Two part advice lower or higher dosage?

[bryan1354]

Alright, two part pros I need help. I have a 60 gallon frag tank with about 60 acro frags maybe 1"+ and 5 Acro colonies, some colony hammers, chalice etc..


I was originally dosing 100ml calcium & alk but my alk was sitting at around 6dkh daytime, 7dkh night/morning time.. cacium 450, Mag 1400, ph 8.3-8.4. I figured maybe I am dosing too much and its participating but then again I have tons of sps even tough there frags they could be sucking up that much alk. So I lowered my dosing via my reefkeeper to 60ml per day just right now but I'm wondering should have I of lowered or hired my dosage?


Thanks,

 

[bryan1354]

100 ml each

 

[rako1]

Do you dose with a dosing pump or manual. mag is a little high do you dose mag?

 

[rako1]

Mag should be 1/3 of what you dose alk and cal

 

[bryan1354]

Dosing pumps, I dont dose Mag its always been between 1350-1400 kept that way via water changes using Red Sea coral pro salt

 

[rako1]

I make my own 2 part using these recipes great artical on dosing An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com hope this helps

 

[mcarroll]

To start with, are you basing your dosing quantity on your test results? Doing that should clear up the problem immediately.

If you are using any of the standard two-part formulas/products you should be dosing almost exactly the same quantity of both parts with a very slight edge to alkalinity as there's a bit of a biological demand for carbonates outside of coral.

I would suggest basing the quantity dosed of both parts on the results of a current alkalinity test. (Your calcium tests should still match up...just shouldn't be a need for continuous testing of both Ca and alk.)

To correct your current numbers, use the advice for dosing after you compute your alkalinity dose in the Reef Calculator (also in the sticky thread at the top of this forum).

Last item: If you were precipitating that much alkalinity you would be able to tell just by watching the doser run. (You have been there while it's running, right?) You just need to see what happens as the alkalinity part hits the water. If it's clouding up (this is precipitation in the making) for more than about a second (less or none is better) then you should take some action to reduce this effect. You can dilute the part (and dose more quantity), you can adjust the drip size or speed, you can switch to "recipe 2" (aka baking soda) and probably a few more things....but adjusting the amount of dKH or meq/L you dose is not one of the ways....that still has to be anchored to your test results.

Hope this helps!

-Matt