Dosing schedule for calcium

Naldy_PR · Apr 13, 2024

Hi reefers!

I was dosing 75ml of alk and 40ml daily of alk and cal. Just purchased a DOS and DDR and have the availability of dosing more precise.

Changed the alk schedule to 2/3 (50ml) of dosing from 8:00 am to 8:00pm and 1/3 (25ml)during the night.

My dilema is that I have not found any kind of info for calcium ratio.

Any help would be highly appreciated!!!!

Happy reefing!

tzabor10 · Apr 13, 2024

Normally you would dose calcium during the day and alkalinity during the night. This evens out the pH swings. Seems like a lot. You could be losing some of your dosing to precipitate. But I am no chemist

Naldy_PR · Apr 13, 2024

tzabor10 said:
Normally you would dose calcium during the day and alkalinity during the night. This evens out the pH swings. Seems like a lot. You could be losing some of your dosing to precipitate. But I am no chemist

Hi Tzabor,

I am aiming for a steady +/- 0.25 swing, I do not have, thank god, ph swings. My normal ph is at 8.1 low and 8.3 at the highest point.

Focusing more con alk consumption than PH.

Hoping on some advise from @Randy Holmes-Farley

gbroadbridge · Apr 13, 2024

Naldy_PR said:
Hi reefers!

I was dosing 75ml of alk and 40ml daily of alk and cal. Just purchased a DOS and DDR and have the availability of dosing more precise.

Changed the alk schedule to 2/3 (50ml) of dosing from 8:00 am to 8:00pm and 1/3 (25ml)during the night.

My dilema is that I have not found any kind of info for calcium ratio.

Any help would be highly appreciated!!!!

Happy reefing!

Just dose the calcium at least 30 minutes after the alkalinity.

aleksander Le · Apr 13, 2024

If I understand you right, you are asking how much calsium you need to dose compared to alk.
This would depend on the calsium solution you are using and what alkalinity solution. What are you using to dose for alkalinity and calcium?

Naldy_PR · Apr 13, 2024

gbroadbridge said:
Just dose the calcium at least 30 minutes after the alkalinity.

Thank you for your feedback.

I have it like that, my only doubt is if there is a time of day that the calcium is consumed more.

Naldy_PR · Apr 13, 2024

aleksander Le said:
If I understand you right, you are asking how much calsium you need to dose compared to alk.
This would depend on the calsium solution you are using and what alkalinity solution. What are you using to dose for alkalinity and calcium?

Hi Aleksander,

My question is related of the ratio consumption of calcium in the reef tank.

For example, Alk is consumed at a 2/3 ratio during photoperiod. However, I have no idea in how calcium is consumed.

My Apex divides the daily dosing unless programmed for different intervals. For calcium is dividing 40ml into 81 doses trough out the day of 0.5ml every 17 minutes.

aleksander Le · Apr 13, 2024

Naldy_PR said:
Hi Aleksander,

My question is related of the ratio consumption of calcium in the reef tank.

For example, Alk is consumed at a 2/3 ratio during photoperiod. However, I have no idea in how calcium is consumed.

My Apex divides the daily dosing unless programmed for different intervals. For calcium is dividing 40ml into 81 doses trough out the day of 0.5ml every 17 minutes.

corals need both calcium and alkalinity in proportioned amounts for calcification.

Calcium ions (Ca2+), are essential for coral calcification as they react with carbonate ions to form calcium carbonate. This means you would add them add the same time in the ratio in which coral uptake them (20 ppm of calcium for each 1 meq/L (2.8 DKH) of alkalinity.

But To avoid precipitation and ensure that corals have a steady supply of both alkalinity and calcium, it's recommended to dose them separately but within a close timeframe. This allows each component to mix with the seawater.

By maintaining stable and balanced levels of alkalinity and calcium, you provide corals with the essential building blocks they need for calcification

Naldy_PR · Apr 13, 2024

aleksander Le said:
corals need both calcium and alkalinity in proportioned amounts for calcification.

Calcium ions (Ca2+), are essential for coral calcification as they react with carbonate ions to form calcium carbonate. This means you would add them add the same time in the ratio in which coral uptake them (20 ppm of calcium for each 1 meq/L (2.8 DKH) of alkalinity.

But To avoid precipitation and ensure that corals have a steady supply of both alkalinity and calcium, it's recommended to dose them separately but within a close timeframe. This allows each component to mix with the seawater.

By maintaining stable and balanced levels of alkalinity and calcium, you provide corals with the essential building blocks they need for calcification

In other words, you think I should apply the same principle as for alk, 2/3 of daily dose during photoperiod?

aleksander Le · Apr 13, 2024

That is correct.
But To avoid precipitation dose cal 30min after alk.

Naldy_PR · Apr 13, 2024

aleksander Le said:
That is correct.
But To avoid precipitation dose 30 after.

Let’s go for it, I’ll let you know if it worked in one week hehehhe

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 14, 2024

Naldy_PR said:
Thank you for your feedback.

I have it like that, my only doubt is if there is a time of day that the calcium is consumed more.

Whether there is or is not, the change is trivially small.

In reality, it is going to be consumed when alk is, but the amount of calcium in the water is not very important as long as it is in the range of, say, 380-550 ppm. It is not a limiting material for calcification by corals the way alkalinity is. if alk changes 1 dKH per day, then calcium will only change about 7 ppm, which you probably cannot even verify with a test kit.

Thus, any time for dosing of calcium is fine, as long as is is not exactly physically and temporally (time wise) right on top of the alk dosing.

Naldy_PR · Apr 14, 2024

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Whether there is or is not, the change is trivially small.

In reality, it is going to be consumed when alk is, but the amount of calcium in the water is not very important as long as it is in the range of, say, 380-550 ppm. It is not a limiting material for calcification by corals the way alkalinity is. if alk changes 1 dKH per day, then calcium will only change about 7 ppm, which you probably cannot even verify with a test kit.

Thus, any time for dosing of calcium is fine, as long as is is not exactly physically and temporally (time wise) right on top of the alk dosing.

@Randy Holmes-Farley thank you so much for your reply.

Being the case that I am only dosing 40ml daily (40b) and that the Apex spreads the dosing in 24hrs, it dose like 15 minutes apart a dose of 0.5ml, would that be something to worry about?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 14, 2024

Naldy_PR said:
@Randy Holmes-Farley thank you so much for your reply.

Being the case that I am only dosing 40ml daily (40b) and that the Apex spreads the dosing in 24hrs, it dose like 15 minutes apart a dose of 0.5ml, would that be something to worry about?

Any doses of alk or calcium spread out by 15 minutes are fine.