Need Help Dosing.

[nautchilous]

Good day Fish Jedi Masters ......Ok my 65 gallons Redsea Reef tank is in a funk with my Calcium and Alk levels. Currently I have some softies and couple Sps with live rock and couple fishes. I do a 5% water change weekly. However I have been monitoring my Cal , Alk and Mag and readings they are low .
My cal reading is about 405ppm, Alk is 7.32dkh And Mag 1110.
I have a Kamoer 3 pump DOSER. I used the brs calculator and it said I need 93.5 oz 2 part cal to get to 420ppm....How do I add this with the Kamoer....do I dump it all at once or spread the dose over a 7 day period? Any suggestions will be appreciated.


Cheers

 

[DaveK]

The main question is, how is your livestock doing? If it's doing good, don't chase numbers.

Your parameters are not that far off, and certainly not into a problem area. Unless you are having a specific issue with your corals, you will be a lot better off leaving things alone.

If you need to make adjustments, make the initial adjustment manually. Use a dosing pump only when you have the levels correct to start with. Think of the dosing pump as a way to maintain levels or make very minor adjustments.

You will also find that you'll save a lot of money by making any initial adjustments using bulk chemicals rather that 2 part additives.

When you make adjustments, first adjust the magnesium level. This is key to getting the correct calcium and alkalinity levels. Your magnesium level is a little low but not a serious issue. Some salts mix to a low magnesium level. Before you mess with things, check your new SW and make sure it's mixing to a good level. If it's not consider a new brand of salt.

Once you get magnesium good, you can adjust the calcium and alkalinity.

See this link for actual values you want (offsite) - http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/
But I warn you again, do not chase numbers.

 

[Oxylebius]

+1 to everything DaveK said.

In addition, when using a doser you only add what the aquarium is using (daily or weekly). To determine this amount you need to test daily (or every other day). Once you find out how much your tank is consuming in a week's time of Ca, Alk and Mg, then you can determine how much to set the doser for.

In the time that you are testing you don't want to add any chemicals or do water changes. Just monitor daily (if you can) or every other day. How much the levels are falling is what you are trying to determine.

It is possible that your amounts are falling, but still w/in normal range. Therefore, weekly water changes are all you need to do to get the amounts back up again. You don't have to dose anything.

If your amounts are falling out of range, then you can consider dosing to maintain levels w/in range.

 

[mr_tap_water]

As above good advice.
In my opinion you need to get your mag in-line first and should be aiming around 1350 for the mag by doing this first will help awards stabilising the other two ,as the other two are still both in range and only need tweaking if you so desire.


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