Starting my Alk dosing.. what time range to monitor?

[jayteerq]

I know alk can fluctuate through the day and with trident it measures 4x a day. Should I adjust my alk dosing to stabilize the 4 tests in a day? Or should I track further out and adjust dosing to stabilize a certain time every 24 hrs? Or should I go even further and make sure my weekly number stays stable?

 

[Formulator]

What is your daily alk consumption?

 

[jayteerq]

What is your daily alk consumption?

I am unsure. Maybe that’s a starting point? I’m just scared to stop the current 500ml of kalk that I’m dosing and have a big drop.

 

[Formulator]

I am unsure. Maybe that’s a starting point? I’m just scared to stop the current 500ml of kalk that I’m dosing and have a big drop.

I would definitely start by figuring out your consumption. How else would you know how much alk to dose? How did you come up with 500 mL kalk dose?

 

[LAReefer4Life]

Test at the same time daily consistently for 5-7 days without dosing any additives and see how much your alk declines per day. then you can figure out how much to dose following the dosing instructions on whatever product you decide to use.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’m not as much of a fan of the stop dosing and monitor plan, at least in high demand tanks, because both the pH and the alk level impact the demand.

What are your measurement results at the moment?

 

[jayteerq]

I’m not as much of a fan of the stop dosing and monitor plan, at least in high demand tanks, because both the pH and the alk level impact the demand.

What are your measurement results at the moment?

So I have a 65g mixed reef. Mostly frags. I dose 500ml Kalk 2tbs per gal and 10ml AFR daily. I’m trying to keep Alk stable but I notice it bounces around a lot and I feel like maybe I’m adjusting my dosing to frequently trying to chase the stability and not giving the kalk enough time to effect the parameters.

I would definitely start by figuring out your consumption. How else would you know how much alk to dose? How did you come up with 500 mL kalk dose?

I’ve just been adjusting my dosing every time a reading comes out and add or reduce a little and this is where I’m at today lol

 

[Formulator]

I suggest keeping the kalk dose constant for a week and measuring alk every day around the same time. Then calculate the average change in alk per day. It may go up or down. Either way, with that number plus the amount of kalk dosed each day, you will know your daily consumption and can set-up your dosing schedule appropriately.

 

[jayteerq]

I suggest keeping the kalk dose constant for a week and measuring alk every day around the same time. Then calculate the average change in alk per day. It may go up or down. Either way, with that number plus the amount of kalk dosed each day, you will know your daily consumption and can set-up your dosing schedule appropriately.

I’ll give that a shot. Thank you!

 

[buruskeee]

If it’s only a single test per day, I like 10pm because the lights have been off and consumption will be over. I have my trident test 10am and 10pm (my peak light schedule is 12:30-7), and between those times I’m pretty close in measurement (within 0.05dKh).

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, alk doesn’t bounce up and down on its own. If you dose then if the dosing is faster than consumption, it can rise.

The kalk is only dosing about 0.3 dKH and the AFR is only 0.2 dKH, so I don’t think the alk should bounce around much.

How much alk variability do you see and what time of day do you dose those?

 

[Doctorgori]

I dose 500ml Kalk 2tbs per gal and 10ml AFR daily. I’m trying to keep Alk stable but I notice it bounces around a lot and I feel like maybe I’m adjusting my dosing to frequently trying to chase the stability and not giving the kalk enough time to effect the parameters.

I saw the word AFR and wonder if :

“but I notice it bounces around a lot”

the OP knows about the latency effect …

How much alk variability do you see and what time of day do you dose those?

Also wondering if the alk swing is even significant enough to worry about…you got a graph or screen shot of your alk swings?
…and about alk swings even being detrimental…I dunno, seems you can do a 50% water change and not worry about it; corals always look happy following a water change…. Yet Im sure half of us never adjust the alkalinity of our salt mix and the other half never measure alk immediately after a water change…I admit I rarely ever …
….yet let alkalinity swing 1dkh over a week (by accident) and our corals looked peeved….so go figure…

 

[jayteerq]

FWIW, alk doesn’t bounce up and down on its own. If you dose then if the dosing is faster than consumption, it can rise.

The kalk is only dosing about 0.3 dKH and the AFR is only 0.2 dKH, so I don’t think the alk should bounce around much.

How much alk variability do you see and what time of day do you dose those?

It’s dosing both those supplements 24 hrs continuous. It seems like it’s starting to stabilize now though. Past 3 days I’ve only had .2 in variability

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It’s dosing both those supplements 24 hrs continuous. It seems like it’s starting to stabilize now though. Past 3 days I’ve only had .2 in variability

Ok, that change is certainly fine. More alk seems used during the day, so dosing the AFR in the am only may make sense.

 

[jayteerq]

Ok, that change is certainly fine. More alk seems used during the day, so dosing the AFR in the am only may make sense.

I was actually wondering if there was certain times that would be best to dose these two things. I wasn’t quite there yet in my journey so I haven’t messed around with it yet lol. Does dosing the 10ML of AFR from 5am - 10am sound like a decent starting point? I’m currently dosing 10ML over 24hr period

 

[jayteerq]

FWIW, alk doesn’t bounce up and down on its own. If you dose then if the dosing is faster than consumption, it can rise.

The kalk is only dosing about 0.3 dKH and the AFR is only 0.2 dKH, so I don’t think the alk should bounce around much.

How much alk variability do you see and what time of day do you dose those?

How do you calculate how much dkh a measurement of dosing would be expected to raise?

I was dumb and noticed my dkh kept dropping so I doubled my kalk to 1000ml for about 2 days, didn’t see results. Then boom my dkh shot up a whole 1.5 and everyone was ticked and I ended up losing a rock flower nem from that dumb decision ):

 

[Formulator]

Here is a useful kalkulator (see what I did there )

Note, kalk is listed as limewater in the drop down selector.

https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

 

[jayteerq]

Here is a useful kalkulator (see what I did there )

Note, kalk is listed as limewater in the drop down selector.

https://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

that’s super clutch!! Thank you!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I was actually wondering if there was certain times that would be best to dose these two things. I wasn’t quite there yet in my journey so I haven’t messed around with it yet lol. Does dosing the 10ML of AFR from 5am - 10am sound like a decent starting point? I’m currently dosing 10ML over 24hr period

Yes, that sounds good.

 

[jayteerq]

Thank you so much for the help! Silly question.. should I make the schedule adjustments closer to midnight so that I don’t affect anything I have currently scheduled? I’m super cautious about screwing with my dosing now LOL