Should I dose calcium also?

[SeaCreature]

I have 5 frags (3 LPS and 2 softies). LPS were not doing well from weekly water changes. I decided that issue was low alkalinity < 6 dkh so I started dosing sodium bicarbonate. LPS have improved significantly. I have not dosed calcium equally. Calcium stays between 410 and 420 and magnesium 1300 to 1360 with water changes. Why am I not able to maintain alkalinity thru water changes? Is it ok to continue just dosing alk (manually 40 ml in am 60 ml in evening to maintain target of 8.5dkh)

 

[Phyber]

You need to dose both to maintain ionic balance. You may not need to dose the same amount, but generally you start with the same amount and trim or add amounts as needed.

Kalk and calcium reactors dose both at the same time...just because we can opt to not with two part doesn't mean we should.

Also, are you sure those amounts are correct? That sounds like a lot of alk to be dosing daily...

 

[SeaCreature]

That’s what I have been dosing. Test results based on Hanna checker for Alk and Red Sea for calcium and magnesium. Recently added a trident (2weeks) and numbers are slightly different avg. Alk 7.87 calcium 437.5 , mag 1305.4. I did not dose today and yesterday because I believe that something was wrong given that I have a light bioload. (65 gal 4 fish 5 frags). However LPS are doing better. Two day ago I moved the softies and one of them is doing better also.

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

I have 5 frags (3 LPS and 2 softies). LPS were not doing well from weekly water changes. I decided that issue was low alkalinity < 6 dkh so I started dosing sodium bicarbonate. LPS have improved significantly. I have not dosed calcium equally. Calcium stays between 410 and 420 and magnesium 1300 to 1360 with water changes. Why am I not able to maintain alkalinity thru water changes? Is it ok to continue just dosing alk (manually 40 ml in am 60 ml in evening to maintain target of 8.5dkh)

It seems like just a regular water change should be sufficient with what you have. What salt are you useing. I have 90 gal SPS Dominate tank and i just dose 36ml. Check for precipitation on heaters and pumps 60 seems alot.

 

[SeaCreature]

Red Sea blue bucket. Heaters look fine but I dose through overflow an not directly to Sump. Looked in overflow and it looks like there is precipitation. Also used Red Sea and Hanna to check water parameters. Mag way off from last trident results.
Trident
7.14, 421,1302

Hanna 7.4 about 0.5hrs after trident test
Red Sea 405 and 1540.

Any recommendations on how to proceed?

 

[Silent]

You need to dose way less than that i believe. Dose both but way less. You should maybe cut it down to 20ml of each daily for a week and see if numbers stabilize. You can dose too much and actually make your numbers drop.

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

I have ran into this before. If you are dosing 2 part stop dosing part 2 cal. Dose just enough part 1 to keep Alk stable. It will take CAL and MAG to drop in a couple of days maybe more depending. Don't worry about MAG right just watch CAL for drop. Then when CAL. gets around 350 - 380 dose both part 1 and part 2 recommend ML. For your water volume for a couple of days. And it will Ballance out don't overdose just stay with recommend for a few days maybe a week. And within that I would maybe do a water change and scrub all heaters and pumps and sump if it white film on. This will get you back on track don't be in a hurry because numbers don't change real fast it all has to balance out.
And check if your sand if getting hard chunks in it
Maybe it hasn't yet.