How to start dosing with LPS

Shilpan Patel · Sep 2, 2018

Hey guys I have a 105 gallon softie tank with only a few corals. 2.5 years old with a bunch of reef safe fish. I have a sump plus refugium. I do not have an ATO.

I’be finally finished my fish stocking (last one is in quarantine), and I’m planning on really working on my corals now. I’m upgrading my lights (which I asked about on another post), but I want to work out what to do with my alk/Ca/Mg.

They’re all in the low range, Alk is 6.5, Ca is 390, Mg I can’t remember but that was normal. My soft corals have never had any issue they’ve always been happy and growing but growing very slowly. I only maintain with water changes, never dosed in my life.

I have a Red Sea Alk/Ca/Mg test kit.

Any suggestions for how I’m gonna start with dosing? What is popular to use these days?? But also appropriate for an LPS tank? We can’t get Triton here in NZ yet.

lapin · Sep 2, 2018

In stead of dosing have you th0ught about using a salt that is high in what you are trying to raise.
Red Sea Pro or Reef Crystals would raise your numbers with out the expense or equipment of dosing.

Shilpan Patel · Sep 2, 2018

I have tried Red Sea coral pro in the past. I find what happens is that my Ca and Mg will be fine but my alkalinity will keep dropping. I’m not sure why this is.

Shilpan Patel · Sep 2, 2018

I have tried Red Sea coral pro in the past. I find what happens is that my Ca and Mg will be fine but my alkalinity will keep dropping. I’m not sure why this is.

Justfebreezeit · Sep 2, 2018

Do you have an Auto top off? If so i'd just put some kalkwasser in there and let that take care of it. It should have no problem keeping up with a low to medium low demand.

Shilpan Patel · Sep 2, 2018

No I do not, but I could install one I do have some space in my sump.

Ok thank you for that I will look into it

Shilpan Patel · Sep 2, 2018

So does this maintain Ca and Alk? I understand that Mg won’t drop much and I could dose that myself every few months as needed.

What I don’t understand is with kalkwasser won’t Ca and Alk become unbalanced over time? Or do they usually stay in balance? Are they used in the same ratio?

Justfebreezeit · Sep 2, 2018

Over a very long period of time calcium will rise yes. With regular water changes though it will keep that in check, and eventually you can just hand dose alk a few times till calcium drops back into range.

Again though this is over a very long period (years)

ReefInskeep · Sep 2, 2018

Typically, Alk/Cal are consumed in a balanced ratio. Just keep testing regularly so you can determine what your tank is actually consuming, then you can replace what is consumed. I would suggest you look into BRSTV’s 52 weeks of reefing for detailed guidance on dosing kalk.

That being said, since they’re unbalanced right now, you’ll need to correct that prior to beginning kalk. Kalk is to maintain Alk/Cal and increase PH, it should not be used to correct an imbalance. Use a 2-part (like sodium bicarbonate & calcium chloride) to raise levels to around 8-9DKh, ~450 calcium, and 1350-1400 magnesium. BRSTV has videos detailing this. You’ll need to do it slowly, over weeks, otherwise you’ll shock the system and may kill things.

Shilpan Patel · Sep 2, 2018

Thank you for that! That clears up a lot of confusion for me. I was under the misimpression that it would become unbalanced every few days or so and I would have to correct it anyway.

I am going to look into an auto top off plus kalwassee then. Any particular size auto top off you reccomend for a 105 gallon tank? I lose about 3-4 gallons a week of evap water.

ReefInskeep · Sep 2, 2018

Just depends on the space you’ve got & what you’re able to get. I’d say at least 5 gallon so you only have to fill it once a week.

There’s also the possibility of a kalk reactor, which houses a concentrated mixture of kalk, and when the ATO activates, the water is pumped through the reactor to the tank, and kalk is mixed in that way. Benefits are: you don’t have to add kalk to your ATO reservoir and deal with the mess, and it lasts much longer so you don’t need to refill kalk as often. Again, BRSTV has excellent videos about this topic.

sstanley223 · Sep 2, 2018

Echoing what Reeflnskeep wrote...What I did was get a baseline after a water change. Then tested alk, and ca every day for 5-7 days and averaged it to get an idea of daily consumption. That was my starting point for dosing. I use reef fusion 1 and 2. I tested daily for a few weeks. As the numbers became more predictable I've backed off to testing only weekly .