davy jones Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Hello again everyone, here i am with yet another question. Todays question for you all is about dosing, reactors and additives to maintain, or raise levels of CA and ALK My tank doesnt have a whole lot for coral in it right now so weekly waterchanges is plenty to keep my levels high enough for growth. But what i want to know is at what point isnt a weekly waterchange gonna cut it anymore? I am running a mixed reef so it isnt going to be Heavily sps, some acros, a couple birdsnests, a couple stylos and a couple montis is really all i have planned for sps. What are everyones thoughts? I dont really have room for a reactor so i would be limited to dosing 2 part or using a sort of kalwasser solution in my ATO As always, thanks for the help! Link to comment
VW_TDI_02 Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 The only way to know is simply by testing. Check the day before you do a water change and see how far your levels have dropped. If you think they've dropped too much then start dosing. Kalk is really easy IMO. I have a 5 gallon ATO reservoir and I add 3 teaspoons of kalkwasser into it every time I refill it. That keeps my Alk and Ca right where it needs to be when combined with weekly water changes. I think 2 part is going to be an easier way to go but a bit more costly if you go with dosing pumps. If you go with 2 part simply measure your tank right after you do a water change and then again about 4ish days later. Figure out how much your levels are dropping daily and that's how much you have to dose. Link to comment
davy jones Posted November 9, 2015 Author Share Posted November 9, 2015 What would be an acceptable range? Hypothetically speaking lets say my calcium goes from 420 to 400 in a week and my alk goes from 8.6dkh to 8.2dkh and goes back to original after doing a waterchange, is this too large of a swing? or is the issue when it goes from 420 to 350 and 8.6 to 7 type of thing? Link to comment
holy carp Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 I'm no expert, but I've been trying to use this article by Randy Holmes Farley as a guide of acceptable parameter ranges: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/ As I understand, it's not so much a concern about the rate those parameters decrease, but rather how quickly you increase them again that would be a shock. If dKH drops from 8.6 to 7 over the course of a week, I don't think that means much, but if you boost it back from 7 to 8.6 in a single dose, that's a sudden change. Link to comment
davy jones Posted November 9, 2015 Author Share Posted November 9, 2015 Awesome, thanks for the info! i hadnt thought of it like that! Link to comment
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