All for Reef Question

[boyfish]

Hello all, I have a 25-gallon water box with soft corals, a frog spawn, and leptastrea. I also have a small derasa clam, some snails, crabs a few hardy fish. I'm saying that to see if this would affect anything. I have been using all for reef premixed ready-to-use bottle and have been dosing 5mLs for the last 4 days or so. Last week (around 8 days ago) my dkh was too low around 7 and my calcium also too low at 380. I have noticed my dkh has increased to 10 but my calcium has been at 340 for the last 5 days or so. I dosed some seachem reef calcium to try to get up the last 2 days and will retest tomorrow. Yesterday I dosed 2.5mL and today 10mL of Seachem reef calcium. According to the label, 10mL should increase my level by around 4.8ppm. Can anyone explain why my dkh has increased but not my calcium? Also, am I doing the right thing lol? I am new to this so I am trying to gather all the info I can. Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Formulator]

To start, you don’t have enough coral to be dosing anything at this point. I would gently suggest you put the bottles down before you do more harm than good. You have a small tank. Biweekly water changes should keep your chemistry on track for at least the first year, if not indefinitely in a tank that size. Nothing wrong with dosing a small tank if you want to save the salt mix, but I don’t think your tank is ready yet.

Your initial decrease to 7 is likely just due to precipitation of calcium carbonate on the sand and rock, not due to any meaningful consumption by your corals. You can do a minor one time adjustment, but I would use a traditional 2-part rather than all for reef. You already have the calcium part. The alk part can be as simple as baking soda dissolved in water. I would not go any higher than 8.5 in a new tank or you will just end up with more precipitation issues.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Also how are you testing.

 

[goosemans]

Like formulator said, you don’t need to dose, just do water changes and you’ll be fine