Dosing alkalinity & swings

[Hallowhead]

Howdy,

I have a question regarding dosing alkalinity. I've been dosing my alkalinity after my lights go out from 9:30 to about 4:00 a.m. it's only about 5 ml so not a lot. I've been testing my alkalinity around 7:00 p.m.recently I started to realize that I'm testing before it starts dosing so I'm not really getting the true alkalinity of the tank I'm getting probably a much lower alkalinity than what's truly happening after the dose of the night time happens.

I am wondering if I should spread 6 ml out throughout the entire day along with my calcium to keep the tank more stable. my reason for separating my calcium and alkalinity dosing was to stop precipitation. Can somebody tell me if what I'm doing is normal or if I should be dosing throughout the entire day.

 

[PatW]

I find that most of my ALK consumption happens during the light phase. I dose episodically: once per day by hand to dial it in and twice per day with dosers. I figure my corals would deplete 1 DKH per day. The idea is that you should not cause a swing of more than 1 DKH per day.

 

[Hallowhead]

I find that most of my ALK consumption happens during the light phase. I dose episodically: once per day by hand to dial it in and twice per day with dosers. I figure my corals would deplete 1 DKH per day. The idea is that you should not cause a swing of more than 1 DKH per day.

So less than a dkh is fine to maintain a good stability ?

 

[esther]

I dose 4X a day and check Alk 6X a day. Seems to keep it stable.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So less than a dkh is fine to maintain a good stability ?

I'd aim for swings of 0.5 dKH or less.

 

[Hallowhead]

I'd aim for swings of 0.5 dKH or less.

Randy are you suggesting that I should dose throughout the entire day? Wouldn't that be bad with dosing calcium?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy are you suggesting that I should dose throughout the entire day? Wouldn't that be bad with dosing calcium?

Spreading out the alk dosing is generally desirable. Calcium can be dosed within a few minutes of the alk.

In general, as long as the concentrated clouds of not yet mixed in additive are not mixing with each other, there is no concern. Think of them like food coloring. How long till the tank is mostly one shade? In some tanks that might be less than 5 minutes.

 

[Hallowhead]

Spreading out the alk dosing is generally desirable. Calcium can be dosed within a few minutes of the alk.

In general, as long as the concentrated clouds of not yet mixed in additive are not mixing with each other, there is no concern. Think of them like food coloring. How long till the tank is mostly one shade? In some tanks that might be less than 5 minutes.

I spread it out 1ml of alk an hour 1 ml of ca the next hour - let's see how this goes.

 

[PatW]

Like Randy, I like to keep it less than .5 and more like .3 or less. But 1 DKH is widely accepted as the benchmark. People who aquaculture acropora seem to test ALK daily. I like to keep ALK in a narrow band. I dose calcium daily but ALK 3 times. I only measure calcium once or twice per week. Corals don’t seem to mind some wobble there as long as it does not get too low.