Should I start dosing?

[gabom234]

Hi,

I've had my reef tank for 6 months now, and generally everything has gone well. It's a 35 gallon AIO and I have 2 clownfish, a purple firefish and a Midas blenny. I have a mixed reef with some softies (assorted zoas, pulsing xenia, gsp, mushrooms, firework clove polyp), lps (duncan, hammer, candy cane) and sps (monti, easter egg chalice and a tricolor valida acro). All the fish and coral have done well. I've had to move around a couple of corals because they were declining a bit, but after moving, they have all recovered well and are showing strong new growth. I use Reef Crystals, and do weekly testing and 10% water changes. I have been noticing my alkalinity lowering weekly for a couple of months now, and it has been around 7.4 for the past two or three weeks. I am starting to explore dosing, but my question is what to use and how to do it properly. I wanted to try All-For-Reef, but my calcium has been higher than I would like. It hovers around 460-470. I'm just exploring options, but I am starting to feel the need for some dosing, at least for alkalinity. Any help is appreciated.

 

[gabom234]

These were last weeks test results, for what it's worth.
Salinity: 1.024
Temp: 78.2
Nitrate: 11.6
Phosphate: 0.03
Alkalinity: 7.4
Calcium: 470

 

[Dom]

These were last weeks test results, for what it's worth.
Salinity: 1.024
Temp: 78.2
Nitrate: 11.6
Phosphate: 0.03
Alkalinity: 7.4
Calcium: 470

In a tank that size, faithful, weekly, 20% water changes are enough to keep your numbers in acceptable ranges.

 

[exnisstech]

As stated WCs would probably be good for now.
I like AFR. Calcium can get pretty high and not be an issue from reading some of Randy's post. I've not experienced a noticeable rise in calcium. Maybe it rises in tanks with less stoney corals? I've been using it in my acro tank for close to a year with good results. I don't test calcium often but these are my results since January tested with salifert.

I've also had good results with ESV 2 part as well as kalk. You pretty much just have to pick one that you want to try and go with it. There are many more including diy but these are the kalk and calcium additives I have experience with.

 

[gabom234]

In a tank that size, faithful, weekly, 20% water changes are enough to keep your numbers in acceptable ranges.

So increase from 10% to 20% and it should help raise the alkalinity? Or is 7.4 within acceptable range? I was under the impression that 8-11 dkh is a good target range. I still feel new to the hobby and I've read/heard a ton of different, often conflicting information and it's been hard to nail down exactly what to do.

 

[Dom]

So increase from 10% to 20% and it should help raise the alkalinity? Or is 7.4 within acceptable range? I was under the impression that 8-11 dkh is a good target range. I still feel new to the hobby and I've read/heard a ton of different, often conflicting information and it's been hard to nail down exactly what to do.

20% is the general rule in the hobby. I like keeping my ALK in the 8-8.5 range. Also, you haven't mentioned your pH.

I would suggest upping your water changes to 20% weekly and monitor your chemistry for the next 4 -6 weeks. We can reassess your chemistry again after that.

Can you post a full tank shot?

 

[PharmrJohn]

So increase from 10% to 20% and it should help raise the alkalinity? Or is 7.4 within acceptable range? I was under the impression that 8-11 dkh is a good target range. I still feel new to the hobby and I've read/heard a ton of different, often conflicting information and it's been hard to nail down exactly what to do.

And you're going to see major differences in where people keep their ALK. it's very individual, based on tank performance. These days 8 to 12 ALK is the excepted range. I've read articles from the 80s that stated the acceptable range was 15 to 18. Fifteen years back, I started with 12 to 15 and ended up keeping it between 15 to 18. When I get my tank up and running my target will be between 10 and 12. But that's just me. You'll find your own sweet spot. And when you do, just maintain consistency.

 

[gabom234]

I'll give that a shot and keep this thread updated. Thanks for the quick replies. I don't have a good filter so my photos aren't the best, but here it is.
To me it seems my tank is doing well, but I don't have anything to compare to and no way to know if it could/should be doing better. Alk is the only parameter that on the graph has consistently been dropping over the past several months, so that is the only reason I was thinking of dosing. Everything else has been fairly steady. I used to test pH, but I'm not consistent in testing it. The last time I tested pH, it was 7.9. I am honestly not sure of the accuracy on that test, since it one of those where you have to compare to a color card and it is hard for me to tell exactly which color matches the test.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

IMO, I would not try to maintain alk by increasing water changes since that gets very expensive and eventually will not suffice.

When alk gets to the lower end of your target range, I’d look to begin dosing it. Fir a while, that alone will be adequate, and baking soda is perfect for that.

 

[gabom234]

Any advice or links to how to dose baking soda?

 

[Red_Beard]

All-For-Reef is balanced for the calcium uptake of predominantly stony coral. you do get the benefit of trace elements with it, but that is something easily achieved with something else, like red-sea trace. I would recommend the same as Randy, keep your 10% changes and dose some ALK to keep it where you want it. 7.4 is actually spot on for natural sea water, but i like to run around 8 to keep a little more buffer just in case. Higher levels are going to get you faster growth IF you keep everything else in line. Kind of like a race car engine, yeah, it pumps out the horse power, but if something goes wrong, it goes very wrong very fast.

 

[Red_Beard]

Any advice or links to how to dose baking soda?

Randy Recommended DIY Two Part Recipes

There are a whole lot of different DIY recipes around now, and I thought I lay out the differences and my recommendations. In all cases, food grade, USP (pharma) grade, or Analytical Reagent/ACS grades are all good choices for materials. Lower or ungraded materials may be fine, but its more...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If you don’t want to mix up a whole gallon as in the above directions, you can just use this calculator and dissolve it in enough ro/di to dissolve it:

Reef Chemistry Calculator

 

[rishma]

Baking soda is great way to start!

Also, I like AFR. I suggest not worrying about the calcium level building up. Mine has always drifted upward over time due to both kalkwasser and AFR. I have never had an issue related to higher than normal calcium. With your water changes it will almost certainly never be an issue.

I try to test my calcium once or twice a year if I remember…and then I do nothing with the data.

Edit…just so you don’t think I’m against testing water, I do obsessively test some parameters, weekly at least and sometimes daily. Calcium just isn’t one of them.

 

[gabom234]

I decided to test my alkalinity every day for the past week just to see the trends and see if there is any advice on whether I should try dosing or just continue forward with my consistent weekly water changes. I did my water change last Saturday morning, and did my first test that afternoon. Here are the results of the past week of daily alk test results:
12/14: 8.1
12/15: 8.0
12/17: 8.0
12/18: 8.0
12/19: 7.8
12/20: 7.8

It’s definitely more stable than I thought, but I’m wondering if there is any benefit to be had by keeping it at 8.1 more steadily, or even raising it a bit and dosing for more stability. Or just keep it as is and just continue forward with my water changes and dose nothing for the moment.

Thanks for the insight so far.

 

[rishma]

I decided to test my alkalinity every day for the past week just to see the trends and see if there is any advice on whether I should try dosing or just continue forward with my consistent weekly water changes. I did my water change last Saturday morning, and did my first test that afternoon. Here are the results of the past week of daily alk test results:
12/14: 8.1
12/15: 8.0
12/17: 8.0
12/18: 8.0
12/19: 7.8
12/20: 7.8

It’s definitely more stable than I thought, but I’m wondering if there is any benefit to be had by keeping it at 8.1 more steadily, or even raising it a bit and dosing for more stability. Or just keep it as is and just continue forward with my water changes and dose nothing for the moment.

Thanks for the insight so far.

That’s low demand. Nice that the trend was steady. Opinions may vary but if you do a water change and it bumps it back up I wouldn’t start dosing yet (you could do the math if you know the alkalinity of your freshly mixed water). Around 8 is good. At that demand it would be a very small daily dose to keep it from falling.

Dosing it great to keep things stable, but a swing of only 0.3 in nearly a week it’s very stable already.

 

[gabom234]

Ok, that's kind of what my thoughts were. I just wasn't sure what's a typical and acceptable swing in alkalinity. Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I agree that the drop is not any problem and if normal water changes keep it above 7 dKH, that’s all you need.

 

[Red_Beard]

Ok, that's kind of what my thoughts were. I just wasn't sure what's a typical and acceptable swing in alkalinity. Thanks

Once your regularly scheduled water changes are not enough to bump it back up to above 7, like Randy says, then dosing is for you! Looks like you are about .3, maybe .4 dKH consumption a week. 1 dKH a week even would still be pretty low demand. The other factor to consider if you want to start dosing, would be if you don't wish to do regular water changes anymore, then you would need to also dose general trace elements, Ca and Mg to keep those all in range, as well as being able to make sure your N and P levels don't climb. I would not recommend that until you have a pretty good handle on keeping things balanced with water changes and have a rhythm going, so you will be able to notice any changes in parameter trends and coral health.

 

[rishma]

…if you don't wish to do regular water changes anymore, then you would need to also dose general trace elements, Ca and Mg to keep those all in range, as well as being able to make sure your N and P levels don't climb.

All good advice but I chuckled at this part. If you want to stop water changes all you have to do it a bunch of other complicated things