Setting my tank up for SPS

[Mario0240]

Hey guys,

I’m currently dosing my tank with purple up daily, about 4 capfuls (I’ll see what the actual measurement is later today), but can’t get my calcium up to where I want it. It’s currently staying around 320-340 and my dkh is staying at around 8.5. Using this much purple up is going to get costly, and I want to upgrade to something more effective. I’ve been doing a lot of research on dosing kalk, but I’m getting hung up on the dkh values possibly going up...

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

[Fishingandreefing]

First, how long is the tank being running? There’s a calculator you can find out how much cal you can dose slowly raise to the level you wanted. Make sure you dose lower than the recommended amount. I followed the calculator and my cal went up to the roof.

 

[monti mike]

Hey @Mario0240 you may want to check out a salt mix with calcium and alkalinity parameters closer to your target range. Your alk is good, but calcium is a little low for sps. That’ll help in the long run because you’ll have a baseline closer to what you want. As your calcium and alkalinity demands increase then you’ll need to start adding more from dosing, kalkwasser, or a calcium reactor.

 

[Mario0240]

Hey @Mario0240 you may want to check out a salt mix with calcium and alkalinity parameters closer to your target range. Your alk is good, but calcium is a little low for sps. That’ll help in the long run because you’ll have a baseline closer to what you want. As your calcium and alkalinity demands increase then you’ll need to start adding more from dosing, kalkwasser, or a calcium reactor.

See, I was thinking that too, but, I’ll have to order salt. Which isn’t the worst. Tropic Marin makes a mix that has parameters close to what I want and I’m really starting to like their processes and company as a whole.

 

[Mario0240]

First, how long is the tank being running? There’s a calculator you can find out how much cal you can dose slowly raise to the level you wanted. Make sure you dose lower than the recommended amount. I followed the calculator and my cal went up to the roof.

It was set up for a few years before I got it but I’ve had it set up in my house for coming up on a year now. Where is this calculator?!

 

[monti mike]

It was set up for a few years before I got it but I’ve had it set up in my house for coming up on a year now. Where is this calculator?!

If you do a search for “reef tank calcium calculator” you’ll see a few options. You can plug in your tank volume and it should give you several products. Add your current level and desired level and voila! It’ll tell you how much to add to get to your desired level. Just please go slow!