View Full Version : New to dosing. Need some help
m0nkie
07/26/2014, 09:48 PM
My tank's info is on my sig.
Parameters:
Salinity: 1.025
PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Phosphate: 0
Alkalinity: 6.83
Calcium: 440
Magnesium: 1350
Salt Type: Reef Crystal
my corals.
~8 1" mushrooms
- 3 1" chalices
- 3 polyps, total 10 heads <1"
- 4-5 Xenia ~1-2" each
others:
- RBTA 6" fully expanded
I added the chalice and RBTA this month. My Alk dropped from 8.5 to 6.8.. It's been this way for 2 weeks now. I do 10% WC every 2 weeks. I bought a Bubble Mag dosing pump. Thinking about starting dosing. I thought WC alone was good enough for early months
Question:
1) so can these few small corals use up this much Alk and Mag? Or is there something else?
2)is BRS products good to use? I'm guessing Sodium Bicarbonate is for raising Alk. There's Magnesium Chloride and Magnesium Sulfate. Which one do I get for Mag?
Thanks!
bertoni
07/26/2014, 10:00 PM
Coralline algae can consume 2-3 dKH a day in some tanks. Do you see any coralline growth?
The BRS products seem to be fine. You can use any one of those two products, but the best approach is to use a mix of the two. Magnesium sulfate is available at drugstores as epsom salt, and might be cheaper to get that way.
This article covers how to make a DIY 2-part and magnesium supplement:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php
m0nkie
07/26/2014, 10:16 PM
Thanks. No purple coralline. However, i see a lot of green coralline. Neon green algae stuck on rocks. Hard to scrub off
bertoni
07/26/2014, 10:46 PM
Okay, that might be enough growth to explain the drop in alkalinity. I wouldn't worry.
m0nkie
07/26/2014, 10:53 PM
So does this mean it will go back up once growth stops? Or do i need to dose to maintain parameters from this point on
duncangweller
07/27/2014, 12:09 AM
Corralline algae will just keep growing until it runs out of surfaces to grow on. Therefore it will keep consuming calcium.
I wouldn't normally say that with that few corals yiubwoiykd even need to dose. The mushrooms and Xenia won't really affect it the only thing that would will be the chalices. And besides, I've had a tank full of SP's frags in the past and water changes took care of replacing all the alk, cal and may for a long time until the frags started growing large.
m0nkie
07/27/2014, 01:22 AM
Thats what i thought at first. My few corals wont make a difference. I got the dosing pump for future clams.
My calcium is 440. It is acceptable. So the coralline is taking everything but calcium? It definitely has alot more room to grow
hilgert
07/27/2014, 08:48 AM
My calcium is 440. It is acceptable. So the coralline is taking everything but calcium? It definitely has alot more room to grow
Alkalinity and calcium are both consumed roughly at 7ppm Ca per 1 dKH. You can measure changes in Alk easily, but our hobby Ca test kits (and the hobbiests that use them :)) cannot reliably measure changes in Ca as easily. Since the relationship between Alk and Ca usage is constant, just measure Alk once you have your Alk and Ca where you want them (with one-time adjustments...to Alk in your case).
I measure Alk fairly often (once or twice weekly) and may make minor adjustments in dosing if I see a trend up or down. I measure Ca infrequently, as I use a balanced addition scheme (used to use kalkwasser, and just recently switched back to 2-part). Same with Mg...I measure very infrequently.
When you dose Alk you also need to dose Ca as well (separate both by distance and time to avoid precipitation). The article bertoni mentions explains how to make your own DIY 2-part to accomplish this. BRS also sells some premeasurd kits, which would be good to use if you you don't want to mess with measuring (more expensive than the bulk ingredients, but no-brainers to use).
bertoni
07/27/2014, 05:16 PM
I agree. Calcium just seems to stay more stable because there's so much more of it in saltwater.
m0nkie
07/27/2014, 06:58 PM
how is it that Alk drop after water change? I thought they were suppose to replenish some after every WC. I'm not dosing anything in the tank.
Alk dropped from 6.83 to 6.60 1hr after WC.
bertoni
07/27/2014, 08:31 PM
That difference is fairly small, and could be within the error range of your test kit. It's possible that the water used for the change was low in alkalinity, too.
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