Need help dosing for the first time

[That one guy]

It's a 60"x15"x12" 46g. My reef is heavily stocked with sps nps lps and softies and I just bought the two part B - Ionic. What am planning to do is do a deep clean: deeply clean my skimmer, pumps, powerheads and impellers, vacuum the sand a bit and do a 10g wc. Then test my water and start with the dosing process... Reason doing this is because my CA is on 380 and my DKH is below 7.0 . I read the directions and I figured to add 10ml for both A&B. Now my question is do I keep adding daily until desire levels or once a week or what? Anything I need to look out for? Any tips, advise isappreciated

 

[WindeyD]

Just started dosing myself and am far from a dosing expert but I would dose daily until I gradually got to my desired levels (reefers I trust told me not to raise Alk by more than 1dkh in a 24 hour period). Basically get your levels where you want them and then test to see how much of each your system uses daily and then dose that daily amount. I am making my own solutions and dosing as per the attached article by Randy Holmes-Farley and thus far it has been easy and effective.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/

 

[WindeyD]

Nice looking tank BTW!

 

[RareEarthCorals]

If you dose do it daily versus weekly as it avoids having to inject a large dose. It looks like you are testing so happy for you there. Look at your Magnesium too as it goes hand in hand with DKH and Calcium. Take it slow and steady and keep in mind more is never better. If you miss a dose dont recapture just keep moving along. It may also help to increase you water changes in this case.

 

[reefbeard]

Figure out your total water volume, http://reef.diesyst.com/volcalc/volcalc.html Then calculate the amount of Ca and Alk you need to reach your target, http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[reefbeard]

I would also divide the required dosage over a 3-4 day period. Example: If it takes 40 ml to get your tank to 400 ppm, I would dose about 10 ml/day. Test daily until you reach your target.
The goal is to figure out the amount your tank consumes in a day. Continue dosing 5-7ml/day once you have reached your target. If your params start to climb, reduce your daily dosage or if they start to fall, increase the dosage. Try to test parameters at the same time each day. Once your numbers are somewhat stable for a few days you have your tanks daily consumption.

 

[reefndude]

Do the above and get dosing pumps. They will be your best friend

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The B-ionic is a fine choice for dosing.

I'd personally stick to equal parts dosing based on alkalinity, then once you have an established routine daily dose based on alkalinity, if calcium is still a bit low (it may not be), give it a one time correction to your goal. Then continue equal parts dosing.

 

[veselym]

I just started dosing in my 55G...I raised my levels to where I wanted them but am having an issue with ALK

Mag-1300
Cal-405
Alk-9.5

I have been testing everyday for the past week and it was showing that I was loosing around .4 over a 3 day period...so around .6 over a week which I then put into the BRS calculator then divided by 7 to get my daily dosage.

I put 8.4 in the current level and 9 in the desired which would be a .6 swing, it came up to 47.9 so I divided that by 7 which is 6.9ml per day

I started dosing 7 ml a day but it rose to around 9 DKH so I lowered it to 6ml and it rose again...maybe my tank isn't using ALK like I thought?

I wouldn't think 7ml in a day would raise ALK by .6 in a 50ish G system

 

[reefbeard]

I just started dosing in my 55G...I raised my levels to where I wanted them but am having an issue with ALK

Mag-1300
Cal-405
Alk-9.5

I have been testing everyday for the past week and it was showing that I was loosing around .4 over a 3 day period...so around .6 over a week which I then put into the BRS calculator then divided by 7 to get my daily dosage.

I put 8.4 in the current level and 9 in the desired which would be a .6 swing, it came up to 47.9 so I divided that by 7 which is 6.9ml per day

I started dosing 7 ml a day but it rose to around 9 DKH so I lowered it to 6ml and it rose again...maybe my tank isn't using ALK like I thought?

I wouldn't think 7ml in a day would raise ALK by .6 in a 50ish G system

What is your actual tank volume? It may be less than what you are using for calculations and your tank inhabitants just might not be using much. Are you testing at the same time each day? I would also shoot for Ca @ 420 with a balanced Alk @ 8.26/2.95 meq/l to start.

 

[veselym]

I have a 55g tank with a 20g sump...50lbs of rock and 40lbs of sand, I only put in 40G's for total volume on BRS

I would start at 8.2 but IO salt mixed at 1.025 has a DKH of 9.8-10.2 so it will raise anyway with WC's

my problem is also these test kits, I use Salifert and red sea...Salifert read 10.2 today from 9.3 yesterday and RS read 9.2 from 9.0 yesterday

I am using a DOS system and dosing Alk at night, I test in the morning before lights on

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have a 55g tank with a 20g sump...50lbs of rock and 40lbs of sand, I only put in 40G's for total volume on BRS

I would start at 8.2 but IO salt mixed at 1.025 has a DKH of 9.8-10.2 so it will raise anyway with WC's

my problem is also these test kits, I use Salifert and red sea...Salifert read 10.2 today from 9.3 yesterday and RS read 9.2 from 9.0 yesterday

I am using a DOS system and dosing Alk at night, I test in the morning before lights on

There is some test kit variability, so don't try to adjust every day. Let it go for several days to a week before making adjustments. If it still seems high, I would just keep turning down the alk dose until it is stable where you want it.