Alkalinity

[Buklau]

Have a 90 gal tank. Alkalinity is at 7 and I want to bring it up. What is a safe amount in ml to add to the tank each day?

 

[carey]

Depedns on what you are adding to bring it up. i use Soda ash i got from bulk reef supply, so I use 3 teaspoons a day and it raises the dkh by about 1.0. You shouldn't adjust more than 1.0 to 1.5 dkh in a day. Spread it out over a few days. Also, a nice large water change should help get that level a bit higher.

 

[Buklau]

When you say a large water change, how much? I do about a 15 gal about every 3 weeks.

 

[carey]

That's part of the problem. If you did that water change every week your parameters would stay stable on calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. Even if you up it to every other week you would notice higher readings.

What salt mix do you use and how many corals do you have? If you have too many that is what is using up the trace elements quicker than you can replenish them with a water change.

 

[Buklau]

Carey- you talked about using soda ash from bulk reef supply. Do you use the dosing kit of calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity. It comes in the powder form and you add ro water to it.

 

[carey]

recipe 1 IS soda ash and calcium something. I bought the powder separately instead of the kit. My magnesium runs fine so I havent bought that yet.

I have just been making daily dosage but I have the jugs so I should soon be using that and just giving it a pump or two a day. I believe it's 2 ounces of soda ash (alkalinity) for my tank a day and 4 ounces of the calcium powder mixture. This is all after a gallon of ro/di water is used to mix the appropriate amount of powder.