Neptune Aquatics

Help interpret my Water Chemistry ...pre-dosing

awesome! thanks. I will figure out how much to dose so I can dose the CA tomorrow during the day.

I tested the water before the WC.

ALK 6.7
CA 450
MG 1600

tested ALK of the WC 12.6dkH.

tested ALK in tank an hour after WC 7.7dkH

According to the calculator:

To increase Alkalinity by:
0.3 dKh from 7.7 to 8dKh
will require:
8ml, 0.2 fl oz, 1.6 tsp of supplement

Effect on PH:
Substantially Higher!

Balanced Calcium:
417 ppm at 8 dKh Alkalinity

so do I break this down into 7 days of the week? 1 ml a day?
 
Having nsw that has substantially different level parameters than what you want to have is problematic when trying to figure out how much dosing to do. Esp if you do as large and as often of a wc as you do.

Dosing amounts should be based on how much your tank consumes in a day.

Dose the tank to the levels you want to maintain. Test 5-10mins after.

Test again the next day at around the same time.

That will give you daily dosing amounts.

Dose recommended amounts. Test in 5-10.

Test again the next day around the same time. Adjust as needed.

Just remember that hobby level test kits have a certain amount of noise so don't get caught up in chasing that 0.2 dkh in Alk or the 5ppm in Ca levels.


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I say that based on the last 4 weeks of everyday testing, my tank consumes roughly 0.1dKh a day.
In the beginning, I didn't test for the longest time, assuming that constant water changes of the same amount of water and salinity every week, the rest of the chemistry would take care of itself. Of course that was too good to be true.

Been using the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt Mix since day 1.

My tank is roughly 60 gallons. 47display, + 10 fuge, plus roughly

Yesterday was water change day, my tank was at 6.7dKh before ... the new water was 12.6dkH ... and the tank was at 7.7dKh 2 hours after WC

24 hrs after WC and ALK is 7.6dKh... further confirming that 0.1dKh is consumed daily.

The bottle says to dose 1ml per 4 gallons... so that is 15ml for 60 gallons.
The reef calculator suggests 8ml to bring up from 7.7dKh to 8dKh.

Should I dose 8ml or 15ml.

Also, should I dose CA as well... or should I bring ALK up to 8.0dKh THEN dose CA?
 
I would start dosing CA as well.
The reason : The CA level generally affects Alk usage.
So you cannot simply work on one at a time.

* I would not say that if Alk was way off though.
 
It's certainly not going to hurt anything to dose 15 ml. That's really a very small amount. I've dosed 100ml in a day with no issues. Besides even if you hit 9-11dkh it won't hurt anything. A lot of people run10-12 dkh consistently.

Also recheck the calculator. There's no way you can raise even .3 with 8ml. I just checked on the BRS calculator and got 25 ml.
 
You have less than 60g. Rocks + sand + sump is not full.

Using a net volume of 48g (guessing 80% of total volume), raising from 7.7 to 8 and using B-ionic part 1. The calculator gives me 27.7ml.

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AHHHH!! I see the problem madams & sirs, in the drop down menu of the reef calculator, I was selecting the incorrect option. I was selecting "ESV B-Ionic Original Ca Buff pt1" as opposed to "ESV B-Ionic Bicarbonate Syst pt1".

The correct number is indeed 27.7ml thanks to our friend Vhuang168 !! Badass buddy!

So on to the next ...

27.7 ml of ALK should be dosed within a week? so split that into 7 equal parts? This means I will also dose 27.7ml of Calcium as well, EVEN THOUGH my Calcium has not fluctuated, because there are no coral to consume Calcium? OR just dose ALK until I reach 8?

What happens once I finally reach 8? within the week? I also understand ALK is to be dosed with lights out and Calcium with lights on?
 
Last edited:
Don't chase numbers until your hair falls out!!

It really looks like you are over doing this.

Alk range is big, from 7-11, not from 7.9 to 8.1
CA range is large as well, 380-450, and some push above that.

Many tank problems are caused, not solved, by chasing numbers.
Why: Because if you mess around that much, sooner or later you will over-compensate.
And stability is far more important than the exact values.
 
I was suggesting 8 ml per day and see where that gets you over time for the record. You could add the 28 ml all at once, assume you're at 8, then calculate how much it takes to raise it by .1 and add that each day to maintain it at 8 cause that is what you are seeing your tank using up per day. Sounds like that should be right around 8-9 ml per day.
You're water changes are always gonna be a bit stressful when you're new water is that much higher alk than your tank. I use aquavitro salinity in large part for this reason as it mixes up in the high 8s or low 9s alk and that's where I try to keep my tanks at.
 
FANTASTIC! so this is what has happened guys!

First of all, I want to thank all of you for participating and contributing with some very valuable input. This project would not have been the same without you guys. So thank you!

On to the good stuff.

THE HANNAH PHOSPHORUS ULR CHECKER IS HERE!!

3/29
So on the last Water Change day, last Wednesday, Alk was at 6.7dKh pre-WC. The new water was 12.6dKh.
3/30
The next day ALK was at 7.7dKh.
I added 8ml of ALK and it went up to 7.9dKh.
3/31 (HANNA ARRIVES - too busy to use it)
ALK reaches 7.7dKh again
I added 16ml of ALK and it went up to 8.3dKh.
4/1 (the small spots of coralline are getting larger)
ALK reaches 8dKh
I added 16ml of ALK and it went up to 8.4dKh
4/2 (today) (HANNA first time use) (new 'half-dime-sized' spots of coralline on glass)
ALK is at 8.4 (I usually test at 8pm so I still have a few hours before I test for the real -TODAY- result)
CA is at 450

So I guess today I will dose only 8ml ? Like you suggested, Coral reefer, 8ml is the final daily dose it appears :) Excellent job Mr. Presidente!

I will keep you guys posted on the results of this evenings tests and for the weeks to come to make this a proper "study" of sorts.
 
Flagg37 said:
One more thing you can do is anticipate how much the alk changes with your water changes and adjust your dosing on those days.
Click to expand...

So I know the new water is around 12.6dKh, the tank is now at 8.4 dosing 8ml of ALK a day. What do you mean by anticipate and adjusting according to the changes?


....

On another note. Adding Water that is 12.6dKh... doesn't that mean that I am inevitably raising the ALK to the levels of the Salt Mix?

In theory, level of ALK is 8.4. Before dosing it was at 6.7, and would raise to 7.7 at Water Change. So does that mean that this next Water Change the tank will go up to 9.4? This sounds dangerous no?
 
anizatoreef said:
So I know the new water is around 12.6dKh, the tank is now at 8.4 dosing 8ml of ALK a day. What do you mean by anticipate and adjusting according to the changes?


....

On another note. Adding Water that is 12.6dKh... doesn't that mean that I am inevitably raising the ALK to the levels of the Salt Mix?

In theory, level of ALK is 8.4. Before dosing it was at 6.7, and would raise to 7.7 at Water Change. So does that mean that this next Water Change the tank will go up to 9.4? This sounds dangerous no?
Click to expand...

So it looks like your alk increased 1.0 dKh with a water change. I forget if you mentioned how much your tank uses up each day but if it uses say, 1.0 dKh a day then you wouldn't dose that day. If it uses 2.0 dKh then dose 1/2 as much. If it only uses 0.5 dKh then don't dose for two days. Ideally, like has been already stated, it's best to have a salt mix with the parameters that you want. I used to use reef crystals but have switched over to Fritz now.
 
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