank, especially the Alk which is quite high in some salt mixes.

Red Sea blue bucket works best for me

 

[twilliard]

The easiest way is to use a salt that comes closest to matching the parameters of your tank, especially the Alk which is quite high in some salt mixes.

Red Sea blue bucket works best for me

This is a great answer!
Sometimes reefers will either raise or lower alkalinity for the system and the salt used may not match the target.

 

[Nihilus]

29g biocube, I'm changing out almost a full 5 gallon bucket, so maybe 4 and a half gallons every week. My nitrates are at .1
I actually have to dose nitrates

Being that your Nitrates are pretty low you might want to only change out maybe 2, 2.5 gallons instead. This might solve your alkalinity issue.

 

[ryboy707]

I'm thinking maybe change less water at a time, and maybe turn off my dosing pumps for about 8 hrs before a water change.