General Dosing V Balling Light

[damo666]

Merry Christmas to you and yours, hope you're having fun!
I'll keep this short and hope it's not too much of a brain drain question for the Xmas break.
My tank is still maturing, with no concerns really, set up early October. I've noticed my Kh is on the low side, 7 to 7.2. When I was getting things together I bought used kamoer dosers, dosing containers etc for future use. I also purchased what I thought were general supplements Kh, Mg and Ca. I went to read the instructions on the Kh tonight with a view to buffering and it simply refers to being used following the Balling light system directions.
My question is simply this: is it a straightforward system to use, is it beneficial and does my tank need to be established longer or can it be introduced at any time.
I may be trying to get too complex for softies, may be easier to change to a salt with a higher initial Kh.? I'm currently using tmc. I started with reef crystals before my lfs decided to stop stocking it. I know, order online ... . I have this daft notion of trying to support local retailers instead of just going there to chat fish all the time lol.

And that was short???

 

[doug_amanda]

What is the kh value of your pre-mixed water for a water change?
The easy answer is that whatever that is, is the kh level you want to buffer to, 7 to 7.2 is the level of natural sea water so not too low, just needs to be kept stable.

 

[jim_fitz]

Balling light is quite easy
Though not normally necessary for softies
Kph level is fine, though stability is more important

 

[damo666]

Cheers Jim. Funny old hobby this, you can have things nicely set up, read a few different ideas, mull them over and then somehow convince yourself that's the way to go...well, that's me anyway. I'm newish to saltwater, less than 2 years, previously did every aspect of freshwater finishing off with discus breeding. Have to say there's a very steep learning curve with reefs. I had everything going great with softies, somehow decided out of the blue that my stable nitrate reading was too high and basically decimated my tank with Nopox. Softies disappeared at an alarming rate but the sps and lps frags I was given flourished.
I'm not even sure I've got that many softies tbh. I have an appalling memory due to epilepsy and despite constantly revisiting categories and names still forget what's what. Main thing I like in a coral is movement. Currently have torch, hammerheads, trumpets, Duncans, xenia as well as various zoas and gsp. Salinity stays very stable as atu is pretty sensitive... Anyhow, have a great New Year and see you here in 2019

 

[jim_fitz]

Softies actually like quite dirty water
So it’s no real surprise they suffered as you know reduced your nutrient levels

Happy new year to you too

 

[damo666]

Checked the Kh of a fresh mix for water change, came out at 11! Re-did test 3 times but same result. Also checked sg, 1.025 after calibration twice. Read specification on tmc site, states the saltb is aimed at maintaining a Kh between 9 and 10, so mixing to 11 sounds about right to me. Just checked tank kh after 24hrs, it's still only 7.2ish. I would have expected some noticeable increase doing a 12% change. Let's say the difference in Kh between the tank and 50ltrs added is 4, I'd have expected to see a rise of 0.6. Or is my maths at fault? Another factor in this is pH, which I know fluctuates across the lighting/night time cycle. So the test needs to be done pretty much the same time daily? I'm not looking to complicate things unnecessarily. I have Duncans, hammerheads, candies, and a torch coral. Would these benefit from starting balling lite? I have a doser, dosing container with calibrated 1500ml markings, manifold and tubing. Just checked the 1kg tubs I bought back in September, fauna marine Kh, calcium and magnesium.

 

[jim_fitz]

How long did you mix the water for ?

I have read reports that 24 hours is ideal

 

[damo666]

The water was mixed overnight, so by the time I used it 18hrs

 

[jim_fitz]

is it Tropic Marin salt ?

 

[jim_fitz]

My maths says it should have come to 7.5

 

[damo666]

It is Jim. Tbh I'm also a bit confused, we'll more unsure about the red sea Kh test I'm using. A drop is added initially to get the blue titration colour......does this drop count as one drop when adding the others, if that makes sense. Or is that drop simply dismissed and the count starts when adding further drops? I've read the instructions several times but to me it's not clear.

 

[jim_fitz]

i stopped using it as it was that high

have you looked on youtube ?

 

[damo666]

So, you stopped using the tmc salt, interesting. What did you change to? I started, with the intention of sticking with reef crystals, I read good reviews and feedback on it. Unfortunately, after filling tank and just one water change my lfs stopped stocking it. Another lfs sold me a trade sack of tmc salt at a very low price so I've been using that.

Yeah, and searched for answers on here. Seems the instructions confuse plenty of people. My Kh is higher than I thought by 1, as the first titration drop is apparently included in the total.

 

[jim_fitz]

yeah i moved to aqua forest as it has a kh closer to nsw

for what its worth i use hanna test kits
dont have to make any judgements

 

[damo666]

Yes, I'm eyeing up the hanna nitrate and phosphate as I really struggle with colour comparisons. I'm OK with colour change for now, so I'll use the Mg and Calc up first

 

[jim_fitz]

i'd highly recommend them

 

[damo666]

Cheers Jim, thanks for your help

 

[Gregorysmilk]

Thanks for sharing these websites, you really amazing and having good knowledge about these things.