Stupid Questions-Hold the laughs please

A

Arm0211

I have been running a tank for 2 months now, with no problems along the way (knock on wood). Starting to slowly accumulate more coral: Zoas, LPS, and cyphastrea along with 2 ocellaris, PJ cardinal, 1 YWG w/ tiger pistol, and a BTA. Ammonia and Nitrites 0, Nitrates 10PPM, SG 1.024, i know its a tad low. All of which i know how to or attempt to control. Calcium and alk dosing though... both are a little lower than i would prefer. How to properly dose? I was told baking soda for alk but do i just mix it with the top off water or put it in the back chamber? Its a BC29 LED upgrade BTW. Im in process of upgrading the filter as well ditching the bioballs.. So main question How to dose and what would the best practice be in dosing for these two?
 
I use two part from brs but there are several companies who make it. The first thing you need to do is get your numbers up to where they should be. So test the water and if you use two part just follow the directions to raise it. Then monitor your tanks usage over a week or two and see how much your numbers change, test regular and dose accordingly. It's also best to split up your dosing instead of doing it all at one time to limit the change in parameters. I dose once an hour automatically with a dosing pump.
 
I guess this is the first time i've been legitimatly confused on a topic. Can this be done manually? There is a ton of information i've read but nothing really that strings everything together which has me a tad overwhelmed. Using a reef calculator to determine the amount needed to test i get but how to get it into the water? pour everything at once, slow drip, drop 5 ml every 20 min? I can't see me purchasing an automatic dosing pump with the amount of coral i have right now.
 
You typically dilute in water before adding. I would get something like Bionic part a and b. the bottles give you instruction. Normally you dose the Kh first, wait at least 30 min then dose the Ca.
 
I think Marc built one using some medical cable and controlled the flow with a clamp like those drip bags in the hospital.
 
It's a 29 gallon, the auto dosers are better when you're dumping 100-200ml of 2-part in a tank. You could break the 10ml into multiple doses, but I've never had a problem in a 34 gallon adding all at once. Just curious, what are your parameters right now?
 
Ditto on what current parameters are. If you need to raise Alk and Ca you should test your Mg first and make sure it will support your target Alk & Ca levels. If your Mg is too low you need to raise that first.
 
Since this is a 29g tank, you should manually add the two part dose once a day. I wouldn't use a doser for such a small volume of water. When I ran my 29g years ago, I used ESV's B-Ionic to dose daily, and I trickled in 15ml over 30 second period in an area of high flow every morning of each part.
 
Don't over think it. For your new small tank, and the limited amount of corals that you have, just add your alk supplement in with your top off water each day. Test each day (at the same time of day) to make sure you are adding the right amount to maintain your desired alk level until you get your dosage figured out. You shouldn't need to dose calcium more than once or twice a week with the limited number of corals that you have (if you are doing regular water changes, it could be less than that).
 
Your numbers are fine. You need to dose a little more Alkalinity to get it up to 8 dKH, the rest of the numbers are on track. Once you have it buffered up to 8, do the recommended daily dose and measure Alk & Ca weekly to see if you need to increase or decrease the daily dose slightly.
 
I double checked all the parameters and everything is consistent. the calculator I'm using is suggesting .5 tsp to raise from 7-8dkh (with baking soda btw). should this be done throughout a few days? or is 1dkh enough to worry about for 1 day?

Thanks for the help i really appreciate everything! I can read and read and read but the more i read the more questions i have lol
 
With the BC29 and just a hair over 30lbs of LR and 20lbs of sand, does 22 gallons sound about right for the water volume?
 
You can bring it up 1 dKH in 24 hours. No worries there.
 
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