Dosing Help..Please

Gravityreefing · Nov 30, 2016

Hello to all the reefers out there. Hope your holidays was a good one. With that said. I am a new reefer did alot of research and still doing some. So many things are confusing but am getting it. So this is the deal. I have a 180 gallon tank that has been up and running for about a couple of months now. The DT has fish and coral in it everything g is doing very well as of far.My problem is now with the corals in the tank growing my CA and ALK are now low. These are my parameters as of now.
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 2
Nitrite 0
Ph 8.3
Phos .03
Cal 390
Mag 1360
Salinty 1.025
ALK 7 DKH
Temp 77.5
I have a water volume of about 130 gallons with rocks n so on. This is what I need help with. As you can see my parameters are some what low in some aspect. I want to bring the ALK and the CAL up. I want my ALK to go drom 7 dkh up to 8.8 dkh and my CAL from 390ppm to 420ppm. I have the reefkeeperlite with the BRS 1.1ml per minute dosers.i went on BRS site n input the above following i to the reef calc they have for Cal and ALK with my water volume and parameters. The calculation I got for the desire adjustments are as follow. I would need to dose 167.1ml to get from 7dkh ro 8.8dkh. This is what I came up with. Dose 1.1ml x15 mnts a day=16.5ml at 5x a day=82.5ml x for two days =165ml. For the Cal. The calculations were.to get from 390ppm to 420 it would be 399.1ml. I figured this. 1.1ml x 15 mnts =16.5ml x 6 x a day=99ml x 4 days=396ml. Both the above are close to what they soecified. Can any one please help me with this please. I also don't know how to set up the reefkeeper to do this. I know. like I said am new n trying [emoji30] . My lighting is 3 hydra 26 sbout 12" off the water surface. They are set at coral acclimation mode as of now. Comes on at 11am turns off at 10pm. I hope I gave enough information to get some HELP!!.. I forgot the most important of all what I'll be dosing dang newbie lol. I'll be dosing Brs two part dosing CAL and ALK and mag at the end of a cycle..[emoji35]

Reeferdood · Dec 1, 2016

You are overthinking it. If the levels are not going up by the dosing charts then simply increase the amount that you are dosing slightly. Your tanks uptake is matched with your dosing amounts right now which is not letting your levels increase.
Key is to increase slowly and do not dose both at the same time. As far as setting up the reef keeper, I can't help you since I don't run a controller anymore.
Hope this helps.

Gravityreefing · Dec 1, 2016

Thanks for the response reeferdood. I haven't dose at all. I never had to until the coral addition to the tank..

jsker · Dec 1, 2016

Check out the balling method of dosing Link I have found this a very simple way to control my Ca Alk, Mg and elements. There are several company that sell the components for the balling method.

Gravityreefing · Dec 1, 2016

Tiday I'll be mixing the brs two part dosing n try n figure this out some how..I will take ur advice as well..

ksc · Dec 1, 2016

Don't use your dosing pumps to increase your levels. Once you figure out your daily intake, set the pumps to keep your levels there. If you want to increase your levels dose them by hand. I would just do one dose to get your Ca to 420, then spread the alk dose out over a week. I simply put the dose in a small cup, cover, and leave it on top of my canopy. Once or twice a day I squirt a little bit into the sump (high flow area). Then check your levels and start again....

Gravityreefing · Dec 1, 2016

Hello jsker. I'll read up on this.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 1, 2016

I agree. Just up your dose a bit.

Personally, I'd recommend equal parts dosing and primarily monitor alkalinity and based the dose for both off that. Calcium does not change fast enough or test accurately enough to constantly jigger the calcium dose. If it is substantially too low, up the dose or do a manual correction.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 1, 2016

jsker said:
Check out the balling method of dosing Link I have found this a very simple way to control my Ca Alk, Mg and elements. There are several company that sell the components for the balling method.

IMO, its not appreciably different than a two part, especially not with respect to calcium, alk, and magnesium. One difference is trace element boosting, but that can be an add on to any two part method.

Why do you prefer it?

Gravityreefing · Dec 1, 2016

Ok.great then I'll mix the brs two part today n dose a little. Thanks KS and Randy..I'll let u know how it's going..

ksc · Dec 1, 2016

What salt are you using? It's usually a good idea to use salt which matches your desired parameters.

Gravityreefing · Dec 1, 2016

Ksc my salt is aquavitro and I never had an issue with levels until the corals I added started depleting my levels. Am going to be dosing BRS two part dosing of cal,mag and Alk.. to being up my levels..

Gravityreefing · Dec 1, 2016

The mag I will not be adding any time soon due to the my levels of mag is 1360 and my salinty is 1.025 as of the last test on 11/29..

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 1, 2016

Gravityreefing said:
The mag I will not be adding any time soon due to the my levels of mag is 1360 and my salinty is 1.025 as of the last test on 11/29..

FWIW, adding the magnesium part according to the recipe won't boost magnesium significantly. It is designed to just maintain it where it is. A commercial two part actually includes it in the calcium part, so you would be dosing it without even knowing it.

Gravityreefing · Dec 1, 2016

Thus why am here Randy. Because I know I'd get the help I needed from the experts here. As of right now the tank looks good everything is going well. Fish are eating corals are coloring up nicely n growing. I just want to have that continued throughout.Rand so u think if I dose 30ml of alk n an hour later add 30ml of cal. This should be ok. And test in a day or so??

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 1, 2016

Gravityreefing said:
so u think if I dose 30ml of alk n an hour later add 30ml of cal. This should be ok. And test in a day or so??

That's a fine plan. Just don't change the dose every day. Look to longer trends.

jsker · Dec 1, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
IMO, its not appreciably different than a two part, especially not with respect to calcium, alk, and magnesium. One difference is trace element boosting, but that can be an add on to any two part method.

Why do you prefer it?

Thank you for asking, I do like the balling method for the reason of the trace element being in the mix. I am not dosing separate trace elements and heavy metals separate like I was before. I will admit that I do keep a batch of your recipe for Mg to dose if my Mg falls below the amounts needed.