Raising alk question plz help

Albz · Sep 6, 2017

Okay so i tested my parameters last night just cause i wasnt lazy lol. My corals all look happy! Ita mixed reef but my alk was at 5.5 and calc at 545..my mag testkit expired 2 months now so need a new one..

I used a online dosing calculator amd it said i need 28ml of bionic 2 part alk to raise my alk to 7.8dkh.. so my question is how slow should i bee adding this 28ml... btw i have a fusion 30l (30g) tank with some sps and lps n zoas..i just dont want to add to much at ones and shock my system.. thanks for the help

CodyRVA · Sep 6, 2017

General rule of thumb is around +-( 1 ) dKH per day for ALK; so in your situation you could add half the dose one day, the other half the next. Keep in mind if you do that it'll likely not be 7.8 dKH as your system will have utilized some of the ALK over that two day span. So, you'll likely have to dose one final time on the third day to reach 7.8 dKH. Keep in mind stability is far more important that shooting for magic numbers. Lastly, if you don't manually dose or have a doser, you're going to have to if you want to maintain this new ALK level; or look into other options like KALK, larger water changes or changing salt types. This all depends on your systems demands now and in the future.

Albz · Sep 6, 2017

CodyRVA said:
General rule of thumb is around +-( 1 ) dKH per day for ALK; so in your situation you could add half the dose one day, the other half the next. Keep in mind if you do that it'll likely not be 7.8 dKH as your system will have utilized some of the ALK over that two day span. So, you'll likely have to dose one final time on the third day to reach 7.8 dKH. Keep in mind stability is far more important that shooting for magic numbers. Lastly, if you don't manually dose or have a doser, you're going to have to if you want to maintain this new ALK level; or look into other options like KALK, larger water changes or changing salt types. This all depends on your systems demands now and in the future.

Okay awesome! Thank you for the feed back. I am planning to dose manualy from now on. Im just shooting for the 7.8 cause i want it to be there.. i was just scared to add to much and shock it.. will get it up to 7.8 and than test for 3-4days to see what my corals are using than dose daily whatever the corals use up. Again thanks for the help!!

CodyRVA · Sep 6, 2017

Albz said:
Okay awesome! Thank you for the feed back. I am planning to dose manualy from now on. Im just shooting for the 7.8 cause i want it to be there.. i was just scared to add to much and shock it.. will get it up to 7.8 and than test for 3-4days to see what my corals are using than dose daily whatever the corals use up. Again thanks for the help!!

You're welcome. It's smart to test before and after dosing to confirm what you just dosed did what was expected. Smart idea to test daily until you get your daily manual dosing on point or at the very least dose very low and test every few days. Once you get it dialed in you should be good to go. Keep in mind as LPS and SPS corals grow they will require more CA, ALK and MG so your dosing will go up over time as the demand increases.