New to Dosing Ca, Mg and Alk...and would like some advice

[daplatapus]

What I did when I was first dialing in my system was once I got my Mg to where I wanted it, I did a water test to confirm, then didn't dose anything for 24hrs and did another test. That should give you a pretty good idea of what your tank consumes in a 24 hr period and give you an idea of what to dose per day. Then start dosing that amount. Your Ca and dkh should stay steady if you start with just dealing with your Mg. Your current Ca and dkh levels are fine so you don't really need to do anything with them right away. Go a week with just dosing Mg and see if it stays pretty solid or if it creeps up or down and adjust accordingly. I would test all 3 every time but wouldn't deal with the other 2 unless there's something drastic. This will give you good practice with your testing and show you the relationship with those big 3 and how they interact with one another. Once you've gone a week without any real changes in your Mg levels, then move on to your other 2 the same way. Slow and methodical and write down what you did and how it affected everything.

Dom

[RPatsula]

Hi what I determined is that when you try to measure alkalinity calcium or magnesium… Your numbers can vary quite drastically from one day to another. It is also hard when you're depending on other people to help you do it. On April 26 I started dosing the BRS magnesium solution until I went through the 1 gallon jug . On April 29 I measured alkalinity at 7 D KH, calcium at 390 ppm, magnesium at 1400 ppm, specific gravity at 1.022 and pH 8.35. On May 1 I measured alkalinity at 5.6 D KH, calcium at 325 ppm, magnesium at 1290, specific gravity at 1.022 and pH at 8.4. I am going to measure again on Thursday night to see if there is considerable change again, or is what I am seeing normal. I am thinking that my magnesium levels can come up a bit, to 1350 , so I'm wondering would it be practical just to dose 1 L of magnesium over a two day period and then measure everything again. When should I start dosing the alkalinity and the calcium?
Thank you
Rick

[e46er]

That's a big mg drop in a short time
My tank consumes just over 1dkh v /20 ppm calcium a day and my mag only drops 50 ppm a month