Raising a 5.9 alk slowly?

[Nickolas]

My issue is as follows, I am trying to raise a 5.9 alk over the course of the next couple days to 8dkh, I have never dosed before but purchased the esv calcium buffer system 2 part.

Questions are:

1. Can I JUST dose the alk part 1 to bring it up or do I also need to dose calcium? My calcium is fine (460) I believe, but Ive been reading I should dose 1:1 ratios??

2. After using the brs calculator and some advice from another forum, I decided I wanted to only raise alk by .2 a day, the plan would be to dose 7.5 ml for 10 days, there is a margin of error because I went with the lower end of my total water volume as I wanted to be safe. Theoretically speaking if we went with 80 gallons that would mean it would take 10 days to raise my dkh up to 8. Does this seem like a good plan

3. Ive been reading some other stuff where people split the dose throughout the day?? This one has me confused. I dosed the 7.5ml in one go. Was that a mistake?

4. this one is an edit, can someone please show what the difference is between the original and the bicarbonate. I tried looking it up and i just get images of the same product

Levels are as followed using salifert test kits. Tank is an 80 gal reef with maybe 10ishhh extra gallons of sump volume

3.30.22

Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 0.2
Magnesium: 1335
Phosphate: 0.03
Calcium: 460
Alkalinity: 5.9dkh // 1:42am
Ph: 8.0


Alk has always been roughly around 8dkh for the past months but I have a bad habit of not testing often so Im trying to get on top of that now!

Corals look okay other than 1 chalice frag who has been slowly receeding

Thank you for any help!

 

[blaxsun]

1. Yes, I would just dose the alkalinity.
2. Yes, it seems like a fairly reasonable plan.
3. No. You can split the dose, but 7.5ml isn't really a huge amount - so I wouldn't worry about it.

I would probably re-test every 2 days and adjust as needed (you may need to dose a bit more based on daily alkalinity consumption).

 

[Nickolas]

1. Yes, I would just dose the alkalinity.
2. Yes, it seems like a fairly reasonable plan.
3. No. You can split the dose, but 7.5ml isn't really a huge amount - so I wouldn't worry about it.

I would probably re-test every 2 days and adjust as needed (you may need to dose a bit more based on daily alkalinity consumption).

Thank you so much, its been a headache worrying what I am doing could be wrong/ trying to understand dosing overall. I just wanted some further advice!

 

[blaxsun]

Thank you so much, its been a headache worrying what I am doing could be wrong/ trying to understand dosing overall. I just wanted some further advice!

No problem. If at all possible, try to add directly to the sump (as opposed to the display) to disperse it as much as possible.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree it sounds like a fine plan, but 0.2 dKH a day may only offset demand and you may need to add more to detect a rise.