Dose at night or all day long?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 10, 2017

BoomCorals said:
Same dosing scheme 24/7. BRS 2 part. 1.4ml every 10 minutes.

Curious. Others with that scheme see the opposite, with most of the demand during the day:

From Jm Welsh:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chase-the-alk.312824/

" I know that with constant dosing 24/7, my tank has a daily alk swing of 0.2-0.3 dKH that lags behind the photoperiod by about two hours. It basically swings from a high of around two hours after "lights on" to a low of about two hours after "lights out" (due to consumption), then swings back up all night (due to dosing when consumption is basically zero)."

@JimWelsh

BoomCorals · Dec 10, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Curious. Others with that scheme see the opposite, with most of the demand during the day:

From Jm Welsh:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chase-the-alk.312824/

" I know that with constant dosing 24/7, my tank has a daily alk swing of 0.2-0.3 dKH that lags behind the photoperiod by about two hours. It basically swings from a high of around two hours after "lights on" to a low of about two hours after "lights out" (due to consumption), then swings back up all night (due to dosing when consumption is basically zero)."

I agree it’s very surprising to me too. But my coral grow like weeds so I can’t complain.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 10, 2017

Maybe the time of demand is organism dependent.

It will also vary with the amount of abiotic precipitation you experience, which is likely higher when pH is highest, during the day.

BoomCorals · Dec 10, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Maybe the time of demand is organism dependent.

It will also vary with the amount of abiotic precipitation you experience, which is likely higher when pH is highest, during the day.

My PH is 8.0 during day and as low as 7.6 at night. If that helps.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 10, 2017

BoomCorals said:
My PH is 8.0 during day and as low as 7.6 at night. If that helps.

Do you dose anything else, such as nitrate or amino acids?

Scorpius · Dec 10, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Which might suggest you should dose only or mostly during the day. A number of folks that now use very frequent alk monitoring are finding the alk depletes mostly during the day.

Makes sense. I don't have a continuous way to monitor alkalinity. My alkalinity more than likely rises during the night.

BoomCorals · Dec 10, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Do you dose anything else, such as nitrate or amino acids?

No just the two part.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 10, 2017

BoomCorals said:
No just the two part.

These sorts of new devices should help shed a lot of light on the details of the processes in our tanks that we never knew before.

JonasRoman · Dec 12, 2017

I would say stable Alk is higher prio than stable ph just because that is how the nature looks like. pH changes during day/night within reasonable limits occurs also in nature so I do not believe at all that corals make any drawbacks of that.
Alk is more stable over day/night in nature so that is what corals are used to.
Besides that, a lot of people have as alkalinity supply not a ph rising chemical but often only NaHCO3. In that case it will not anyway have a rising effect at pH if you are not below very low as below 7.7 maybe. So if you run Balling classic or many other standard solutions, you Will not with increased Balling dose at night anyway succeed in raise pH so much by increase the Balling dose.
But my main reason is still that I do not think we need to have a perfect even pH but KH is of higher priority as nature is in that way

Jonas

JonasRoman · Dec 12, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
These sorts of new devices should help shed a lot of light on the details of the processes in our tanks that we never knew before.

Correct

I have already some info and learn a lot due to my Alkatronic concerning this matter

Rip Van Winkle · Dec 12, 2017

Just curious here but shouldn't refugium reverse lighting help with pH swings during night time?

JonasRoman · Dec 12, 2017

Rip Van Winkle said:
Just curious here but shouldn't refugium reverse lighting help with pH swings during night time?

yes, but how much depends on the size of the refugium, and if the macroalgue lack something else or growth well.

Scorpius · Dec 12, 2017

Rip Van Winkle said:
Just curious here but shouldn't refugium reverse lighting help with pH swings during night time?

I never saw any benefit. My guess is that you want a refugium as least the same size as your display to do any good.

Rip Van Winkle · Dec 12, 2017

Gotcha

I run different types of macro algae, so maybe that's why it works for me.

BlennyKravitz · Dec 12, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Curious. Others with that scheme see the opposite, with most of the demand during the day:

From Jm Welsh:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chase-the-alk.312824/

" I know that with constant dosing 24/7, my tank has a daily alk swing of 0.2-0.3 dKH that lags behind the photoperiod by about two hours. It basically swings from a high of around two hours after "lights on" to a low of about two hours after "lights out" (due to consumption), then swings back up all night (due to dosing when consumption is basically zero)."

@JimWelsh

Very interesting. Thanks for posting that. I’m going to adjust my dosing schedule.

Doubbler · Dec 13, 2017

I manually dose aquaforest three part at night only. 20-30 mill, 40 gal total volume, mixed reef, mostly lps, and sps.

Shigshwa · Dec 13, 2017

I have switched to 24/7 dosing, with alternating doses of balling method solutions every hour, and the third solution dosed at the half hour mark every hour. It seems to work out for me better, because my tank consumes about 2 dkh in a day, having the swing go from 2 to 0.3 dkh with 24/7 dosing has helped my corals grow better. They seem to be happier that way.

JonasRoman · Dec 13, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Curious. Others with that scheme see the opposite, with most of the demand during the day:

From Jm Welsh:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chase-the-alk.312824/

" I know that with constant dosing 24/7, my tank has a daily alk swing of 0.2-0.3 dKH that lags behind the photoperiod by about two hours. It basically swings from a high of around two hours after "lights on" to a low of about two hours after "lights out" (due to consumption), then swings back up all night (due to dosing when consumption is basically zero)."

@JimWelsh

I have same experience as Jim, I have recorded with Alkatronic now. Despite the calciumreactor shut off at evening and Balling dose is decreased at night, I still have some swing with around 0.15dKH difference with higher dKh at night. Without compensation of dosing as I do now, I would have had difference of about 0.5 between day and night. This is logic, corals consumes more alk during day and we also have the non-active calcification higher at day due to higher pH, so it fits good the theory I Think. I can now almost get equal KH over the whole 24h due to my machine´s correction.

/Jonas Roman

Epicreefster · Dec 13, 2017

I am not a fan of monitoring pH and basing decisions on it. It is a very finicky beast because we are so close to neutral anything can affect it. You stay home from work expect your pH graph to change, turn on a natural gas heater, open a window, buy a potted plant it will more than likely change your pH fluctuations unless you have a huge empty house. So its nice to have but don't over think it as long as corals are growing. I go with 24 doses a day of alk, every hour. I have tried condensing it into the evening and I was shocked to see virtually no change. I'm pretty sure that the reason is pH is largely determined by atmospheric CO2 levels if you have a well vented and high flow tank. The next influence being metabolism and a lac of photosynthesis at night. Yea you could see a difference but alk stability is more important.