How much do you dose?

[Kleko]

Just wondering how much ppm of calcium the reefers on this site use daily. I would imagine that some of the big full sps reefs take allot.
Just comment on how much you have to replenish your Ca, Alk, and Mg daily.

 

[Duke]

I dose 65ml of calcium and 73ml of alk daily.. Not sure if that's a lot or not.

 

[AdamS]

Isnt 2 part set up so that the doses of each are the same? Maybe that is an ideal world. I dose 12ml per day of each, but i dont have much coral.

 

[nitro069]

I'm at 11ml per day of brs 2 part. still dialing it in though. tank is 75g and is mostly softies and lps.

 

[Kleko]

How many sps/lps do you have duke? Seems like allot compared to Adam and Nitro. What's your magnesium at?
Thanks for the reply's everyone

 

[Duke]

How many sps/lps do you have duke? Seems like allot compared to Adam and Nitro. What's your magnesium at?
Thanks for the reply's everyone

i never dose mag, water changes keep it high, i have alot of coral.. i wouldn't say a huge amount tho.. i only have a 90G tank

Isnt 2 part set up so that the doses of each are the same? Maybe that is an ideal world. I dose 12ml per day of each, but i dont have much coral.

i have my numbers i shoot for and keep them there.. not sure why they arent equal, i checked last night for the first time in 2 weeks and everything was spot on.. the time before that i had to manually add some calcium to get it up to 425 or so.

 

[JordanHurst]

I run my dosing pumps on a timer from 11pm-11am.  Every hour the pumps turn on for 7 Minutes
7 mins x 1.1 ml = (7.7ml) x (11 times)= 84.7 ml

My calcium is at 420ppm and alk at 9.5 dKh

I dose 20 oz Mag every time I run a L of calcium and alk. depending on my Mag level I sometimes dont need to add any.

I have about 10 Mini colonies SPS and frags all growing. Routine testing and adjust as needed. Def test ur Mag and insure its in a good range.

 

[AdamS]

i never dose mag, water changes keep it high

What salt do you use? IO I find lowers mag a lot.

 

[Duke]

[quote author=Duke link=topic=4207.msg38508#msg38508 date=1359678149]
i never dose mag, water changes keep it high

What salt do you use? IO I find lowers mag a lot.
[/quote]


IO also, i use the red sea test kit, i think its accurate but have nothing to double check with. i get around 1480

 

[jroovers]

I dose about 80 ml's each of 2-part Alk and Ca daily.  I do mine in four runs every 6 hours (Ca, Alk, Ca, Alk) on BRS dosers.  I've been slowly bumping up every few months as demand increases from my SPS. 

 

[spyd]

I'm dosing about 45ml for ALK and 60ml or so of CAL a day. Maintaining 420 for calcium and 8.3 for ALK. As for Mag, I have it on a dosing pump but only turn it on when my readings are low. Bump it up over a 5 day span or so and then turn it back off.

 

[Darryl_V]

I'm dosing about 45ml for ALK and 60ml or so of CAL a day. Maintaining 420 for calcium and 8.3 for ALK. As for Mag, I have it on a dosing pump but only turn it on when my readings are low. Bump it up over a 5 day span or so and then turn it back off.

Seems like an odd way of doing it that leaves you open for swings and mistakes.  Whey not just try and find your maintenance dose.  Also bumping up manual when if you run slightly short.

The reason I think some people find they have to add more of one part than the other is probably deficiencies in the salt brand they are using.  Others I think it comes from the fact that they THINK their tank uses more alk than calcium because it actually does but the 2 part is balanced that way.  Calcium carbonate is 20ppm calcium to 50ppm carbonate (alk).  Also there is less alkalinity in seawater than calcium so if you test a lot you may notice alkalinity dropping faster than calcium and think you need to dose more but remember that 2 part is balanced in the same ratio so no need and doing so in the long term may keep raising your alkalinity.

Personally I dose around ~320ml of each part per day but I also try to undershoot it so that at the end of every month my levels are just a little low and I manual dose at that point to bring them back to exactly where I want them.  Usually this means adding quite a bit of calcium as the salt I use is low in calcium (Instant Ocean).

For magnesium I test every month and wait for it to drop about 100ppm and that usually takes about 3 months.....than I dose and bump it up.  Specifically I dose to get my tank to about 1250 and wait for it to drop to 1150 and dose to bring it back up.

 

[davesolo29]

dosing is something i have to start.  i sometimes use the bionic premade two part.  i keep planning on starting it, i have a doser and the two part from royalaquariums, but never seem to make the time to get it set up.  everytime i think of it, i find something else that needs to be done instead.  i think its really just a fear of not setting it up properly and killing my tank

 

[Victoss]

dosing is something i have to start.  i sometimes use the bionic premade two part.  i keep planning on starting it, i have a doser and the two part from royalaquariums, but never seem to make the time to get it set up.  everytime i think of it, i find something else that needs to be done instead.  i think its really just a fear of not setting it up properly and killing my tank

I'm in the same boat (without all the equipment standing by, think that would drive me crazy) but I've just been too lazy and fear of causing problems to start. It's something I definitely need to do too, last time I checked a month ago (can't use my dominant hand for a few weeks, also another reason I haven't started ) my levels were at cal = 405, alk = 7.8* and mag = 1600 ppm which also confuses the oop: outta me. Using Salinity from Aquavitro which has been a disappointing bucket this time round, leaves a white precipitate on pump n heater in mixing bucket where my first bucket of the stuff I used was great. (too bad I didn't have real test kits during the first bucket) So that may be why I'm having very high mag and lower cal and alk, unless the redsea mag test is not working for me.

 

[teebone110]

I'm at about 44mls/day of each Ca and Alk

Dosed during the lighting period alternative hours 4 times each.

Fine tune my params at the end of each month, including magnesium, all through BRS dosers.