Dosing alk and ca with pumps...

[Heymoose]

I have the IM Fusion 30L tank - looking to dose ca and alk via two BRS dosing pumps at 10ml per day with ESV B-Ionic 2 part. Pumps will be controlled through my Apex controller.

Question is should I dose the alk at night and the ca during the day? Or both at night with 30 min separation?

Should I set the pumps at the 1 ml per hour for 10 hours say 9 pm to 7am?

Alk at the top of the hour and ca at the half hour?

 

Thanks

[jservedio]

Your best bet is to break out the dose into multiple times per day. For example, I break out my dosing to 8 times per day each for the Ca and Alk, 10 minutes apart from each other. Ca and Alk is going to primarly be used during your lighting cycle, so if you want to get really detailed, break it out into 10 doses of 1ml each that happen mostly during the day time.

 

The biggest thing to remember is to ONLY dose to replace the elements that are being used up - never dose just to dose. Test every day for a week or two every time you make a change to your dose to make sure your Alk and Ca are not moving up and down.

[Heymoose]

Thanks - agree with the testing. I try to do it regularly to keep track of what's going on.

Interesting about dosing during the day - I was always told to dose at night especially alk to minimize the nighttime dives in ph.

 

Been trying my hand lately at some SPS - acro's and monti's. So far so good but have had some issues with keeping alk up - seems to want to settle in at 6.5 - 6.7.

Ca at 420 - mag at - 1300.

[jservedio]

Thanks - agree with the testing. I try to do it regularly to keep track of what's going on.

Interesting about dosing during the day - I was always told to dose at night especially alk to minimize the nighttime dives in ph.

 

Been trying my hand lately at some SPS - acro's and monti's. So far so good but have had some issues with keeping alk up - seems to want to settle in at 6.5 - 6.7.

Ca at 420 - mag at - 1300.

 

You really want to bring that Alk up a bit - that is very, very low and your Ca is definitely at the "lower" range for what you want in an SPS tank. With Alk. Mid 7's for Alk is really the lowest you want to go, and most SPS tanks you find are going to be in the 8-11 dKH range.

 

By far, your best bet is going to be to adjust your Alk to exactly what your fresh ASW mixes up to and keep it there to minimize spikes in Alk during water changes. If you use Reef Crystals, you are probably going to be at the top of the Alk range, whereas if you are using something like Brightwells, you will be a little below 8dkh. In any event, 6.5 is too low and is going to be very, very bad if it drops - you always want a little wiggle room in case you have an accident of some sort.

 

Small pH swings at night aren't going to be a big deal and I don't know anyone who has ever had issues due to them as long as they aren't huge. If you have any macro algae in your sump or a fuge, running alternate light cycle is really the only action you want to take when it comes to modifying your pH. You really don't want to be trying to adjust pH.