ESV 2 part help

So the tank is doing great its been up for 12 weeks about now. Fish are doing good, and getting ready to start adding corals. During my water test today everything tested well.
temp 80
ph 8.1
nitrate had trace amounts
nitrite 0
calcium 430
salt 1.024

the one im worried about it is alkalinity it tested at 2.23 meq/l at the LFS and on my home kit as about 135-140ppm. I obviously need to bring this up, hopefully a full point. LFS expert sold me ESV two part calcium and alkalinity telling me to add it and monitor for the next week or so.

My question is since im only trying to bring up the alkalinity, do i add only that part, or do i add calcium too. I know they act as a seasaw and raising one will lower the other. Do i just add alk until i see the calcium drop then start adding both. Thanks for any advice

 

Its used together, add only a little bit to start, i believe its 1 ml for 4gal of water, since your calcium is at 430 right now i would only add the two 1ml for 8 gal. Ive been using this stuff for a year and a half and its great, once you get the measurements down it works wonders.

 

So you;re saying to give a full dose of the alkalinity and a half dose of calcium right?

 

Always add the same amout of both.

 

But how do you adjust them independently if they are off?

Actually I think it says right on the bottle you can add just one if it is low.

I had a calcium reactor on my last tank and I have been doing the ESV thing on the my current tank. It is still a little fuzzy but this has been working for me... when numbers are dead on, I tend to add equal amounts needed to maintain those numbers. When they are off - like this week my calcium was a tad low, I doubled the calcium part and retested the next day. When dialed in, I did smaller equal amounts. Keeping mag high, prevents big swings.

So this method has worked for me lately (until I do water changes and my salt mix screws things up unless I spike it first)...

I'd love to really have it down though if people have good input here.

matt

 

Matt is right, you can add different amounts of each part, I try to always add the same amout just because they work together. as for having it down, its hard to tell how much calcium your corals are going to use up, to know how much you will need to add the next day, the more corals you have the more calcium is consumed. I'm constantly changing the dose in my DT.

 

You must be adding a bunch of frags lately like me.

I just wanted to add that when I add equal parts to maintain numbers I am being a bit lazy - and when I do different levels - these are just guesstimates that I try to get in the ballpark.

If you have ESV hooked up to an auto-doser correctly, I would think you would not have equal parts of each dosed every day. You would 'X' mL for alk and 'X' for calcium that would reflect the daily consumption rates of each.

The key I've been picked up from experienced 3reefers is that you have to know your water volume (minus rocks,etc) to determine all the rates and dosing. There is a great sticky thread on this board by reefsparky that gives you a way to do this. I need to carve out time to do that myself so I can really get this down.

matt

 

I just looked at my ESV bottle after dosing earlier today and it DOES NOT say this. I stand by the other stuff I said and I still believe you can do this, but I was wrong about this statement above. Sorry, my memory did not serve correctly.

The bottle states all over it about adding the 2 parts equally and you should not be judged for thinking that you have to. The description on the bottles are rather vague about being ok to dose more of one that the other.

It does state on part 2:

This could be read several ways however. So I'd to say the bottle is pushing equal parts and does not clearly state whether you can dose more of one that the other. But I find that you can and I think you should too in order to accurately get to the levels for alkalinity and calcium that is desirable for your corals.

matt

 

+ 1 on manipulating the amount dosed to achieve the numbers you desire

these 2 part additives are formulated on the 20 parts calcium to 1 part DKH ratio that we all know about and they assume that when you start using these, you have parameters that are within tolerance anyway

thus if one or the other is low - you need to compensate for that first and then start utilising both parts going forward.

we also know that Calcium is interchangeable with Strontium and Magnesium as far as coral utilisation is concerned , thus although its generally accepted for every 1 degree of DKH thats utilised , then 20ppm Calcium is utilised - but this is not always the case
your own testing will on occasion confirm this fact.

DKH as we know, can also drop reasons other than coral utilisation
IME - you need to slightly adjust the qty of 1 or the other to compensate for the above factors on occasions

Steve

 

Ok, ive been adding accordingly and adjusting daily. Ive found that the calcium goes up quickly and the alkalinity slowly. Two out of three days I added only alk because when i did equal parts it barely added any alk by the next day and the calcium went up about 20 ppm.

As it currently stands the calcium is at 450ppm and the alk has risen from 135/140 to about 160 now. To compensate i did a little more alk than i've been doing the past few days and no calcium. I know this may drop the calcium a little bit but thats ok.