Starting 2-Part Dosing: Every day necessary?

[burtbollinger]

I have switched salts and the new mix makes my tank's alkalinity sit at 8.3 after a water change.  Prior to the switch it was sitting at 9 after a water change.  

 

I'd like to keep it at 9.

 

I have some ESV Bionic here I just cracked open, and I did a dose of 11 ml of each part to bring it up to 9.

 

I only have 1 small LPS in the tank currently, and in the past, with almost no corals,  it has taken 7 days for the tank to drop from 9 to 8.4 or so.

 

So...is it OK for now to just dose up the alk. to 9 after the water change once a week, and let it ride back down to 8.3 or so over the course of the week, or should I attempt to do a daily dose keeping it at 9?

 

I would think If I did 11ml daily dosing with almost no corals, it would overshoot my goal of 9?

 

 

[Oceanus]

Daily dose is always better because of the stability that it brings, but unless you're looking to keep SPS down the line I wouldn't sweat only doing once a week. If you want to keep it at 9dKH, consider dosing the alk into the water change water before adding it to the tank to bring it up to 9dKH. 

 

With only 1 small LPS, going down 0.6dKH in a week is kind of surprising. Make sure to keep mag in check, or you might be finding a whole bunch of precipitation. I pulled what appeared to be 0.5 inch thick polished tiles of CaCO3 out of my tank's rear chambers when I restarted it after about 2 years of dosing. It can wreak havoc on your pumps. Not saying this is the case, but it's easy to check now before the possibility arises, because removing precip is a pain in the rear. 

[seabass]

Personally, I feel that alkalinity of 8.3 is fine.  I like to target water change levels (for both alkalinity and calcium) and keep them as stable as possible.  You can determine daily consumption by seeing how much it drops from 8.3 over the course of a week, and dividing by 7.  Do the same for calcium.  However, magnesium stability isn't as important (and weekly dosing is fine), but as Oceanus stated, it must not be allowed to drop too low or either alkalinity or calcium will precipitate.

 

Daily dosing of calcium and alkalinity is ideal.  Although I typically alternate between dosing calcium and alkalinity each day by dosing the weekly consumption divided by 3.5 every other day, and magnesium once a week.  However, I also agree with Oceanus in that that weekly dosing (of alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium) for your LPS tank should be fine.

 

Note, if your tank is consuming alkalinity, it should also be consuming calcium and magnesium.

[burtbollinger]

So, I dosed around 12 ml last night and tested this AM.  

 

It brought my dkh up to 8.8 from 8.3, which seems close enough to my target.

 

Realistically, my tank is only dropping @ 0.1 per day...which would be dosing about 2 ml. daily to keep it steady (rough math)

 

With such a small amount, should I even bother?  seems ok to just do the once a week dosing after a water change?   (until I get more corals putting a drain on the dkh)

[seabass]

I could say that daily dosing (or dosing every other day) would be good practice for when consumption rates accelerate; but you're not currently dealing with large alkalinity swings.  So I doubt that your corals would suffer from dosing just once a week.  Monitor levels and adjust your dosages as needed.  Also factor in the fact that unbuffered water changes are going to affect alkalinity.

[Clown79]

I feel that stability is more important than targeting a number.

 

If your salt mixes at 8.3, that should be your target for stability. 

 

Why dose to 9 when 8.3 is perfectly fine?

 

I've noticed my corals(especially sps) are doing so much better since switching salts from a high dkh to a lower dkh.