Bolus dosing

[Hans-Werner]

There may be a spot but that is not what I was referring to. We have both seen surface area covered with it including glass panes with long running patches that scrapers and/or magnets have difficulty clearing. That is all I mean. I'll include a video from September 2024 below of my display. Again I was just replying about the herbivore part and how I believe a balance is vital to algae management. Not sure why I don't see it other than maybe the urchin is faster but it isn't on the glass. Not sure.

Here is a September 2024 short of my display.


Here is a short video in the same area the scarlet hermit was eating algae in. This was taken in 2022 and again in 2024 as I was documenting my pink square anthias growth and color.

I have a little bit difficulty following your argumentation. However, I think our discussion was thought-provoking enough and we can hand it over to the folks to find out what is going on in their reefs. :)

 

[areefer01]

I have a little bit difficulty following your argumentation. However, I think our discussion was thought-provoking enough and we can hand it over to the folks to find out what is going on in their reefs. :)

All good and no argument here. I think maybe just a slight difference of opinion on herbivories. Hope your day is well.

 

[Luminous74]

I don't think it usually is a release of phosphate. Did you calculate the phosphate supplied since your last testing? I think what really happens is this: You are dosing phosphate and it regularily "disappears" from the water because it is adsorbed by the phosphate-leached rocks and substrate. At some point rocks and substrate are saturated and the phosphate concentration suddenly jumps up. However, there is no adsorbed phosphate released, only the dosed phosphate remains in the water by near 100 %. This is what you see.

Yeah, I did the math already, but the level keeps rising more than what was actually dosed, and it keeps going up even after I stop dosing. I just never had the guts to let it keep rising without doing anything, to see if it would eventually stabilize on its own.

 

[Garf]

Claude no longer seems too worried about binding to calcium carbonate surfaces, seeing he's now selling oolitic sand, lol. And to clarify, he agrees, detritus is merely the organic portion of stuff that accumulates. The question here is, how on earth can bolus dosing reduce organic waste?

 

[Hans-Werner]

All good and no argument here. I think maybe just a slight difference of opinion on herbivories. Hope your day is well.

I don't want to start the discussion anew, I just wanted to add that I have compared algal growth in our systems and reflected over the system's histories and different treatments or rocks used. I am very sure now that one possible reason is in iron and/or manganese precipitates.

Nuissance algae like falkenbergia-phase of Asparagopsis or Valonia grow on iron and/or manganese precipitates until the precipitates are exhausted. Then they don't regrow after removal.

New rocks and fresh coral skeltons in general are good substates for algal growth. This is a cause for the "ugly phase".

I don't say it is the same in every tank but I am quite sure it is the case in our systems.

Have a good weekend!

 

[WILDREEFER1000]

Bolus still works very well for pH and it is not only because of the light. For example I changed tree things that helped for the pH, skimmer input outside, the light, it helped but it was not enough to get the same results than with a CO2 scrubber. Only when I added the bolus and completely stopped the the scrubber than the pH went up. Some mistakes also not to do : put hot water on the balling it kills the effects,keeping the CO2 scrubber (when take off the pH will fall but a few weeks after it will be even better than previous), carefull with lanthan.. Some products can put the pH down and block the effect , dosing it through the day and in the skimmer helps a lot.
Also people in this thread are looking for an secret additive to boost the pH. Their is no products to do such things, the polymers that are inside are for helps some elements and toxins to not build up in the system and be skimmed, it has nothing to do with the bolus effect. The bicarbonat is also prepared in a special way so that pH it is more stable and a bit different than other products, but it is more in the special preparation that and added product... the bolus effect comes form the bicarbonat alone+light and right timing and can be achieved with other bicarbonat products also ( even if in my tests less pronounced than with FM).
My ph is actually 8,2-8,5,i never had such high pH befor even with the scrubber. I don't know how it works, of crystals.. Or not. But it works.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The bicarbonat is also prepared in a special way so that pH it is more stable and a bit different than other products, but it is more in the special preparation that and added product... the bolus effect comes form the bicarbonat alone+light and right timing and can be achieved with other bicarbonat products also ( even if in my tests less pronounced than with FM).

You believe that? Secret modified bicarbonate even when dissolved in water? I think you have been misled by folks who do not understand chemistry or who care more to sell product than present believable explanations.

If you want to discuss what sort of modifications might possibly be done to dissolved bicarbonate, I’m all ears, though they are skeptical ears based on an expert understanding of chemistry. Even if one fantasized that there might be such a modification by combining it with some other chemical , the amount (weight) of solids in the product does not allow other chemicals to give that alkalinity. Same for analytical chemistry of the solid showing it matches bicarbonate, not some weird combo chemical.

Bolus dosing works fine. So does non bolus dosing of bicarbonate, carbonate, hydroxide, formate, etc. There are many roads to Rome. :)

 

[BeanAnimal]

The bicarbonat is also prepared in a special way so that pH it is more stable and a bit different than other products
...Also people in this thread are looking for an secret additive to boost the pH. Their is no products to do such things,

So no secret additive - but just magically special NaHCO₃ ?

I guess we’ll have to smash it apart in the LHC and wait for the Higgs-bolus particle to show itself. Maybe it's not even a molecule! Maybe Fauna Marin discovered a new element. Claude for the Nobel in chemistry?

In other words -- NaHCO₃ is NaHCO₃ -- it can't be "special" -- and no matter how it is prepared it is dissolved into water and becomes Sodium (Na⁺) and bicarbonate (HCO₃⁻) ions. So their is either something else in the solution, or there is not. Without rehashing the math, Claude's claims if both strength and composition , reality in measurement, lab assay and their calculator -- a lot does not add up.

Ignoring the rest of the claims from magic crystals to broken buffers -- form old tank syndrome to coral immunity -- The mathematical discrepancies have been pointed out here and numerous other places. Claude will not answer here, and when he finds himself confounded by his own claims and mathematical reality -- he has the comments removed and Doug posts subliminal videos (literally).

To be clear, this isn’t aimed at you personally, but at the idea that there’s such a thing as “magic bicarbonate.” Especially the kind that somehow retains its mystical properties after being fully dissolved in water.

I am happy that Bolus "works" for you

 

[BeanAnimal]

You believe that? Secret modified bicarbonate even when dissolved in water? I think you have been misled by folks who do not understand chemistry or who care more to sell product than present believable explanations.

If you want to discuss what sort of modifications might possibly be done to dissolved bicarbonate, I’m all ears, though they are skeptical ears based on an expert understanding of chemistry. Even if one fantasized that there might be such a modification by combining it with some other chemical , the amount (weight) of solids in the product does not allow other chemicals to give that alkalinity. Same for analytical chemistry of the solid showing it matches bicarbonate, not some weird combo chemical.

Bolus dosing works fine. So does non bolus dosing of bicarbonate, carbonate, hydroxide, formate, etc. There are many roads to Rome. :)

Ugh -- I worked really hard on my response and you cross posted me. Now I feel silly. Give us slower on the chemistry responses at least a chance to shine.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ugh -- I worked really hard on my response and you cross posted me. Now I feel silly. Give us slower on the chemistry responses at least a chance to shine.

lol

 

[Ziggy17]

Perhaps the answers are in the special sand, bottled sea water or dilution solution they sell….. middle aisle between the blinker fluid and beanstalk beans.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Don't worry about it Wildreefer. While I don't believe in "magic" formulas either I can say that after using Bolus for almost a year, based on cost, ease of use and coral growth it is the best system I have used in my 50 plus years in the hobby.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Don't worry about it Wildreefer. While I don't believe in "magic" formulas either I can say that after using Bolus for almost a year, based on cost, ease of use and coral growth it is the best system I have used in my 50 plus years in the hobby.

That’s a perfectly plausible result that I have no particular reason to doubt. I wish proponents would just say things like that instead of making up “explanations”.

 

[Orito]

Reefbum Just dropped a video saying he returned to reactor.... He posted a graph about his alk with bolus and that's the craziest flatline stability I've ever seen

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Reefbum Just dropped a video saying he returned to reactor.... He posted a graph about his alk with bolus and that's the craziest flatline stability I've ever seen

Why did he switch back to a reactor?

 

[Orito]

Something about high pH around 8.6, very high demand, 900ml daily, lost some corals and a lot of precipitation

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Something about high pH around 8.6, very high demand, 900ml daily, lost some corals and a lot of precipitation

OK, thanks. :)

 

[Garf]

Something about high pH around 8.6, very high demand, 900ml daily, lost some corals and a lot of precipitation

Perhaps Reefbum is very unlucky. Bolus was "Designed" to prevent these issues, was it not?

 

[twentyleagues]

Perhaps Reefbum is very unlucky. Bolus was "Designed" to prevent these issues, was it not?

Thats what I thought. Thats one of the selling/talking points of this "system" isnt it?

 

[KrisReef]

It's time to discuss Cinnamon Rolls.

After you clear the kitchen counter of unnecessary clutter, get yourself a cutting board and roll out some sweet bread dough and let it rise in the fridge over night. You might need to punch that Bolus of bread down to keep it from over flowing the pan, but in the morning, you can make the best dinner rolls, or go big with the cinnamon and sugar, (raisins and nuts if you care to) and then toss them in the oven and what you get may be as good as what my mom used to make?

She was really, really good at these rolls, both came from the same lump of dough, dinner rolls for dinner and then cinnamon rolls for breakfast. When we had company, life and breakfast was divine.

But she never gave out her recipes, because other people did not possess the kitchen skills to get from dough to First Place on Hells Kitchen, (no she didn't bake or cook on TV, she taught Gordon in Elementary School how to BOLUS)

SO, in the kitchen where the mixing is done there is magic that happens and for some it can and does work but they are all using essentially the same basic ingredients to both succeed and or fail, or somewhere in between. This operational function of preparation is not properly described in chemistry or home economics class rooms because it routinely defies teaching and can destroy a students will to cook and bring hate into the class room against the teacher who, try as they may, cannot get everyone competent in following the instructions so that they arrive at the same (good) results.

I don't know how or why, but this thread appears to contain all of these same elements of misunderstanding.

Let's all go get a Cinnamon Roll and relax and reef however best we can.

Mom's rolls were better than anything commercially available in my life experience, but she never sold them or posted a how to video, which is a terrible loss. If you never had one, then you cannot possibly know.

She never had a reef tank, either.