New to dosing please provide tips

[Reef Wizard]

Hello everyone,

I am new to dosing and I have some aquaforest powder for Alk Cal and Mg. This is not component 1 2 3 or pro versions its just normal powder. I'm mainly focusing on the big three before the other elements

I have been using this dosing calculator. https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

My gross tank volume is 200gal and my net I believe to be around 170 gallons using https://reef.diesyst.com/volcalc/volcalc.html

I do not have an automatic dosing pump YET but will sometime soon. So for now I will be hand dosing

I have some 1gallon jugs with lids and I got a 2000ml beaker and magnetic stirrer to make things easier on myself.

Easiest way to do things and please provide tips for dosing.

Current parameters with hanna test kits
Nitrate 13.0
phos 0.05
Ph 8.1
9.2 dkh
406 Cal
1265 MG

 

[Lavey29]

Have you determined your daily alk consumption?

 

[Reef Wizard]

Have you determined your daily alk consumption?

Thats one thing im going to be doing this week. My main tank had only a few corals less than 6 softie and LPS in it so normal water changes kept my parameters within the margins but now up to 23 frags.

Is it okay to just test one day and test the next to see the consumption or is there some kind of special way to do it

 

[Lavey29]

Thats one thing im going to be doing this week. My main tank had only a few corals less than 6 softie and LPS in it so normal water changes kept my parameters within the margins but now up to 23 frags.

Is it okay to just test one day and test the next to see the consumption or is there some kind of special way to do it

I would test at the same time over 3 consecutive days. First make sure you alk is at your preferred level then test 24 hours later. If you have light load of corals dosing is not necessary just regular water changes.

 

[Lavey29]

Alk and calcium typically get consumed proportionally together but not always. Magnesium depletes at 1/10th the rate of the other two.

 

[Reef Wizard]

I would test at the same time over 3 consecutive days. First make sure you alk is at your preferred level then test 24 hours later. If you have light load of corals dosing is not necessary just regular water changes.

Yeah water changes were enough but from weekly testing it looks like my calcium dropped 43ppm over the course of a week. Alk went down about .4 dkh

And I will start the three days tomorrow

 

[Lavey29]

Yeah water changes were enough but from weekly testing it looks like my calcium dropped 43pm over the course of a week. Alk went down about .4 dkh

And I will start the three days tomorrow

I dose 2 part so have no advice on powder dosing.

 

[Reef Wizard]

I dose 2 part so have no advice on powder dosing.

which products or solutions do you use?

 

[Lavey29]

which products or solutions do you use?

Bionic 2 part for alk and cal on a red sea doser. Been fine for multiple years now. I hand dose magnesium once a week. I dose 40ml of alk and cal daily.

 

[Reef Wizard]

Bionic 2 part for alk and cal on a red sea doser. Been fine for multiple years now. I hand dose magnesium once a week. I dose 40ml of alk and cal daily.

I actually think I have 32oz of bionic that was sent with a BRS order last year probably in my reef stuff

 

[Lavey29]

I actually think I have 32oz of bionic that was sent with a BRS order last year probably in my reef stuff

Bionic is 2 different bottles. One is alk and the other calcium.

 

[Reef Wizard]

Bionic is 2 different bottles. One is alk and the other calcium.

So after testing daily around same time since friday.

I like to keep alk around 9.2dkh Ca around 425ppm and Mg around 1275ppm

My tank is currently fallow from ich unfortunately so I cant do water changes that often or phos and nitrate will bottom out. Fallow is up end of July

But the daily loss appears to be about .1 dkh 7ppm of Ca and 12ppm of Mg.

 

[Lavey29]

So after testing daily around same time since friday.

I like to keep alk around 9.2dkh Ca around 425ppm and Mg around 1275ppm

My tank is currently fallow from ich unfortunately so I cant do water changes that often or phos and nitrate will bottom out. Fallow is up end of July

But the daily loss appears to be about .1 dkh 7ppm of Ca and 12ppm of Mg.

You can't lose that much magnesium daily so might be test error. Verify your salinity with calibrated tool. You want magnesium 1350 to 1500. I keep mine at 1450 to 1500.

 

[Reef Wizard]

You can't lose that much magnesium daily so might be test error. Verify your salinity with calibrated tool. You want magnesium 1350 to 1500. I keep mine at 1450 to 1500.

apologies thats supposed to be 1-2ppm haha typing too fast

 

[Lavey29]

apologies thats supposed to be 1-2ppm haha typing too fast

I would just stick with hand dosing once a week until you have more consumption or a weekly water change will suffice to. I hand dosed once a week from like 6 months till 11 months then needed daily dosing once corals took off.

 

[Reef Wizard]

I would just stick with hand dosing once a week until you have more consumption or a weekly water change will suffice to. I had dosed once a week from like 6 months till 11 months then needed daily dosing once corals took off.

Gotcha