How much BRS 2 Part? Help!

[Rick Gaas]

10/22 - alk @ 9:30pm - 7.15dkh

How much should I adjust my dosing pumps?

 

[Rick Gaas]

I am going to go ahead and add another 34.1ml to the dosing pumps. This will have me dosing a total of 118.8ml of both alk and cal each day.

I will split the dose up by 4x.. dosing alk 4x during the night, and calcium 4x during the day.

Also, my levels are low.. should I wait to hand dose to raise my levels back to where I want them? 9dkh, 420cal? Or should I go ahead and do this now?

I don't want the hand dosing to throw off anything...

Let me know your thoughts.

Thank you!

 

[Rick Gaas]

New Dosing Schedule:

Alk - 2:00AM - 2:27AM (29.7ml)
Alk - 4:00AM - 4:27AM (29.7ml)
Alk - 6:00AM - 6:27AM (29.7ml)
Alk - 8:00AM - 8:27AM (29.7ml)
Cal - 2:00PM - 2:27PM (29.7ml)
Cal - 4:00PM - 4:27PM (29.7ml)
Cal - 6:00PM - 6:27PM (29.7ml)
Cal - 8:00PM - 8:27PM (29.7ml)

I will continue to test my water @ 9:30PM each night.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What is your target alk level? 7.15 dKH is fine.

 

[Rick Gaas]

9dkh

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So dosing more and more to get there is fine if you want to, but it isn't "needed" to keep alk that high.

 

[Rick Gaas]

So dosing more and more to get there is fine if you want to, but it isn't "needed" to keep alk that high.

So any amount over what my dosing pumps dose to maintain levels will raise my levels, correct?

Also, will it take the same amount of daily dosing to maintain a 7dkh vs a 9dkh?

How fast should I raise to prevent alk/cal from falling out of the water?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

So any amount over what my dosing pumps dose to maintain levels will raise my levels, correct?

Also, will it take the same amount of daily dosing to maintain a 7dkh vs a 9dkh?

How fast should I raise to prevent alk/cal from falling out of the water?

Thanks again for the help.

It will rise, but not perhaps linearly since demand rises as the alk and pH rise. Increasing the dosing by 5% a day and seeing what happens seems prudent.

 

[Rick Gaas]

It will rise, but not perhaps linearly since demand rises as the alk and pH rise. Increasing the dosing by 5% a day and seeing what happens seems prudent.

Not sure if I understand correctly.

An increase of 5% of what I currently dose is approximately 0.038dkh or 5.9ml.

This seems a very small increase to get my levels back to a 9dkh. Or is this the amount of increase in 2part it would take to maintain a 9dkh vs the current dose to maintain the current 7.15dkh?

The BRS calculator wants me to add 290.7ml of alk (devided up over a couple days) to go from a 7.15dkh to a 9dkh. It also advises to only increase 1.4dkh max a day. Would this be ok, or should I add slower than recommended by BRS?

Thanks again!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What I'm saying is there is no easy way to determine where the alkalinity will stabilize when increasing the dose, but it is not just "add 1 dKH extra per day and you'll be 1 dKH higher".

The negative feedback loop of increased alk and pH increasing demand for alk, might mean, for example, that doubling the alk dosed daily causes a relaatively small increase in the equilibrium alkalinity.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Are you trying to raise pH at night by dosing ALK only in the early AM and Calc through the remainder of the day?

I prefer to dose both each hour 30 min apart. But then again, I run reverse light schedule on my display vs secondary tank to maintain a more stable pH (even though from what I understand it doesn't really matter).

Some people like dosing ALK while the tank lights are off for that same reason.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Also, my experience from when I started dosing with new rock is the ALK was dropping very fast but was not precipitating out. When whatever the source for the alk use was saturated(I assumed the new rock), my dosing amounts laveled off.

Now I just have to adjust ever so slightly for SPS growth changes.

 

[Rick Gaas]

Also, my experience from when I started dosing with new rock is the ALK was dropping very fast but was not precipitating out. When whatever the source for the alk use was saturated(I assumed the new rock), my dosing amounts laveled off.

Now I just have to adjust ever so slightly for SPS growth changes.

Thank you for the reply. Yes, although I have not tested PH, I am dosing at night to help with PH swings. I also have my refugium lighting the opposite of my display.

I will continue to test alk and see how it goes.

Thanks again!

 

[Rick Gaas]

What I'm saying is there is no easy way to determine where the alkalinity will stabilize when increasing the dose, but it is not just "add 1 dKH extra per day and you'll be 1 dKH higher".

The negative feedback loop of increased alk and pH increasing demand for alk, might mean, for example, that doubling the alk dosed daily causes a relaatively small increase in the equilibrium alkalinity.

So I had the first opportunity to test my alk after adjusting my dosing pumps three days ago. For the past three days, they have been dosing 118.8ml every 24hrs.

10/25 - alk @ 9:30pm - 7.6dkh

I will test again in a couple days to see if anything changes. If levels are the same, I will adjust up to 123.2ml a day, and test again after a few days, to see if I get any closer to my target of 9dkh.

 

[Rick Gaas]

10/27 - alk @ 9:30pm - 7.6dkh

Looks like my tank is stable at 7.6dkh dosing 118.8ml. I am going to increase my dose tonight by 4 minutes (4.4ml) totaling 123.2ml and see what happens in the next couple of days.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sounds good. Keep us updated.

 

[Milkmanskid]

I'll be watching this as well. I swear if nothing in this hobby will teach you patients, dosing certainly will. Dose. Wait. Test. Repeat...ugh

 

[Rick Gaas]

10/28 - alk @ 9:30pm - 7.6dkh

Still sitting at 7.6dkh.. going to go ahead and add 8 more minutes (8.8ml) to the dosing pumps - totaling 132ml.

Let's see what my test read tomorrow night. Hopefully I will see an increase.

 

[Rick Gaas]

10/29 - alk @ 9:30pm - 7.6dkh

What should I raise my daily dose to?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd go up another 10%.