Following up on the Test Kit nugget of wisdom... with this installment I will tackle Dosing. There will not be any photos in this one... just some examples, procedures and other general advice on proper dosing.
Dosing what?? When I refer to dosing in this post, I mean the big 3, Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium.
Let's start with a brief description of the holy trinity (Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium).
Alkalinity is, in basic terms a number that represents the amount of acid in a system that is needed to lower the pH of a system to convert bicarbonate and carbonate to carbonic acid. UH??????
Its a number.... what it is chemically is not important unless you are a chemistry geek, what is important is to understand what numbers you want in the tank and what alkalinity allows corals to do, which is to grow. Equally important is to understand its relationship to pH and the other members of the Trinity. If you want an overly scientific and amazingly in depth, and frankly overdone read, try this.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2002/chemistry.htm
What does Alkalinity do? It allows corals and in some measure, all critters that utilize calcium to grow. It makes calcium usable for skeleton and hard structures, like shells and coral bases.
What effect does alkalinity have on our tanks? It helps keep pH in balance, or keep it at a certain level (range) easier and more efficiently. Alkalinity alone does not drive a pH number, but will have an impact on it. Conversely, its possible to effect pH and not impact Alkalinity. This means you can have a high pH and low alkalinity (though its hard) and you can have a low pH and high Alkalinity. These are difficult to do, but do happen and you should be aware of them, but for a basic understanding, the higher your Alkalinity, the higher your pH will be (or at least should be).
When you are dosing, you want to test Alkalinity using a test kit at all times, you do not want to rely on your pH value to determine your Alkalinity. While it will give you an indication of what your Alkalinity is, it will not always be accurate.
Alkalinity in Natural Sea Water (NSW) typically runs around 7 - 7.5 dkh. I will use dkh as the standard unit of measure, but it can also be measured in meq/l and ppmCaCO3 (though that one is rare). For a conversion chart of the different units of measure, please refer to this web page ( http://ozreef.org/library/tables/a...re you really are getting your money's worth.
Dosing what?? When I refer to dosing in this post, I mean the big 3, Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium.
Let's start with a brief description of the holy trinity (Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium).
Alkalinity is, in basic terms a number that represents the amount of acid in a system that is needed to lower the pH of a system to convert bicarbonate and carbonate to carbonic acid. UH??????
Its a number.... what it is chemically is not important unless you are a chemistry geek, what is important is to understand what numbers you want in the tank and what alkalinity allows corals to do, which is to grow. Equally important is to understand its relationship to pH and the other members of the Trinity. If you want an overly scientific and amazingly in depth, and frankly overdone read, try this.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2002/chemistry.htm
What does Alkalinity do? It allows corals and in some measure, all critters that utilize calcium to grow. It makes calcium usable for skeleton and hard structures, like shells and coral bases.
What effect does alkalinity have on our tanks? It helps keep pH in balance, or keep it at a certain level (range) easier and more efficiently. Alkalinity alone does not drive a pH number, but will have an impact on it. Conversely, its possible to effect pH and not impact Alkalinity. This means you can have a high pH and low alkalinity (though its hard) and you can have a low pH and high Alkalinity. These are difficult to do, but do happen and you should be aware of them, but for a basic understanding, the higher your Alkalinity, the higher your pH will be (or at least should be).
When you are dosing, you want to test Alkalinity using a test kit at all times, you do not want to rely on your pH value to determine your Alkalinity. While it will give you an indication of what your Alkalinity is, it will not always be accurate.
Alkalinity in Natural Sea Water (NSW) typically runs around 7 - 7.5 dkh. I will use dkh as the standard unit of measure, but it can also be measured in meq/l and ppmCaCO3 (though that one is rare). For a conversion chart of the different units of measure, please refer to this web page ( http://ozreef.org/library/tables/a...re you really are getting your money's worth.
