alkalinity and calcium

I have been using bulk reef supply 2 part dosing kit on my 65g reef. I have a 20g sump so with lr i would say there is a total of 75g of water. I have been dosing 10ml of alk and 10ml of calcium daily and do a ten gallon water change every two weeks.I checked the alk and it was 14 dkh .To high! The calcium was 425 which i would like to be higher. I talked to a couple of people and they all gave me differant suggestions. One of them told me to only dose the alk once a week and the other said three times a week. What should I do?

 

until the alk gets below about 9 and the mag isn't 3x the desired calcium, then your calcium probably won't rise above 425. BTW 425 is a good number.

 

heres a couple good articles and links on water chemistry
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=..._6HZBQ&usg=AFQjCNF43XQeIHBUElIHIegqo86LY5yhqA


Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

also nice too see another tennessean on here lol

 

do you use the calculator on their website? I'd test and see how much your alk drops without dosing each day, then you can figure out how much to add to keep it stable

 

I got the ten ml a day from there calculator. When my alk was 12 and my cal was 450 then I started dosing daily

 

We all essentially learned most of what we know on this subject from those articles above, so read them. Let me summarize some essentials though.

1. What is your magnesium level. Until we know the answer to that, we should really stop the discussion, since you should not be dosing either of the others until your magnesium is correct.
2. The way your question reads, I get the feeling you're looking for an amount to dose without reference to your parameters. That doesn't work. If you started with a dkh of 12, you had no reason to even start dosing. It is only when alkalinity is falling that you need to add it. At 12, it is unlikely it was falling.
3. What is in your tank? It would be helpful to know what your currently keeping in order to estimate your likely consumption.
4. The reason the advice sounds contradictory is there are multiple steps to the process, and depending on where you are in the process, you need to do things in different ways.

A. Phase one involves getting all your numbers in line. The way you do this is to Begin with Magnesium and, over a few days, bring it to the target value, then calcium, then alkalinity. Do not start daily weekly or any other regular two part dosing until you have done this and all your parameters are in line with each other. You use the calculator in this step to help estimate how much of each adative you need to do so.
B. In phase two, the point is to dose regularly in order to maintain these numbers. For reasons related to the biochemistry of reef organisms, the uptake rate of calcium and alkalinity is always in a constant ratio. This means, if we dose two chemicals in equal amounts, and the concentrations of those chemicals mirror the uptake ratios, the two should remain balanced. During this phase, you always dose the same amount of each part. You test your alkalinity regularly to make sure you are dosing the right amount and, if it goes up or down, you adjust the dose. Once in a while you test calcium and magnesium and, if they're going a bit out of whack, you bring them back in line with an addition.

This is a very simplified overview, read the articles. I provide the overview to show why, depending on where in the process someone thinks you are, they may give you different advice. Note however, if your alkalinity is not really dropping, you don't need to start dosing. This means your water changes are enough. Just wait and keep testing; dose only when things are consuming all and cal sufficiently to require it.

 

I couldn't have said it any better. Bravo,Servillius

 

+1

very well said

 

Thats the best info I could have gotten. Thanks Servillius. I will start with the mag.