Dosing, BK doser and carbon questions

[Reefatosis]

Happy New Year everyone!

DOSER:
Couple of questions regarding dialing my dosing in. A bit of info first......
So I am watching the Ca/ALk/Mg trends. Let say that I set my doser to dispense a caclulated starting amount of each. After 1 week I check the trends.
Using Ca as an example.....I was 420, 7 days ago; and now I am 400. So I need to ramp up the doser accordingly, and add a "top-up" dose of Ca (and the same process for alk and mg).
Now here is my question......would you add the "top-up" dose of Ca/alk/mg a hour apart? A day apart?

CARBON:
Also I have a 1/2 tub of BRS lignite carbon that is probably sat unused for 2-3 years. Would you use this. Or discard and get new. Sealed bucket, so I presuming its ok.

BK DOSER:
If the doser is set to dose something twice a day.....let say 100ml. Is the BK gonna dose 200ml total or 50ml/50ml....just want confirmation.

 

[JVU]

Happy New Year everyone!

DOSER:
Couple of questions regarding dialing my dosing in. A bit of info first......
So I am watching the Ca/ALk/Mg trends. Let say that I set my doser to dispense a caclulated starting amount of each. After 1 week I check the trends.
Using Ca as an example.....I was 420, 7 days ago; and now I am 400. So I need to ramp up the doser accordingly, and add a "top-up" dose of Ca (and the same process for alk and mg).
Now here is my question......would you add the "top-up" dose of Ca/alk/mg a hour apart? A day apart?

CARBON:
Also I have a 1/2 tub of BRS lignite carbon that is probably sat unused for 2-3 years. Would you use this. Or discard and get new. Sealed bucket, so I presuming its ok.

BK DOSER:
If the doser is set to dose something twice a day.....let say 100ml. Is the BK gonna dose 200ml total or 50ml/50ml....just want confirmation.

I wouldn’t do a separate top-up dose if your parameters are anywhere near the target, like your example. Just make small tweaks to amount dosed and recheck.

For the carbon, you could just ask BRS. They are pretty quick and honest with responses. I personally would just use it without a second thought though. Even if it is a little less effective, better to use than trash.

I don’t have experience with the BK doser. But in general dosing is better done as lots of small doses rather than just 1 or 2 big doses, if your equipment allows.

 

[Reefatosis]

What if I am like 7.0 alk and need to adjust up to 8.3? Its a 50ml dose.

 

[Coral reefer]

I would do what John says. 7 alk and 400 ca are fine. I would not chase numbers and try to correct. I would up the dosing amount a tiny tiny bit and let time/ water changes work it out.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

What if I am like 7.0 alk and need to adjust up to 8.3? Its a 50ml dose.

You can do incremental changes by hand dosing.

 

[Ibn]

You can incrementally increase alk by hand, but don't increase it by more than 0.5 dKH daily. I would also track the other two and not just adjust alk by itself.

Also, any reason why you're bringing your alk up from 7.0 to 8.3? If this is just your normal usage, consider a water change instead, especially if you're using any of the salt that mixes at 8.0 or higher dKH. You'll be replenishing micros in addition to the big three.

 

[Reefatosis]

My target goals are Alk 8.3 / Ca 420 and Mg 1350.

I just set up the doser and have been establishing a thought as to what my tanks demands are based on weekly comparisons.

My dosing plan is for the BK doser to maintain my levels. So at dK 7, I am short of my intended maintenance goals. Therefore I hand-dose to adjust to goal and then tweak the doser to maintain.

But my original question is would you hand dose the ALk/Ca/Mg back to back or wait a day inbetween,

 

[Coral reefer]

Several minutes in between should be fine. I would take several days to raise the alk that much for sure.

 

[JVU]

The same tank at 8.3 dKh will use more Alk than at 7.0. Also, as coral/coralline/etc grows it will use more. Or less if you have a setback. So it will be a moving target, and the steady-state input needed will depend on the level itself. So if you have the idea that you’ll figure out how much it takes to keep it steady at 7.0 or any other level and just supplement dose to get it up to 8.3 where it will be steady probably won’t work out that way.

That’s why I suggested just increasing your dose a little with retesting until you get to the dose that gives you your goal level of 8.3 (relatively) stably. You can supplement to get there quicker, but it won’t help you to find the steady-state amount any quicker. And since dKh of 7.0 is completely normal, there’s no rush.