Dosing Alk help?

So i have had my ALK stay pretty consistent at 9dkh and i've been pretty happy with that. I have been adding 2 part BRS ALK to my top-off reservoir and i make sure that it's mixed with the RO pretty good. I think i have the ratio down pretty good to keep it around 9.

Anyways, i have heard that adding ALK to a top off reservoir may not be the best way to dose.

Thoughts?????

Marcoss wrote: I've heard of people doing that with Kalk, but not Alk. I think Alk would be trickier since its not as balanced as Kalk (which has Ca, Alk, etc.). My worry would be the needs for your top off changing with the season. I would personally get in the habit of dosing the tank, this way, you know what you are doing each time and can increase it as you get more corals. Right now, you are guessing, for the most part, since your top off can use more or less water each day- it would be hard to say the exact ML of Alk you added. But thats impressive you balanced your top off water with your Alk needs. Way to advanced for me! I just add a simple, set number each day, and walk away. Haha. Marcos

Thanks Marcos, That defiantly makes sense. Maybe i'll just switch to Kalk.

You don't want to dose Alk without dosing calc. They have an inverse relationship (it's not directly inverse, but for our intent it's close enough) so as alk goes up, calc goes down. Like Marcoss said, the Kalk has both Alk and Calc and some people do put that into their top off. The key is to find out how much calc and alk your tank is using (by testing) and then you know how much it needs. Extreme examples: if you have a fish only tank (or say a softie tank) and have Kalk in the top off, your tank is hardly using any and it will be dosing way too much. Contrast that with if you have an overcrowded sps tank like mine, having it in the top off is not even close to enough. That's why it's tank specific.

(one more little note: it can also precipitate in the top off [the milky white residue that's around the edges) if it's in there for a while so you loose it's effectiveness as well.)

Here's an article that helped with with calc/alk problems that I got from Fatman (thanks Kevin )
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry

And here's an article describing the calc alk mag relationships that I found helpful too. Also from Fatman.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-04/rhf/feature/index.htm

They're a bit long (but worth the read) but in summary, the first article tells the "how" about dosing and the second tells the "why" just if you're looking for some more info.

Edited by Hogie - March 23 2016 at 4:33pm

I agree I manually dosed until this last week when I finally hooked up my Jebao auto doser. One of the best things I've bought! And only about $70 with prime shipping through amazon

bstuver wrote: I agree I manually dosed until this last week when I finally hooked up my Jebao auto doser. One of the best things I've bought! And only about $70 with prime shipping through amazon

I'm defiantly going to look into this.