Calcium dosing intervals for large adjustment

[Koresample]

I need to increase my calcium from 340 up to about 420 and i plan to do it in 3 doses. Is 12 hours enough time between doses?

I checked my PH about 6 hours after the 2nd dose (which i did 12 hrs after the first dose) and it was stable at 8.4 and none of my corals, my shrimp or Mandarin look stressed. After the first dose my calcium was at 380.

My Mg is at 1150 and my dKH is 11.

[TheRealBigAL]

Originally Posted by Koresample

I need to increase my calcium from 340 up to about 420 and i plan to do it in 3 doses. Is 12 hours enough time between doses?

I checked my PH about 6 hours after the 2nd dose (which i did 12 hrs after the first dose) and it was stable at 8.4 and none of my corals, my shrimp or Mandarin look stressed. After the first dose my calcium was at 380.

My Mg is at 1150 and my dKH is 11.

You already put a mandarin in your tank ? I thought you were going to hold off on that until your tank was more established ?

[fkshiu]

No - you should only raise Ca 20 or 30 ppm at the very most (preferably slower) within a 24 hr period. You must also raise it along with your Mg (which is currently low) or it will begin to precipitate out of solution.

Be careful of making big adjustments too quickly.

[Koresample]

he was eating frozen from the LFS and has continued to do so in my tank, plus the pods that are in it. I've been growing a ton of pods in another 10 gallon tank and re-stocking the display tank weekly, plus culturing them in my HOB refugium. He's getting pretty fat now. Each night after lights out I've been checking and my tank is crawling with pods.

[Koresample]

I've been following the dosing instructions from Randy Holmes Farley's article http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...hf/index.php#2 and it talks about dosing the calcium first, then alk (which is fine), then adjusting the Mg. Is this incorrect? Does anyone else use this process?

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by Koresample

I've been following the dosing instructions from Randy Holmes Farley's article http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...hf/index.php#2 and it talks about dosing the calcium first, then alk (which is fine), then adjusting the Mg. Is this incorrect? Does anyone else use this process?

That is absolutely correct. What I meant was that you need to have all of the three key parts of the reef chemical triangle at proper levels for there to be stability.

[Koresample]

ok, so i just need to dose in small amounts over a couple more days until the Ca is correct, then do small increases in my Mg?

[lorenz0]

Go very very slow. took me 3 weeks to get my calcium up. same with Mg. no point rushing it cause nothing enjoys that