How may ml of 2part are you dosing daily?

[Lazys Coral House]

I wouldn't expect your alkalinity to drop to catastrophic levels if you dosing container went dry because of the factors affecting uptake that Randy mentioned. My concern was if you lost power to a system that provides flow, lighting, or heat to the tank and that caused a drop in coral uptake of alkalinity. Like if you were out of town and your lights didn't fire up for 2 days but the dosing system continued to make up for 7dkh loss each day. You have a recipe for a massive and rapid alk spike in such a situation. Have you ever had something like this happen where your corals slowed their growth and you noticed a rapid alkalinity jump?

I haven't had that happen however if it did the Apex controller would shut it down. The Apex is set to kill the outlet and send text message if PH set point is breached. I have it set to pH > 8.35

 

[lexinverts]

I am dosing 120 ml of BRS two-part in my Red Sea Max 66 gallon, SPS dominant tank. Alk is at 8.5 and Ca is around 440.

 

[revhtree]

My tank doesn't have many corals at the moment so I am at 30ml of ALK and 25 Cal.

 

[Newb73]

Not many corals in my new 4 month old 235...im adding very slowly, only 1 or 2 corals a month.

As of today i have a zoa garden with 5 colonies. 3 budding Acan colonies. I medium Torch, 1 medium Hammer and 1 very small Duncan and a single acro frag im using as a test dummy for my lighting, flow and nutrients tweeking. About to add another LPS and probably a second sps frag.

Currently using about 80ml of alk and 80ml of cal per day. I dont increase the rate until alk gets below 8.

Last test was alk 8.6 and cal 415.

I suspect this will be very diff in a year.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I dose at minimum levels. As with a vehicle, a little oil is better than No oil at all

 

[Char lie]

My tank uses 4.4dkh of Alk, 29ppm of Ca and only 3ppm of Mg a day. Based on 900x750x500 (with 480mm water level = 324L) display plus ~50l sump, minus a bit for volume of tanks internal stock, which equals approx 350L.
Eg. Alk is 153ml/day of RS foundation B (1ml/100L = +0.1dkh), therefore 3.5ml/350L = 0.1dkh, therefore 153ml/350ml = 4.37dkh
Oh and Alk sits at 130-134ppm, Ca = 425, Mg = 1290.
I am probably going through more mag as the ASW I use for water changes usually has a mag of 30ppm higher than the tanks Mg level. Considering I do 30% wc a week I guess 30% of the discrepancy between the tanks water and the new ASW will be also added weekly (+9ppm), although this is only ~1ppm a day which isn't a significant difference. New ASW always has almost identical Alk + Ca.

 

[Budman's Corals]

I'm at 670ml daily using bulk reef supply solution

 

[Newb73]

Hats off to you. When i was doing more water changes i had a heck of a time trying to figure out exactly what the tank was using versus what the water changes were replenishing. I was having to test my water twice a week. I took a que from Randy who said i should only really need to test about twice a month for alk and once a month for Cal and a que from Mark Callahan who indicated more than 20% water change a month really isn't necessary unless you have a tank disaster.

After the adjustment i have at least some idea of what the tank uses although i still cant say 100% for sure since i still change 7 to 14 gallons of water each week.

Eliminating the fact that my salt mix also replinishes.... my tank is using only 1.2dkh of alkalinity a week. I estimate the real number is closer to 1.5 including water changes.

Not very much but enough that when i wasn't dosing it hit 5.5 after about a month and that was with more frequent water changes.

My tank uses 4.4dkh of Alk, 29ppm of Ca and only 3ppm of Mg a day. Based on 900x750x500 (with 480mm water level = 324L) display plus ~50l sump, minus a bit for volume of tanks internal stock, which equals approx 350L.
Eg. Alk is 153ml/day of RS foundation B (1ml/100L = +0.1dkh), therefore 3.5ml/350L = 0.1dkh, therefore 153ml/350ml = 4.37dkh
Oh and Alk sits at 130-134ppm, Ca = 425, Mg = 1290.
I am probably going through more mag as the ASW I use for water changes usually has a mag of 30ppm higher than the tanks Mg level. Considering I do 30% wc a week I guess 30% of the discrepancy between the tanks water and the new ASW will be also added weekly (+9ppm), although this is only ~1ppm a day which isn't a significant difference. New ASW always has almost identical Alk + Ca.

 

[ermartin]

I dose 180ML of ALK solution and 120ML of CalC solution daily spread across 8 times a day. I have a 90g with sump and 99% SPS tank . I used to have to dose a lot of MAG as well before i was using the AUTO dose. but ever since ive been balanced with the other 2 parameters I almost never have to dose any MAG at all

 

[Lazys Coral House]

I'm at 670ml daily using bulk reef supply solution

Thanks for sharing Corey, your tanks are impressive and I enjoy watching your videos.

 

[Smite]

Dang some high numbers in here! But the tanks look worth it.

I set up a calcium reactor on my 180 +70g sump. That being said I was still dosing 435ml of b-ionic mag to maintain a level above 1290, with calcium being 420 and alk 9. The tank only had frags really during this time and my effluent rate was a drop a second, this had me stumped to say the least.

I told a buddy who owns a tank service and he told me my balance was off and to raise my mag to 1500 and my calcium to 500. To stop dosing mag at that point and see what happens. Well nothing happened and I've never had to dose magnesium again.

Can someone explain why that is? I didn't have any build up on my pumps or heaters.

It was also suggested that I strive to keep my magnesium 3x that of my calcium. That, that is what's considered balanced levels.

Sorry if this is off topic but j thought it might apply. If not I'll start a new thread.

 

[wpeterson]

I'm dosing about 260ml of Alk/Calc via Randy's Two Part #2 in our 90gal mixed reef. I believe that's about 2-3dkh of Alk drop per day.

 

[ermartin]

I was dosing a ton of MAG as well back when i was manually dosing once i got my calc and alk balanced i never had to worry about it again. water chages alone seem to supply plenty of MAG

Dang some high numbers in here! But the tanks look worth it.

I set up a calcium reactor on my 180 +70g sump. That being said I was still dosing 435ml of b-ionic mag to maintain a level above 1290, with calcium being 420 and alk 9. The tank only had frags really during this time and my effluent rate was a drop a second, this had me stumped to say the least.

I told a buddy who owns a tank service and he told me my balance was off and to raise my mag to 1500 and my calcium to 500. To stop dosing mag at that point and see what happens. Well nothing happened and I've never had to dose magnesium again.

Can someone explain why that is? I didn't have any build up on my pumps or heaters.

It was also suggested that I strive to keep my magnesium 3x that of my calcium. That, that is what's considered balanced levels.

Sorry if this is off topic but j thought it might apply. If not I'll start a new thread.

 

[authentic]

140 gal dt and 20gal sump sps frag dominant 230 ml per day BRS 2 part each

 

[Wiz]

40b/30fuge/20sump. 65mls daily.

 

[hotnickz07]

Wow thats insane what some of yoy guys dose in your systems. I am 8 ml a day of cal and 5 ml a of alk. Both split into 2 doses with bm doser. My calcium is at 420 and alk at 7.7 . Full sps system mostly frags. Using TLF C balance

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I was dosing a ton of MAG as well back when i was manually dosing once i got my calc and alk balanced i never had to worry about it again. water chages alone seem to supply plenty of MAG

I'm not sure how manual dosing would impact the magnesium demand, unless you were greatly overdosing. The relative amount of calcium to alkalinity to magnesium doesn't change much, unless the organisms that use it change.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Dang some high numbers in here! But the tanks look worth it.

I set up a calcium reactor on my 180 +70g sump. That being said I was still dosing 435ml of b-ionic mag to maintain a level above 1290, with calcium being 420 and alk 9. The tank only had frags really during this time and my effluent rate was a drop a second, this had me stumped to say the least.

I told a buddy who owns a tank service and he told me my balance was off and to raise my mag to 1500 and my calcium to 500. To stop dosing mag at that point and see what happens. Well nothing happened and I've never had to dose magnesium again.

Can someone explain why that is? I didn't have any build up on my pumps or heaters.
.

You added a lot of magnesium, so to see it drop back hundreds of ppm will take a very long time.

FWIW, I do not believe there is anything magic about the "balance".

 

[ermartin]

I'm not sure how manual dosing would impact the magnesium demand, unless you were greatly overdosing. The relative amount of calcium to alkalinity to magnesium doesn't change much, unless the organisms that use it change.

because I wasn't dosing as I should have been I was testing anywhere from weekly to every month and a half when I got lazy. so i was always playing catch up so all 3 components were always way out.. also it didnt help that i had a batch of bad regent for my alk checker that i didn't discover till it was almost gone so that was another factor. now I have a good old school kit that i use every time i get a new bottle of regent just to make sure

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

because I wasn't dosing as I should have been I was testing anywhere from weekly to every month and a half when I got lazy. so i was always playing catch up so all 3 components were always way out.. also it didnt help that i had a batch of bad regent for my alk checker that i didn't discover till it was almost gone so that was another factor. now I have a good old school kit that i use every time i get a new bottle of regent just to make sure

OK.