Dosing - can't find the right levels.

Maverick00 · #1 09-13-2011, 11:59 PM

sry alittle off topic, Does the "hanna checker" offer more than just phosphate and alkalinity at the moment? Im personally alittle sick of guessing where the approx the color value is.

fishytime · #2 09-14-2011, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maverick00

sry alittle off topic, Does the "hanna checker" offer more than just phosphate and alkalinity at the moment? Im personally alittle sick of guessing where the approx the color value is.

the calcium checker has been in stores for a few weeks

ScubaSteve · #3 09-14-2011, 01:33 AM

I can't really offer a solution to the Mg problem other than you didn't wait long enough on the tests. Let the tests sit for 5 mins before you determine what the reading is.

Alk can be a bitch. I found my tank actually DOES use a ton of alk when given the opportunity. So don't be surprised if you do end up using a lot here, especially after an upgrade. This is also because water actually has a fairly limited solubility of carbonate compared to calcium, so alk fluctuates more than calc.

mark · #4 09-14-2011, 01:36 AM

maybe slow down? With the dosing, water changes and supplementing going to be hard to figure things out.

Once you confirm your test kits and that the volume being dosed is what's expected, might try slowly manually supplementing levels, once stabilized, turn on the doser just to maintain your target levels.

If you're doing RHF DIY solutions there's a chart for how much a day for a guide.

fishytime · #5 09-14-2011, 02:13 AM

Calcium, magnesium and carbonate hardness need to be thought of as a perfect triangle...... the big three.....if one one these sides of the triangle are out of whack it makes maintaining/altering your other parameters very difficult...... you need to achieve a balance......once things are in balance, maintaining/ altering the parameters.....is easy.....as mentioned, there are many reef additive calculators out there that will help you determine how much of the product you use, you will need to use......... now that you are into a larger tank you will likely find that using off the shelf additives will no longer be economical......look into buying your additives in bulk.........Im not sure what dosing pump your running and what features it has, but if you can, try doing the math and setting the pumps to dose several times a day......"one shot" doses are ok if you have to do it that way, but dosing several times a day will limit the large spike, gradual decline effect that "one shot" dosing has.....this is what I love about the profilux dosers......I can dose small amounts 24 times a day and my parameters or rock solid......something that really has a positive effect on the finickier corals.....

doch · #6 09-14-2011, 02:32 AM

OK... I'll try to respond to everything at once... hopefully I din't miss anything.

I have both elos and Hanna for Ca... just switching over to the Hanna as I just got it. The readings seem to be different, but I'll verifiy that later.

As for the Mg, elos test kit... it is about a year old. I'm not sure that I trust it.

Alk - I'm at the tail end of the bottle of the Master test kit for this, and I now have the hanna checker. Readings between these two seem to be very close.

As for the actual testing process, I see what you're saying. There can be discrepancies when things aren't exactly the same as far as process, but even to put things in the ballpark, something is not right.

I think I'm going to go home in the morning (I'm on nights) and test everything again with all of the kits that I have. Hopefully this will shed a little light on the situation. I'm also thinking that I'll follow advice above and get everything to the appropriate levels manually, and then continue with doing. The main one that concerns me though is the Mg... if I'm not dosing Mg, and the levels are going up... WTF!? How do I get it down to 1350 if that's the case? Something is not right. I don't trust the Mg test kit. What is a good brand of Mg test kit?

Myka · #7 09-14-2011, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doch

The main one that concerns me though is the Mg... if I'm not dosing Mg, and the levels are going up... WTF!? How do I get it down to 1350 if that's the case? Something is not right. I don't trust the Mg test kit. What is a good brand of Mg test kit?

If your inhabitants are too concerned about it, I don't think you should be either. Honestly, I think there is some testing or kit discrepancies. It takes a TON of Mg to go from 1300-1900 Mg. To give you an idea I use about 1 cup of Mg mix to go up by 100 ppm on my 90 gallon tank.

I have had no issues using Salifert for Mg (I use Elos for Cal and Alk). I haven't used the Elos kit for Mg.

You didn't say which salt you're using. Have you done any water changes in the time that you have been messing with the dosing?