Dosing Alk

I did some searching and found this piece of advise..

To get the alk back to a normal level you need to either do some water changes or keep adding alk solution until enough calcium precipitates out that the alk can start to increase.

Dosing ALK lowers calcium ( and vice versa), so in theory this should eventually get you in balance again.

 

It's a good thought, but IMO, CA would precipitate out first at those levels. And your Mg level seems to be high enough.

Not knowing full back story, my thought is on *when* you do it. You definitely want to raise your Alk levels after lights out. It does not actually matter when you dose CA - only that you don't do it at same time as ALK. Personally, I dose CA at lunch (lights are on) and ALK at like 1am (I use an autodoser/timers).

Raise Alk very slowly. 1 point a day is typical. Personally, I try not to raise it more than half point a day in the rare instances where I need to. It *might* be that you are adding too much at a time(?). And I also would not raise it more than two days in a row. Take a day off for every couple.

I agree Red Sea kits are PITA, but IME, when done properly, gave good results. I prefer Salifert so I can trust there was no error in getting a reading.

One last thought, I have learned not to approach my params with a 'thou shalt read x" mentality. Different tanks are different. Some tanks really don't want their dKH above 8 and have a hella time keeping it there. But if they just back off, it'd be stable at 7.6 - which is a fine number. Consistency is much much more important than any particular target number (once you're above bare minimums of course).

 

Truish. Raising Alk does not automatically push down Ca though. It depends on where the numbers are to begin with. If Ca and Alk are low enough (and Mg high enough), you can raise both w/o precipitating out anything.

Few years ago, I maintained a 1500 Mg, 480 Ca, and dKH of 12 for a long time w/o issue. I daily dose. I lose ~25 points of Mg a month (even today). Back then, when Mg would drop below 1400, Ca dropped with it (dKH didn't move). Nowadays, I maintain closer to 1450, 400, 8.3 and when my Mg drops, my Ca doesn't move (alk either).

 

Thanks for the info, I'm still new to dosing myself and was just going by hear say. Right now I personally maintain 1450 Mg 450 Ca, 10 Dkh alk.

 

Chemistry And The Aquarium: Solving Calcium And Alkalinity Problems — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

I found that link very useful.

"Zone 4 problems (you will want to see the figure in the link) are also a little harder to correct. It is typically caused by overdosing calcium RELATIVE to alkalinity, but does not necessarily imply that alkalinity is either to high or too low (though it is almost always too low). To correct problems in this zone, monitoring of calcium and alkalinity values during correction is especially important.
If this problem is extreme (i.e., you are far from the line at the left hand edge of zone 4), then water changes may be the best way to correct to the problem. In most cases, however, water changes aren’t necessary."

 

I'm not going to read this whole thread but here's what I did when I started dosing... We know your ca levels are fine. Stop testing your ca for a bit and just focus on your alk... Make sure you are dosing the same amount every time. Increase dosage a little per week until you get your results. I would dose a little daily rather than weekly by the way