Aquarium Chemistry Question? Ask the Doctor!

[Brew12]

This might be a dumb question but if I need to add 7.5ml of Alkalinity each day can I water it down with RODI water to make it 15ml so I can have my auto dose do it over the course of the day?

Absolutely. No issues with that at all

 

[jdeb101]

Quick question... do additives expire? Specifically, does Tropic-Marin Carbocalcium (the liquid kind) expire? I tried switching from Seachem over to that and started at the recommended dose but didn’t notice any increase in Alk/Calc but rather decrease! I switched back to Seachem for the time being. Could it be expired or should I start above the recommended dose?

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Quick question... do additives expire? Specifically, does Tropic-Marin Carbocalcium (the liquid kind) expire? I tried switching from Seachem over to that and started at the recommended dose but didn’t notice any increase in Alk/Calc but rather decrease! I switched back to Seachem for the time being. Could it be expired or should I start above the recommended dose?

It depends on what exactly Tropic Marin's "Carbocalcium" is, which they don't say. If it's calcium acetate as Randy speculated here, then no, it shouldn't grow bacteria so it shouldn't "go bad". But unfortunately, we don't really know what's in it, so there's really no way to know for sure.

 

[AJI23]

Question.
I have a 180gallon 40gal sumo that I’m dosing around 85ml a day of cal and alk.
My stable levels are always at 142-150ppm alk and 420ppm cal. With 1350 mag.
I try to raise these levels to around 190ppm alk and 450 cal. I added 300ml if each to get there. Did reading later that night and I was right where I wanted. Today. I’m back to 142-420. Do I really need to dose 380ml a day. All my corals are small colonies from frags. Mix of sps lps and softies.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Question.
I have a 180gallon 40gal sumo that I’m dosing around 85ml a day of cal and alk.
My stable levels are always at 142-150ppm alk and 420ppm cal. With 1350 mag.
I try to raise these levels to around 190ppm alk and 450 cal. I added 300ml if each to get there. Did reading later that night and I was right where I wanted. Today. I’m back to 142-420. Do I really need to dose 380ml a day. All my corals are small colonies from frags. Mix of sps lps and softies.

It's always best to quote values in dKH added per day, not mL since no one knows what product you are using (and even if they did, that makes them do the math).

In general, figure your daily dose by trail and error. Unless it is well above 2 dKH per day, it is "normal".

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It depends on what exactly Tropic Marin's "Carbocalcium" is, which they don't say. If it's calcium acetate as Randy speculated here, then no, it shouldn't grow bacteria so it shouldn't "go bad". But unfortunately, we don't really know what's in it, so there's really no way to know for sure.

Calcium formate was my speculation, later confirmed by Lou of Tropic Marin. I expect it is concentrated enough to prevent bacterial growth and not go bad.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Quick question... do additives expire? Specifically, does Tropic-Marin Carbocalcium (the liquid kind) expire? I tried switching from Seachem over to that and started at the recommended dose but didn’t notice any increase in Alk/Calc but rather decrease! I switched back to Seachem for the time being. Could it be expired or should I start above the recommended dose?

There's no reason to assume the recommended dose by two different companies is the same amount of alkalinity.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Calcium formate was my speculation, later confirmed by Lou of Tropic Marin. I expect it is concentrated enough to prevent bacterial growth and not go bad.

Do you have any idea why they'd choose calcium formate over calcium acetate? There's a bit less carbon in the calcium formate per mole, of course, but I wouldn't think that'd make much difference.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Do you have any idea why they'd choose calcium formate over calcium acetate? There's a bit less carbon in the calcium formate per mole, of course, but I wouldn't think that'd make much difference.

I don't know of their specific reason. Might even be a cost issue.

It does have less carbon dosing impact. Lou said almost none. In a high alk demand tank, one might have more carbon dosing from acetate than you prefer.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

Hmm - not sure I'd get why calcium formate would have almost no carbon dosing impact, although I could see why it'd have 1/2 of the impact. In any event, it seems most useful if one was extremely allergic to water changes and was willing to go to considerable lengths to avoid the salinity rise associated with 2-part dosing. I kind of wonder why GlennF doesn't use this approach with the DSR method.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Hmm - not sure I'd get why calcium formate would have almost no carbon dosing impact, although I could see why it'd have 1/2 of the impact. In any event, it seems most useful if one was extremely allergic to water changes and was willing to go to considerable lengths to avoid the salinity rise associated with 2-part dosing. I kind of wonder why GlennF doesn't use this approach with the DSR method.

It's much less than half of acetate from an energy perspective. Formate, HCO2-, is very close to fully oxidized to CO2 (just one C-H bond to oxidize), while acetate has a whole CH3 (3 C-H bonds) and a C-C bond to oxidize.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

It's much less than half of acetate from an energy perspective. Formate, HCO2-, is very close to fully oxidized to CO2 (just one C-H bond to oxidize), while acetate has a whole CH3 (3 C-H bonds) and a C-C bond to oxidize.

True enough, and that might be why they chose it. At least from the perspective of buying the chemical, calcium formate seems to be considerably more expensive than calcium acetate. Of course, I'm not shopping for 55 gallon drum quantities either.

It'd be interesting to hear from people that have used it for a long period (> 6 months). Might be worth a thread topic....

 

[RobberyinCSharp1824]

How paranoid do I need to be about cooper in the aquarium? I just finished quarantining some clownfish that wrapped up copper treatment using Cuprion in a QT. They were transferred to my DT about a week ago after a final freshwater dip, and then went through drip acclimation. I had done water changes in my QT tank (containing Cu+), and I have one bucket and lid that the dirty Cu+ water was siphoned into.

I want to use the same hose for doing water changes (siphoning) and possibly use that same bucket to make salt water in the future. However, I intend on keeping corals in this tank in the future. Are these materials TOTALLY off-limits now? Or are these going to be in such low concentrations that it shouldn't be a problem? I considered doing soaking them in DI water (or even waste water when I am doing my water changes) and testing out the concentrations using my Hanna checker, but I thought I'd ask first!

 

[Dr. Reef]

give the items needed to reuse a good bath in bleach or vinegar 50/50 solution. rinse and dry well then use them. If you really want to make sure all copper has left the items, use a polyfilter. Also can use cuprasorb.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

It's unlikely that an LDPE/HDPE plastic bucket would absorb any significant amount of copper, presuming it was washed out with something like Dawn. Just rinsing it might do it, but I'm reluctant to say that for certain since there's a small possibility of complexing with organics in the saltwater and adsorption to the hydrophobic plastic. Bleach, btw, won't help with dissolution of copper or other metals, but acid in the form of vinegar, citric acid or hydrochloric acid will.

One aspect of this, however, is the human factor. If the use of this equipment makes you nervous, little that any of us with chemistry backgrounds can say will likely change your mind. And given that a food-safe 5 gallon LDPE bucket from Lowe's costs $3, and a 10 foot length of hose just a little bit more than that, I'd suggest just replacing your setup, perhaps retaining the bucket and hose you used for additional quarantine runs in the future.

 

[Saleem Nuristani]

I have these sponge looking thinks in my tank and they are almost everywhere. Please let me know what they are and how to get rid of them.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Not really a chemistry question but those are beneficial.

 

[Brew12]

I have these sponge looking thinks in my tank and they are almost everywhere. Please let me know what they are and how to get rid of them.

They will most likely die back when your tank ages but my dwarf angel used to eat them.

 

[anth]

Hi
New to this forum and unsure if im posting in the right place but...

I have recently been testing alk and cal every night using hanna checkers for both in order to set up 2 part dosing.
After testing both i adjust my alk using rs foundation and then leave it until the next night.
When i come back to test my alk normaly drops by 0.1-0.2 but my calcium has raised and i dont have a clue how.
I know this sounds crazy but i think it my be the alk im adding is causing it.

16/6
Alk 8.2
Cal 459
Did not adjust anything


18/6
Alk 7.7
Cal 450
Added 14ml alk to raise to 8.1

19/6
Alk 8.1
Cal 462
Did not add anything

20/6
Alk 7.9
Cal 454
Added 7ml alk to reach 8.1

21/6
Alk havent tested yet
Cal 455

 

[anth]

Sorry 18/6 added 14 ml to rais to 8.2

20/6 added 7ml yo raise to 8.2

21/6
Alk 8.1
Cal 455