Best Way to Manually Dose Alk to Minimize Spikes

[livinlifeinBKK]

Hey guys, so I'm now having to dose alk and i don't have a doser which i know would make things easier but would like to try doing it manually first die to the cost of dosers but need some advice. I think it's primarily my clam in my nano that recently turned himself from a little turned on his side to now directly face upwards towards the light that's sucking up my alk since i don't have many corals in the system as of now. It's been gradually dropping from about 7.8 down to around 6 even with water changes weekly which is why I picked up a bottle of AF Kh Plus and over the past few days have been working to raise it by .5DKh per day as directed. I know this isn't a very stable way to do things with SPS though so would it be advisable for me to add it to my ATO reservoir so its more gradually raised consistently? This is what I did with calcium and it seems to be a good method or would it be ok to let the alk drop by like .25 dKh before adding the supplement straight to the tank or would this swing even be too undesirable? Thanks in advance!

 

[Miami Reef]

If you want to use your ATO to dose, your best option, IMO, is to use kalkwasser. It supplies calcium and alkalinity in a single, balanced solution, and an ATO will space it throughout the day.

The main con is that you will eventually be limited in how much you can dose by evaporation, but this is more of a concern in a jam-packed SPS tank.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

If you want to use your ATO to dose, your best option, IMO, is to use kalkwasser. It supplies both calcium and alkalinity in a balanced solution.

I actually bought some powdered kalk to use for killing aiptasia but i thought it was inadvisable to dose it with an ATO

 

[Miami Reef]

but i thought it was inadvisable to dose it with an ATO

Why? I don’t agree with it being inadvisable. You might be able to get it super stable by using a dosing pump, because evaporation will vary day-to-day, but you will be much more stable compared to manually dosing once a day IMO.

 

[MERKEY]

You can use the reptile little droppers containers to dose kalk daily at an even pace. No need to worry about evaporation in ato and you can adjust the amount accordingly to how much your tank uses.



Then save for a doser and do 2 part or both lol

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Why? I don’t agree with it being inadvisable. You might be able to get it super stable by using a dosing pump, because evaporation will vary day-to-day, but you will be much more stable compared to manually dosing once a day IMO.

Wouldn't using the liquid Kh Plus in the ATO along with the liquid calcium supplement in the ATO basically be the same as using kalkwasser?

 

[Miami Reef]

Wouldn't using the liquid Kh Plus in the ATO along with the liquid calcium supplement in the ATO basically be the same as using kalkwasser?

You can’t mix 2 parts together because they will precipitate to form calcium carbonate that will NOT redissolve unless your pH is very, very low.