Somewhat new, have a few questions.

[Cjorg82]

hello all, ive recently came back to the reefing hobby after a long (almost 20 year) hiatus and the game has changed an incredible amount since ive last kept a marine tank. So im on information overload at the present but its mostly new ways of doing the same old stuff so im working my way thru it. Anyways i google searched soemthing and found myself here so i signed up to just ask you guys instead.. raising KH, from 7 upwards aiming for around 8.5, whats the safe and prefered rate of increase? Can i just dose for 1dkh rise and tip it in one hit or should i break it down over 3 or 4 doses over 24hrs? Recently ive been diluting bicarb into 5L of rodi and drip feeding that into the sump over 10-12hr period, raising the alk 1dkh and also dropping SG over that delayed period of time. But is that being too over cautious? Can u safely just raise it in a matter of minutes rather than hours and if so how? Im also dosing for cal and mag and doing much the same thing, breaking the dose down over 2 or so litres mixed with rodi so the total is around 6L dosed in diluted so as not to drop SG too far aswell. But am i being too gentle when its unneccesary?
Thanks in advance.

 

[steelwrap]

1 dkh is fine, just wait a day before raising it anymore

 

[AdamB]

Welcome to R2R! 2nd with Steelwrap.

 

[Cjorg82]

Cheers guys, yeah i understand 1dkh is fine to raise by, but im wondering moreso the rate. Ie spread the dose out over the 24hrs, or dose all in one hit and wait 24hrs before increasing?

 

[Auquanut]

Welcome to the family. When I was manually dosing, I would dose all at once. As long as you don't try to raise Alk more than 1 dKh in a day, it worked for me. Just make sure your adding your Alk/Cal to a high flow area, and you don't add them too close together. I added the Cal about an hour after the Alk to minimize precipitation of the Alk.

 

[Greg P]

You haven't mentioned what you have for critters. This will somewhat dictate how quickly you can raise your Alk level.
Plus, you don't necessarily need it as high as 8.5
Tell us more about your inhabitants

 

[Peace River]

#WelcometoR2R ! We're glad you're here!

 

[Cjorg82]

You haven't mentioned what you have for critters. This will somewhat dictate how quickly you can raise your Alk level.
Plus, you don't necessarily need it as high as 8.5
Tell us more about your inhabitants

Hey no worries, at the moment ive got a simple shed tank that i started keeping some rock and corals alive in that i acquired during my collecting of bits and pieces for a large mixed reef that im building for my lounge room, then i started adding inmates becuase i thought i may aswell use this as a practice run to get me butt back on the horse so to speak before i jump in deep with this big one after so many years not in the hobby. So far its a heap of live rock with some morphs and macro on it, theres a few pieces of sps in there, a cinnamon clown, hippo tang, lavender tang, and some freshwater mollies i acclimated to help with a gha outbreak that proved to be useless so i ended up setting up some gfo and chaeto instead. Half a dozen each of hermits and snails, and thats pretty much it for now. Hoping to get some water turning in the lounge tank by the end of the xmas break so thats my focus for the next month.

 

[Greg P]

OK, so to break it down, you have some SPS and some fish.
At this point I'd recommend you take the raising Alk a bit slow.

Without knowing what SPS you have, I'd recommend sticking with up to 1dKh/day, but slower is very acceptable.