do i have to dose calc/alk in the morning?

[theaquareef]

i get up at 6:30, leave, and get back to my house at 2:00. do i have to does in the morning or can i wait till after i get home? thanks

[lakshwadeep]

What are your water parameters?

How old is the tank?

What is your livestock list?

What products are you using?

[reefer916]

I usually dose at night when the lights are out. I heard that dosing Cal could cause the Ph to swing a little. Plus, I prefer to have the water cloudy during the night, so I could look at it during the day

[lakshwadeep]

Reefer916: It's best to give your tank specs and what you're doing before giving recommendations on what theaquareef should do. Dosing calcium doesn't cause a significant change in pH (maybe if you dosed so much that it caused precipitation of calcium carbonate). You shouldn't have the entire tank cloudy for any significant time; that sounds like another issue.

[nor_cal_nano]

'nother sac reefer?

 

Edit: Sorry OP for the OT. Thought it was 916reefers thread at first...

[ldballoon4]

I usually dose kalkwasser manually in the Am before leaving for work, and later in the evening.

[reefer916]

Reefer916: It's best to give your tank specs and what you're doing before giving recommendations on what theaquareef should do. Dosing calcium doesn't cause a significant change in pH (maybe if you dosed so much that it caused precipitation of calcium carbonate). You shouldn't have the entire tank cloudy for any significant time; that sounds like another issue.

 

Sorry, I haven't had any Ph swings since I started 2 years ago. I"ve just experienced that having alternating light schedules between your tank and your fuge and dosing at night allows me to enjoy my tanks a little more. My water is crystal clear, unless I dose a little Purple Up. I guess I didn't give enough info. Don't get me wrong. I've had water issues before... Here are my specs.

 

I have a 95 gallon LPS and Softee dominated tank with a 35 gallon fuge. 2x150 watt Radium MH's with 2x96 actinic PC's. 175 lbs of live rock and about 100lbs of argonite live sand. I do 25 gallon water changes every two weeks. Running a Euro Reef skimmer and have 5 different kinds of Macro in my fuge to export excess nutrients. Also have a phosban reactor. I dose a combo of Purple up, Kent Cal, Iodide, Strontium, Mag, Trace elements, and Coral-vite a few times a week. Mag and Calcium I dose daily as needed. Add Ph buffer every few weeks as needed. It's only cloudy for about an hour after I dose Purple Up or if I put too much Oyster and Phyto feast:) I have a high bio load in this tank. Too many large tangs. My water is as follows:

 

Phos:0

Ammon:0

Nitrite:0

Nitrate:0-5

Mag:1400

Calcium:450-460

Alk:10

Ph:8.3

SG:1.025

 

I also have a 24 gallon Aquapod with a Sunpod 150 MH with 14k Phoenix bulb. It's a mixed reef with various SPS, LPS, and Softees. Very little fish bioload because there's only a clown and dragonette. I do daily 1 gallon water changes and a 5 gallon water change weekly. I dose Cal daily. Every other day I dose Mag, Strontium, Coral Vite, Trace elements, Iodide, and Coralvite in small quanities. Ph buffer once every few weeks. Alk stays at 9 because of the water changes. My water params are as follows:

 

Phos:0

Ammon:0

Nitrite:0

Nitrate:0

Mag:1400

Calcium:450

Alk:9

Ph:8.3

SG:1.025

 

Also, be careful with the alk buffers. I wasn't paying attention one time and I dosed the alk buffer after a large water change. Caused my alk to jump to 11. Fortunately, it was early on and there were only LPS and softees.

[lakshwadeep]

I was going to give suggestions, but I think it's better if I ask questions:

 

How much research did you do for the products you're dosing?

Why do you redundantly dose things like Purple Up and kent calcium?

What is in the "trace elements?

Why are dosing strontium and iodine if your testing for them, and how do you know how much your tank(s) are using?

Why do you need pH buffer?