Dosing alk

Emarley · Jul 21, 2019

Hello fellow reefers,

My tank is now 5 months old, have been doing my weekly tests today and my alk has dropped to 6.9. Wanting to increase this to 8-8.5, but have never had to dose before so I've a couple of questions regarding this,

1. Over what time frame should I be looking at to increase my alk from current level to desired level?
2. When I do dose should I dose x amount once per day, or half it and dose once in a morning, and once at night?

Thanks in advance

Dom

Auquanut · Jul 21, 2019

There are quite a few dosing calculators on the interweb. When I started manually dosing, I used (and still use) BRS two part and their calculator that is on their site. Alk and Calc consumption all depends on the size of your system, frequency and amount of water change, and stock of corals and inverts. The calculator will let you know how much is requires to increase from X to Y, and how much to increase daily to reach that goal. Keep a close eye on your Calc as well, cause as you increase your Alk, your Calc consumption is likely to rise as well. I'm auto dosing now, but when I was manually dosing smaller amounts, I added it all at one time. It never seemed to cause a problem. Just add slowly to a very high flow area in the tank. There are several very good videos on the topic on BRS TV.

Emarley · Jul 21, 2019

Auquanut said:
There are quite a few dosing calculators on the interweb. When I started manually dosing, I used (and still use) BRS two part and their calculator that is on their site. Alk and Calc consumption all depends on the size of your system, frequency and amount of water change, and stock of corals and inverts. The calculator will let you know how much is requires to increase from X to Y, and how much to increase daily to reach that goal. Keep a close eye on your Calc as well, cause as you increase your Alk, your Calc consumption is likely to rise as well. I'm auto dosing now, but when I was manually dosing smaller amounts, I added it all at one time. It never seemed to cause a problem. Just add slowly to a very high flow area in the tank. There are several very good videos on the topic on BRS TV.

Thank you

tdlawdo · Jul 21, 2019

No more than a half per day ... 6.5 to 7.0. I think the calculator on BRS tells you all of that too. Good luck take it slow. Watch pH and other parameters.

Billdogg · Jul 21, 2019

You probably should check you Mg level first as well. If it is low, you can add Alk supplement (I use BRS 2 part as well) all day long and never bring it up at all.

If you are manually dosing and can do it, multiple small doses throughout the day are better than one larger amount. That's the reason that most eventually use dosing pumps of one brand or another (BRS 1.1ml/min for me)

Emarley · Jul 21, 2019

Auquanut said:
There are quite a few dosing calculators on the interweb. When I started manually dosing, I used (and still use) BRS two part and their calculator that is on their site. Alk and Calc consumption all depends on the size of your system, frequency and amount of water change, and stock of corals and inverts. The calculator will let you know how much is requires to increase from X to Y, and how much to increase daily to reach that goal. Keep a close eye on your Calc as well, cause as you increase your Alk, your Calc consumption is likely to rise as well. I'm auto dosing now, but when I was manually dosing smaller amounts, I added it all at one time. It never seemed to cause a problem. Just add slowly to a very high flow area in the tank. There are several very good videos on the topic on BRS TV.

Billdogg said:
You probably should check you Mg level first as well. If it is low, you can add Alk supplement (I use BRS 2 part as well) all day long and never bring it up at all.

If you are manually dosing and can do it, multiple small doses throughout the day are better than one larger amount. That's the reason that most eventually use dosing pumps of one brand or another (BRS 1.1ml/min for me)

Thank you, you have both mentioned BRS two part, problem is I'm from the UK so cant get hold of that product. Is there anything similar from a different manufacturer that I can use? sorry for the newbie question, never had to dose before.

Dom

Auquanut · Jul 21, 2019

ATI is a german based company that has it's own calculator. From what I understand, it is more concentrated than BRS two part. I've never used it, so I can't give any advice. I know we have many members from across the pond, so hopefully someone will chime in. Sorry I can't be more help.