Dkh 13.7 advice requested (2 Viewers)

[Clownfish Chris]

The simple answer is you should consider dosing only when you are unable to keep up with parameters with Water changes. There is a caveat however. Frequent dosing can help maintain stability. This requires daily testing at least at first.

If you put put something in your tank, it will remain unless you take it out. This includes fish food and supplements. If the corals are using up the big three, then you should dose.

 

[webster1234]

Read back to the beginning what I and others posted. Stop dosing...period. Do weekly 10% water changes and if...at some point...that doesn't keep your alk at 8.2 or so, then consider dosing.

There are numerous threads on how to calculate your usage rate...you just don't set your dosing pump to something. It takes several weeks and numerous tests to figure out how much to dose. But if you have few corals, you don't need to dose anything.

 

[RobertP]

The best advice I heard when I started out was to pick a salt and set your target parameters to what that salt produces. This way if you needed to do a large water change your tank matches the new water. Sounds very simple but never thought of that at the time. I use Red Sea (blue) salt which very closely matches sea water and so I set my target to the average levels of it.

When you get your levels down closer to 8 you check your alk daily for a week. That will tell you how much your Alk drop would be every day if you don't dose. That will then tell you how much you need to dose to keep it at that same level. Of course your corals do grow and you add or remove some so it will change over time and you will need to stay on top of usage but it is really not that difficult once you get a target.

 

[Ostentum]

Red Sea coral pro salt has always run close to 12 dkh. If you have been using that salt the whole time and dosing no surprise it’s not coming down. I switched years ago from that salt over to salinity. Like stated previously if you like the brand of salt try to blue bucket Red Sea which runs closer to NSW