Here is another recommendation for you
1.) Focus on learning to measure your water Parameters First. This is the basis. Dosing is perfect,but it makes Sense only if you know your starting point AND your exact parameters several times later. Unfortunately there are several Things one might do wrong with measuring. Starting from inadequate Test Kits to Human errors.
A very good Thing to challenge you and your Test Kits are a so called “reference Solutions” (eg from Fauna Marin)
This is seawater with exactely known Parameters. Measure this with your test Kits.
If you Match this figures with your Equipment you know that your Kits are ok and you measure correctly. If there is a Little deviation this is also normal. Divide the ref.Solutions Desired result by what you measured. Then you use this factor ( correction factor) for Future messurements.
If your results are far of, you at least know you can‘t trust and find out the error (test kit ? Human error?)
So this separately for Ca Alk and Mg
2) Besides Ca, Alk and Mg also salinity measurement is a Must. If salinity is either not where it should be or Not stable, the other Parameters are also Not where they should be
3) 2 more Parameters are absolutely essential for SPS growth. Nitrate and Phosphate. You need to be able also to measure this two ones accurately AND have them in the target corridor. If this is not the case your sps would most likely not grow even at perfect ca alk mg levels.
4) as soon as you adjust everything correctly and are able to maintain for some time, your sps should adapt and then “start to grow”. Your job then is to keep things stable for a longer time. As your sps take up more ca and Alk as they grow faster and faster, you most likely will have to dose more to keep levels in a good range. It is all a matter of well being of this corals. If they feel well they grow, resulting in that you have to react and dose more
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You asked in how much you should dose.
Nobody can really answer your question. It is only a matter of what your corals consume.
- start bringing all parameters to perfect levels
- stop dosing and measure the next days again and again. This tells you what your corals consume. This is what you have to dose for your tank
Typically
Ca: 2..25 Mg/l per day
KH: 0,2 .. 2,5 dKH per day
Mg: 0.. 10 Mg/l per day (normally close to 0)
The amount you need to dose of course is also depending on your systems total water volume.
Bigger tank .... more of the stock solutions to dose
To make things easier for you, you can either use the online calculators already mentioned here. An even Better option is AquaCalculator, a tool me and 2 programmer friends which are also reefers are working on and offering since several years. It contains the exact recipes of all dosing products and salt mixes on the market. It makes calculations super easy. Also it is a fully fledged documentation tool for your tank and more.
Kind rgds and happy reefing
Martin
