What should I add to my ATO to maintain these levels?

[rennjidk]

Tank has been up since Jan, and is what I consider to be my first successful tank, after nearly 3 years of trying. No dosing, no additives other than occasion nutrients, and minimal WCs. I change about 3g in this 30g tank every 1-2 months. It's all softies with around 10 zoa frags and 2 rbtas, plus cuc and coraline. My dKH consumption isn't super high, but it is there. I want to avoid calcium formate and other products that consume nutrients as this is already a fairly low nutrien system. I was thinking 1/2tsp kalk per 1g RODI, but I'd like to supplement Magnesium and maybe some micros as well. Any simple all in one products and dosing recommendations? I cannot test each individual element or set up multiple dosing pumps, and I will not increase WC frequency (it takes around 2 hrs and I have a newborn).

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

For a tank of this size, you likely won't need anything but Kalk to keep things stable. Kalk is all I would use if I was in your situation.

 

[rennjidk]

For a tank of this size, you likely won't need anything but Kalk to keep things stable. Kalk is all I would use if I was in your situation.

Any recommendation on where to start? I know people often say 1/2tsp per gallon of fresh, but I'm only consuming about 0.8dKH per month. ATO adds about 1g a week.

 

[rennjidk]

Also I've seen it mentioned repeatedly that Kalk needs to be stored in a sealed container. I'm trying to figure out how to make that work with my osmolator and container. Is it true that it needs to be air tight?

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

This calculator has been one of my favorite resources. Using it I would estimate you should start with 0.1 Teaspoons per gallon of ATO water or approximately 4.5g per gallon.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

To be honest this is so little that you are likely putting the cart before the horse. Wait until you get some corals in there to start dosing.

I don't see any issues with using kalk in your container.

 

[rennjidk]

This calculator has been one of my favorite resources. Using it I would estimate you should start with 0.1 Teaspoons per gallon of ATO water or approximately 4.5g per gallon.

Reef Chemistry Calculator

To be honest this is so little that you are likely putting the cart before the horse. Wait until you get some corals in there to start dosing.

I don't see any issues with using kalk in your container.

I don't plan on adding sps or lps. This is exclusively a nem and zoa tank. The dKH consumption is from the cuc and forming coraline, which my WC regiment will not keep up with, so I do need to add something. With such a low calculation, I'll probably just start with 1/4tsp total and increase it as more coraline forms. Thanks for the info.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If you consume 0.8 dKH per month, I would not use kalwkasser unless the goal is higher pH and higher demand for alk and calcium (which in a soft coral tank seems of dubious value.), and possibly with higher coralline growth,

Magnesium is not being detectably consumed of alk and calcium are consumed at the rate you suggest.

A trace element supplement is likely a fine plan, but I would not put it in an ATO.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

IMO, you can’t use your ATO as a Doser. The Humidity Levels and House Temperatures Change, verses the Aquarium Temperature, so your ATO rate is going to be varied. For a Small Tank, Capped Bottles, and a couple of Lab Graduate Cylinders, for hand dosing.

 

[rennjidk]

If you consume 0.8 dKH per month, I would not use kalwkasser unless the goal is higher pH and higher demand for alk and calcium (which in a soft coral tank seems of dubious value.)

I'm a little confused by this reply. Would you mind elaborating further? I'm of the understanding that, if alk is being consumed and not being replaced, it will eventually cause a tank crash once it gets too low. Are you suggesting that it will fix itself before this happens, or just recommending I use something other than kalk to replace it?

 

[rennjidk]

IMO, you can’t use your ATO as a Doser. The Humidity Levels and House Temperatures Change, verses the Aquarium Temperature, so your ATO rate is going to be varied. For a Small Tank, Capped Bottles, and a couple of Lab Graduate Cylinders, for hand dosing.

We're talking about a 1/4tsp of kalk being dosed over roughly 2 weeks time. I think the ATO will be fine in this use case, lol.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm a little confused by this reply. Would you mind elaborating further? I'm of the understanding that, if alk is being consumed and not being replaced, it will eventually cause a tank crash once it gets too low. Are you suggesting that it will fix itself before this happens, or just recommending I use something other than kalk to replace it?

I'm suggesting what I said. I would not use kalkwasser. Demand is too low to justify it. Of course you can if you want to. It would work, just would be an exceedingly small amount.

Let's not get into hyperbole about tank crashes. Your tank will NEVER crash due to low alk even if you never add any, unless the demand rises by a huge factor. That's not the way alk consumption works. I expect that as alk dropped into the 6-7 dKH range, consumption above water changes will have disappeared entirely since dmeand is very dependent on the absolute alk level.

That said, if you want to boost alk, I'd just use baking soda once every week or two to give a small boost to keep your tank at its target. Calcium decline will be insignificant.

 

[rennjidk]

Let's not get into hyperbole about tank crashes. Your tank will NEVER crash due to low alk even if you never add any, unless the demand rises by a huge factor. That's not the way alk consumption works. I expect that as alk dropped into the 6-7 dKH range, consumption above water changes will have disappeared entirely since dmeand is very dependent on the absolute alk level.

Thanks for clearing that up. I was not aware of that. I'm still amazed at what I learn in this hobby after such a long time.

That said, if you want to boost alk, I'd just use baking soda once every week or two to give a small boost to keep your tank at its target. Calcium decline will be insignificant.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[twentyleagues]

This may sound dumb. What if you just did a larger water change? May drop your nitrate below the level you are looking for.

 

[Tonycass12]

I'm curious as to how it takes 2 hrs for you to do a 3gal wc. You could easily up it to 5 by mixing 5gallons of fresh saltwater then siphoning 5 gallons out of your tank and into an empty bucket and adding the fresh stuff. I would personally just aim for larger waterchanges since you don't seam to be concerned about low nutrients.

 

[rennjidk]

I'm curious as to how it takes 2 hrs for you to do a 3gal wc.

I live in an apartment and only have an undersink unit with a 3g tank. I have extremely low water pressure (the kind of place where flushing the toilet turns off all the faucets), so even draining it into a bucket from the ro faucet takes about 25 mins. I usually get 1 day to do everything so after mixing, testing, vacuuming, algae scrubbing, and general maintenance, it ends up being about 2 hours in total. If I need to top off the ATO, I have to wait another 3 hours for the ro tank to refill, so I dont do that on WC day.

You could easily up it to 5 by mixing 5gallons of fresh saltwater then siphoning 5 gallons out of your tank and into an empty bucket and adding the fresh stuff.

We all have different setups, and as you now know, I only have 3 gallons of rodi on demand.

I would personally just aim for larger waterchanges since you don't seam to be concerned about low nutrients.

I'm concerned about 0 nutrients. Anything above 0 I'm Ok with, however, I still having to dose nitrates even with minimal WCs so increasing them would cause me to drop to 0.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm concerned about 0 nutrients. Anything above 0 I'm Ok with, however, I still having to dose nitrates even with minimal WCs so increasing them would cause me to drop to 0.

I did not realize you were dosing nitrate. Bear in mid that boosts alk and may be part of why your demand seems low.

 

[rennjidk]

I did not realize you were dosing nitrate. Bear in mid that boosts alk and may be part of why your demand seems low.

I've only added around 15ppm over the past 4 months, which works out to roughly, what, 0.6-7dKH total, if 50ppm=2.3dKH? It hasn't been a substantial amount. I'm going to trust your advice and go the baking soda route at around 0.25tsp in my ato (2.5g/27g sys), if I feel the need to raise it. Like you said, it should just level off and dosing isn't a requirement for my system. Now that I know my tank won't crash, it's a back burner issue for me. Thanks again for all your help and the new info.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I've only added around 15ppm over the past 4 months, which works out to roughly, what, 0.6-7dKH total, if 50ppm=2.3dKH? It hasn't been a substantial amount. I'm going to trust your advice and go the baking soda route at around 0.25tsp in my ato (2.5g/27g sys), if I feel the need to raise it. Like you said, it should just level off and dosing isn't a requirement for my system. Now that I know my tank won't crash, it's a back burner issue for me. Thanks again for all your help and the new info.

OK, sounds good.

Happy reefing.

 

[rennjidk]

I did not realize you were dosing nitrate. Bear in mid that boosts alk and may be part of why your demand seems low.

Any reaction between both Neophos and Neonitro being mixed with kalk in the ato? I stirred half a tsp into a gallon of RO for a few mins, but when I added it to my 5g res, which already contained the phosphate and nitrate, it turned milk white. It's my first time using kalk, so I'm not sure if this is just the normal settling process or if I did a bad thing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Phosphate cannot be mixed with kalkwasser, or else calcum phosphate will precipitate.