Alkalinity dosage - nano SPS/LPS tanks

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gaskitbass

New member
I have a ~50 gallon bowfront reeftank with around 30 pounds of live rock in it, running stable since November 2014. Radion XR15Pro gen4 (new - in picture is my old marine orbit pro), modified octipus reef BH-50 crammed in one of the rear chambers, and purigen in a filter bag in one of the other chambers.


Nitrates kept around 5ppm
I do large water changes - 20 gallons ~every 2 weeks to keep the nitrates in check with RODI water and reefcrystals. With all the live rock in the tank thats at least a 50% water change.
Regarding calcium and magnesium every time I've tested I'm always in a good range - consistently at 440+ on CA and 1300+ on magnesium
Alkalinity is the biggest swing, the tank starts at 9.3 after a water change and then consumes .5 dkH per day if I dont suppliment with reef builder (around a level tsp per day). the lowest the alkalinity has been has been ~6.4 when I got lazy on supplimenting.

All of my tests are done with salifert - profi tests

I have a lot of sps and lps coral in this tank and its been doing quite well. Alkalinity seems to be the big consumer/parameter I have to watch out for, and its not a huge pain to put in reef builder with the topoff water. I have read that as tanks get more established/continue to grow that you can run into more issues with Alk/Ca/Mg and when it happens it can be be drastic and quick.

Thoughts on continuing to do frequent checks on Alk/Ca/Mg and just continuing with reefbuilder for Alk supplementation? I'm open to doing something else such as the balling method if it was really required but want to keep it simple if possible. This seems to be working for now but I do have good coral growth in a relatively small tank so maybe I'll be in trouble at some point? Since its a small tank I'd like to avoid overly complicated controllers, and I'm not even sure if dosing systems are out there for a tank this size
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superchargedgp

superchargedgp

Well-known member
I have 60 cube and use kalk to maintain alk and ca. I used to mess with 2 part dosing but all i did was swinging the parameters back and forth
 
labas39

labas39

Active member
I automatically dose Kalkwasser based on pH and run a calcium reactor as well.

Even with that, I check my alk every morning at the same time. With a Salifert kit, it's not that expensive and you shouldn't run into problems with dips and spikes.
 
G

gaskitbass

New member
labas39 said:
I automatically dose Kalkwasser based on pH and run a calcium reactor as well.

Even with that, I check my alk every morning at the same time. With a Salifert kit, it's not that expensive and you shouldn't run into problems with dips and spikes.
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I thought kalk raised calcium only . My issue has been with alkalinity decreases which is why I've been adding carbonate - My calcium seems to be fine with regular water changes


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labas39

labas39

Active member
gaskitbass said:
I thought kalk raised calcium only . My issue has been with alkalinity decreases which is why I've been adding carbonate - My calcium seems to be fine with regular water changes


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Click to expand...
It raises Calc, Alk and pH. I'm not recommending you to change to Kalkwasser, I was just saying what I do and even with the automated dosing of both Kalk and a calcium reactor, I still test KH daily. If you're dosing two part manually, testing daily is ideal in that you'll know how much to add, or not, each day.
 
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gaskitbass

New member
labas39 said:
It raises Calc, Alk and pH. I'm not recommending you to change to Kalkwasser, I was just saying what I do and even with the automated dosing of both Kalk and a calcium reactor, I still test KH daily. If you're dosing two part manually, testing daily is ideal in that you'll know how much to add, or not, each day.
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Thoughts on simply continuing to add the reefbuilder - carbonate only source since my calcium always seems tone stable ? Would avoid pH raises


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T

troublemaker

Member
The tank should use Alk amd Calcium at close to equal rates. I don't mean as far as actual mL used, bit as far as setting the dose and just keeping it stable. I use Kalk solely so Method is different than yours.
 
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anarchy

anarchy

Active member
Keep testing each day and dose accordingly. If/when waterchanges aren't enough to keep cal/mag up you will see it happen slowly. Cal/mag aren't going to drop drastically overnight. Atleast not enough to hurt anything

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M

Mr. Thingdoer

New member
I had success with Kalk in the past, and I'm going to continue with Kalk until it's no longer capable of maintaining levels.

I'll also agree to the posts above. Keep doing what works for you, but if you decide to try something different, consider Kalkwasser. It couldn't be any easier to use, and it's been used with great results for decades. I see a lot of respectable reefers move to other methods of maintaining, and then coming back to Kalk full circle.
 
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gaskitbass

New member
Mr. Thingdoer said:
I had success with Kalk in the past, and I'm going to continue with Kalk until it's no longer capable of maintaining levels.

I'll also agree to the posts above. Keep doing what works for you, but if you decide to try something different, consider Kalkwasser. It couldn't be any easier to use, and it's been used with great results for decades. I see a lot of respectable reefers move to other methods of maintaining, and then coming back to Kalk full circle.
Click to expand...
I had read that on a lot of smaller tanks it's the carbonate that can swing more rapidly which is what I see on mine - although I guess it depends how a unit of dkh compares to ppm.... if it should be 1:1 calcium to alkalinity


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G

gaskitbass

New member
Ah ok I see thanks to a handy online calculator - a dkh of 9 is 161ppm a dkh of 8 is 143ppm.... so it's swinging from 9-8 in a day . That's around 20 ppm. I haven't seen my calcium ever drop 100ppm in 5 days though ... any ideas ?


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Sawdonkey

Sawdonkey

Premium member
Yes, I do it through my ATO. Obviously, evaporation rate changes with the seasons, so you have to adjust the strength of your solution accordingly. I have a lot of SPS and kalk does all of the work.

I believe full saturation is two tsp per gallon, but I've been doing it so long, I only count how many tablespoons (not teaspoons) I put in per 25 gallons of top off. If my alk moved up or down since last time I refilled the ATO, I adjust up or down a spoon.

Kalk is a very cheap (probably costs my < $5 per month) solution that has works well for me to maintain both alk and cal.
 
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