Is it time to dose?

[flatreefer]

Hello again,

I'm a fairly new reefer, tanks is now 2months old now,

I recently added some sps frags I got off kijiji (craigslist) guy hooked me up gave me some pretty decent sized frags/colonies

Did a water change on Sunday then checked alk cal mag
Alk: 8.82dkh cal:425 mag:1400
Red sea test kits

Now today I checked alk (I normally check at 8pm but I noticed slightly less pe so I did a test)
Alk:7.7dkh and I did 2 tests to verify

Tank stock
1 clown
1 scopus tang
4 various sps frag/colonies
1 montipora frag (bout 3inches around)
1 BTA just added yesterday,
Snails and hermits aswell

After water change

Today

 

[flatreefer]

Also is it okay that the hermit is using the birdsnest as a jungle gym? Do they eat coral? Lol

 

[PatW]

Hmmm Just two data points does not make a trend. But you have had a bit over a one point drop in DKH between water changes. At 7.7, your DKH is getting low and you don’t want it drifting lower. I would suggest daily testing for DKH to see if this trend is real.

Your corals might have gotten going but usually after being added, they sit awhile before they acclimate and start growing again.

If you do need to dose, you might consider dosing with 2 part. I use Bulk Reef Supply’s house 2 part. It is easy to get and pretty inexpensive.

Also with the rather small amount of change that you have had, you can easily just hand dose every few days.

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

It appears you need to dos generally with a couple of frags you don't need to. Do you have Coraline algea growing if that will consume all as well.

 

[flatreefer]

Hmmm Just two data points does not make a trend. But you have had a bit over a one point drop in DKH between water changes. At 7.7, your DKH is getting low and you don’t want it drifting lower. I would suggest daily testing for DKH to see if this trend is real.

Your corals might have gotten going but usually after being added, they sit awhile before they acclimate and start growing again.

If you do need to dose, you might consider dosing with 2 part. I use Bulk Reef Supply’s house 2 part. It is easy to get and pretty inexpensive.

Also with the rather small amount of change that you have had, you can easily just hand dose every few days.

I will test again at 8pm tonight (when I normally test) and see what it says,

It appears you need to dos generally with a couple of frags you don't need to. Do you have Coraline algea growing if that will consume all as well.

I have some smaller patches growing on the rocks, but nothing crazy,

The rocks were covered buy it all died when I started the tank and had no light for 2 weeks,

On Thursday I'm buy a couple more corals so maybe I should look in the some 2part before hand,

I'd like to keep waterchanges once a week, so I'd rather start dosing

 

[Uncle99]

So your consumption is 0.5dkh per day.........or almost 9ppm.
Seems like a lot in a young system unless your full of Stoney type corals.
You could always manually dose that up .5dkh (9ppm), retest and see where that puts you.
Alk readings can flux in newer systems, make sure MG is on point in the 1350-1450ppm range before testing Alk and CA.
Low MG, can result in varying readings of both CA and Alk.

 

[flatreefer]

So your consumption is 0.5dkh per day.........
Seems like a lot in a young system unless your full of Stoney type corals.

So should I test later today and tomorrow and see what I'm getting?

In the pictures above are all the sps I have currently?

I noticed my ph took a dive last night that was another reason I test alk today,

 

[flatreefer]

Also at 8pm I'll test alk cal mag to see what there all at

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

I will test again at 8pm tonight (when I normally test) and see what it says,

I have some smaller patches growing on the rocks, but nothing crazy,

The rocks were covered buy it all died when I started the tank and had no light for 2 weeks,

On Thursday I'm buy a couple more corals so maybe I should look in the some 2part before hand,

I'd like to keep waterchanges once a week, so I'd rather start dosing

That would be good to start dosing if your planning on adding more acros that way you can keep it stable. Because stability is the key.

 

[flatreefer]

That would be good to start dosing if your planning on adding more acros that way you can keep it stable. Because stability is the key.

My LFS only has red sea A B C is that stuff any good?

 

[Uncle99]

Personally, I rarely check PH, it is what it is.
I do employ a few things to help increase and stabilize.
I draw air to my skimmer, blow a fan across the surface, have great surface movement.

I would:
Do a normal water change.
Make sure MG is in the band, or up that first into the band.
Test Alk, a few hours later and record.
Then I would test daily at the same time for 5 days.
It should always drop.
At the end of 5 days, I take the total and divide by 5, that gives daily consumption.
Now, calculate the amount of product you need to add daily to match the daily drop calculated.
Make adjustments as required.

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

My LFS only has red sea A B C is that stuff any good?

I never used it before sorry idk.

 

[Uncle99]

My LFS only has red sea A B C is that stuff any good?

Yup, good stuff, Alk, CA, and Mg.
I use Seachem Fusion 2, Fusion 1 and Aquavitro Ions for MG.
Both good IMM.
I love the premixed stuff as it’s the same concentration every time and never clogs my doser.

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

My LFS only has red sea A B C is that stuff any good?

I use a carx now. I was dosing ATI 2 part it's good. Too

 

[flatreefer]

Personally, I rarely check PH, it is what it is.
I do employ a few things to help increase and stabilize.
I draw air to my skimmer, blow a fan across the surface, have great surface movement.

I would:
Do a normal water change.
Make sure MG is in the band, or up that first into the band.
Test Alk, a few hours later and record.
Then I would test daily at the same time for 5 days.
It should always drop.
At the end of 5 days, I take the total and divide by 5, that gives daily consumption.
Now, calculate the amount of product you need to add daily to match the daily drop calculated.
Make adjustments as required.

Okay so what your saying is I should wait/monitor until Sunday for my weekly water change, then test for 5 days calculate My dkh per day and dose?

Or your saying I should do a water change today and start that whole process?

 

[Uncle99]

Okay so what your saying is I should wait/monitor until Sunday for my weekly water change, then test for 5 days calculate My dkh per day and dose?

Or your saying I should do a water change today and start that whole process?

The WC is the starting point, start anytime.
5,7,9 days is doesn’t matter, we are just trying to figure out what amount is used daily.

You could do a water change, wait a week, then test, it’s results in a good answer as well.

As an example, this 65g is using almost 1dkh per day and is packed with Stoney stuff and clams.

With a weekly 10% WC, it requires 55mls of Seachem fusion 2 Alk, 45ml Seachem fusion 1 CA and 35ml of Aquavitro Ions to maintain the following parameters regardless of the time measured.

Alk 9.5dkh
CA 450ppm
Mg 1420ppm

 

[flatreefer]

The WC is the starting point, start anytime.
5,7,9 days is doesn’t matter, we are just trying to figure out what amount is used daily.

You could do a water change, wait a week, then test, it’s results in a good answer as well.

As an example, this 65g is using almost 1dkh per day and is packed with Stoney stuff and clams.

With a weekly 10% WC, it requires 55mls of Seachem fusion 2 Alk, 45ml Seachem fusion 1 CA and 35ml of Aquavitro Ions to maintain the following parameters regardless of the time measured.

Alk 9.5dkh
CA 450ppm
Mg 1420ppm

Okay so last Sunday was my waterchange and the dkh was 8.82 (in the picture on original post) and today it is dkh7.7 so could I not just use those parameters to judge off of? Or should I just wait until water change day? I just orders seachem fusion 1 and 2 it won't be here until Saturday anyways so,

I just don't want my alk to bottom out and loose my sps

 

[Uncle99]

Okay so last Sunday was my waterchange and the dkh was 8.82 (in the picture on original post) and today it is dkh7.7 so could I not just use those parameters to judge off of? Or should I just wait until water change day? I just orders seachem fusion 1 and 2 it won't be here until Saturday anyways so,

I just don't want my alk to bottom out and loose my sps

You can, I calculated a 1 dkh drop in 2 days so .5dkh daily.
Iam just concerned that your using only 1 data point and how accurate is that. The more you test, the more you’ll learn about consumption.
As long as your testing every day, or couple of days, you’ll see if your bottoming out, and can take the necessary action.

Accurate readings for Alk, Salinity and Temp are the top contributors to stability.

 

[flatreefer]

You can, I calculated a 1 dkh drop in 2 days so .5dkh daily.
Iam just concerned that your using only 1 data point and how accurate is that. The more you test, the more you’ll learn about consumption.
As long as your testing every day, or couple of days, you’ll see if your bottoming out, and can take the necessary action.

Is th mag portion of fusion 1 and 2 incorporated or should I be buying one aswell?

 

[blasterman]

"I just don't want my alk to bottom out and loose my sps"

If you listen to some of the advice in this thread you will, trust me. Want to put money on it?

As per my 1 million or so comments on this alk is very unstable in young tanks and typically drops quite aggressively. Quite often this drop has nothing to do with SPS consuming it. However, you do need to keep alk up or you will lose SPS.

Easiest way and cheapest way to do this is with a box of baking soda and the online reef calculator. However, a rule of this forum is to make simple things complicated to generate web traffic,

Get a box of baking soda and use the online reef calculator. Done. Test alk every couple of days and adjust. It's stupid simple. You do not need a dosing pump. I doubt your calcium level has changed much from your default salt mix level because nothing is consuming it. You need a lot more fast growing SPS to dent calcium, and you don't have it.

What's more important is you aren't stating what your nutrient levels are, and this is just as important as anything else in a young tank. I'm seeing some nuisance algae and a lot of water changes, which means nitrate and or phosphate are likely low or zero. This will kill that neon green birsdnest in about a month.

You should not introduce SPS in a young tank with nuisance algae present because you will have nasty nutrient swings that will bleach and ultimately kill SPS. If you raise nutrients to make things stable you feed the nuisance algae. See the problem?

You can get the worlds most expensive dosing pump and Elon Musk certified alk and calcium test kit. Unless you can get nutrients stable you will lose those SPS.