How to dose Red Sea ABC liquid

[ThatPhillyReefer]

Hello- I am new to dosing Red Sea ABC (liquid)

How much do you recommend dosing to a 90g mixed reef? I honestly don’t understand the directions on the bottles lol.

Thanks,
Owen

 

[czoolander]

Red Sea has an awesome 5 minute video on their website on how to dose this stuff.

Essentially you can target feed in a turkey baster . Or just pour it into the tank and blanket feed the tank. Both are good options. Good luck man !

 

[Spare time]

Are you referring to AB+, their calcium, alk and mag bottles (A, B, C separately), or the ABC skeletal elements? Red sea is terrible at naming their products lol

 

[ThatPhillyReefer]

Are you referring to AB+, their calcium, alk and mag bottles (A, B, C separately), or the ABC skeletal elements? Red sea is terrible at naming their products lol

 

[Andresnyc93]

You have to test your calcium alkalinity And magnesium, then you can add 1ml of product to raise it 2ppm on calcium per 25 gal. So for example if you’re trying to raise your calcium by 10ppm you’d have to dose 5ml just for 25 gallons of water, since you have a 90 gal you’d multiply the 5ml by 4 to cover all 90gallons.
Again I can’t give you specific measurements until you measure your current foundation levels for a couple of days to see how much your corals are also consuming daily.
After figuring out these numbers getting an automatic doser comes in very handy so you’re not constantly manually adding this to the tank through the day, you can just set up a schedule after lights out and your system will have stability to sustain and keep your corals happy/growing

 

[Spare time]

Ah ok. So basicallly you have 3 things here, each needing their own test kit. Red sea calcium and alk is not a typical 2-part, so they are not dosed evenly. All of these are dosed based upon daily consumption with the exception of magnesium that can be dose much more sparingly (drains slower).


The way to find daily consumption is to test one day, test the next day at the same time (without dosing), and dosed what was consumed. Keep testing daily for a week so you get a good idea as to how your tank is consuming alkalinity and calcium. Magnesium likely won't be drained fast enough for this to work, so simply test it once and then again after 2 or more weeks. I used to dose magnesium once a month when I used their product line. Alk drains fastest, followed by calcium, and then a massive lag behind in 3rd for magnesium. Add alk to an area of high flow, slowly, and preferably away from corals as it can "burn" them. You should space out the dosing of each to not be at the same time. If you dose them all at once, they will precipitate (basically combining on the spot due to super high concentration in that spot). Alk should not be raised more than about 1KH at a time (it boosts the pH dramatically). Calcium and magnesium can be added in large quantities without issue.

 

[ThatPhillyReefer]

You have to test your calcium alkalinity And magnesium, then you can add 1ml of product to raise it 2ppm on calcium per 25 gal. So for example if you’re trying to raise your calcium by 10ppm you’d have to dose 5ml just for 25 gallons of water, since you have a 90 gal you’d multiply the 5ml by 4 to cover all 90gallons.
Again I can’t give you specific measurements until you measure your current foundation levels for a couple of days to see how much your corals are also consuming daily.
After figuring out these numbers getting an automatic doser comes in very handy so you’re not constantly manually adding this to the tank through the day, you can just set up a schedule after lights out and your system will have stability to sustain and keep your corals happy/growing

Ah ok. So basicallly you have 3 things here, each needing their own test kit. Red sea calcium and alk is not a typical 2-part, so they are not dosed evenly. All of these are dosed based upon daily consumption with the exception of magnesium that can be dose much more sparingly (drains slower).


The way to find daily consumption is to test one day, test the next day at the same time (without dosing), and dosed what was consumed. Keep testing daily for a week so you get a good idea as to how your tank is consuming alkalinity and calcium. Magnesium likely won't be drained fast enough for this to work, so simply test it once and then again after 2 or more weeks. I used to dose magnesium once a month when I used their product line. Alk drains fastest, followed by calcium, and then a massive lag behind in 3rd for magnesium. Add alk to an area of high flow, slowly, and preferably away from corals as it can "burn" them. You should space out the dosing of each to not be at the same time. If you dose them all at once, they will precipitate (basically combining on the spot due to super high concentration in that spot). Alk should not be raised more than about 1KH at a time (it boosts the pH dramatically). Calcium and magnesium can be added in large quantities without issue.

Thank You!!

Yes I use my Hanna Checkers Everyday to check for cal and alk. I just picked up a mag today

 

[hllb]

Yes, you need to test your tank, determine what you want the levels to be and then determine how often you'll dose. I use the Red Sea foundation lines but no longer dose manually - I have dosing pumps. I basically only need to dose mag like twice a year, if that. I dose calcium and alkalinity daily (calcium 3 doses each day and alk 11 doses each day).

If my tank is at 8.0 alkalinity, and I want to keep it at 8.5, I can dose it to hit 8.5 and then see how quickly it drops again to determine my daily usage. In my 65 gallon tank, I'm dosing around 4 ml of calcium each day and around 23.5 ml of alkalinity.

This calculator is incredibly helpful and I use it all the time. Because you're right, the directions on the bottles could be much improved.

Enter in your actual water volume, your current alkalinity, your desired alkalinity, and then select Red Sea Foundation B, LIQUID (the powder is a different concentration) and it'll tell you the mL you'll need to dose.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[Andresnyc93]

I know is a pain but once you figure how much they’re consuming daily you can just keep dosing the same amount and after 2-3 weeks you won’t have to test as often maybe once a week for all 3 or if you see your corals stressed
Good luck!

 

[hllb]

This will help you figure out your actual water volume, if you don't know: https://nualgiaquarium.com/calculate-your-tanks-water-volume/