Dosing Red Sea Foundation KH/Alkalinity

[Craigh]

Having some trouble with maintaining a stable alkalinity in my tank. The alkalinity has measured 7 dkh on 4/9, 7.4 on 4/12 dkh and 7.1 dkh today. I have Red Sea Foundation B KH/ALKALINITY not sure what the correct dose would be and how often I should be dosing. I don't have a doser, so I'll be adding it directly into the tank. Here's where my parameters are today: Temp 81, Salinity 1.023, Ammonia 0.00, Nitrite 0.1, Nitrate 4.0, pH 8.0, Calcium 450, Magnesium 1400, Alkalinity 7.1 and Phosphate 0.04. I've read that the alkalinity should be between 9 and 10 dkh. I think that I should try to raise the alkalinity slowly until it reaches the 9 to 10 dkh level. thank you for your help.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Having some trouble with maintaining a stable alkalinity in my tank. The alkalinity has measured 7 dkh on 4/9, 7.4 on 4/12 dkh and 7.1 dkh today. I have Red Sea Foundation B KH/ALKALINITY not sure what the correct dose would be and how often I should be dosing. I don't have a doser, so I'll be adding it directly into the tank. Here's where my parameters are today: Temp 81, Salinity 1.023, Ammonia 0.00, Nitrite 0.1, Nitrate 4.0, pH 8.0, Calcium 450, Magnesium 1400, Alkalinity 7.1 and Phosphate 0.04. I've read that the alkalinity should be between 9 and 10 dkh. I think that I should try to raise the alkalinity slowly until it reaches the 9 to 10 dkh level. thank you for your help.

All of the alkalinity values (and actually, all other values) that you report are fine. I recommend 7-11 dKh. I would not assume 9 dKh is any "better" than 7.4 dKH.

If you want it higher, that's fine too. I'd raise it slowly, if you want it higher. Maybe start dosing 0.2 dKH per day and watch it for a while.

This calculator will help you determine a dose:

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[Etownalum]

Similiar problem. Just got my ICP test back which confirmed my home tests of my Alk being very low (6.3dkh). The tank is 60 gallons and i have ben using Red Sea foundation and their doser to put in 20ML a day and still not going up. I'm dosing 3x a day for a total of 20 ml, would dosing the same 20ml spread over 24 times a day help, or is the timing of the dose irrelevant, and i need to crank the dose even higher?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Similiar problem. Just got my ICP test back which confirmed my home tests of my Alk being very low (6.3dkh). The tank is 60 gallons and i have ben using Red Sea foundation and their doser to put in 20ML a day and still not going up. I'm dosing 3x a day for a total of 20 ml, would dosing the same 20ml spread over 24 times a day help, or is the timing of the dose irrelevant, and i need to crank the dose even higher?

Timing the dose may be important for stability (most alk is depleted during the day, typically, but pH bottoms out at night), but timing the dosing will not give you an average higher alk.

Dose more.