Bolus dosing

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The reports about improved ph despite not increasing lighting are interesting right?

The question always is compared to what?

Is there a specific comment you are referring to?

 

[Pod_01]

The reports about improved ph despite not increasing lighting are interesting right?

It would be nice to see the pH graph with BOLUS and before BOLUS dosing. Also what else was changed. From my experience pH is very finicky, windows open vs. closed, number of people etc… Too many dials that can change the reading.

For example here is my pH (full FM BOLUS with CO2 scrubber/ July):

Media was running out.

Here is pH from December(TM Balling with scrubber):

I replaced media on the last day.

I don’t think I could claim one method is better vs. the other method with respect to pH.

What I find fascinating I have 10gal tank upstairs and that tank pH is always above 8 using AFR and scrubber.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Critical questions for anyone seeing/wondering about a pH change, in addition to obvious ones about any other changes, are whether the steady dosing is maintaining alk at the peak alk of a bolus, and the bottom just before bolus, or something in between.

I’ve outlined these concerns a few times in this thread.

 

[Oldreefer44]

It is a bit boring to read the same over and over again. I share the critics regarding FM and Claude and Doug.
But I think there is enough information in this thread for everyone to form their own opinion.

Since there is a lack of measurement data, it might be helpful if bolus users write about their experiences.
In a german forum there are three actual reviews and that is quite interesting, i think.
The first one had problems after using Bolus. Some LPS died, some SPS degenerated partly and growth and colours decreased. KH/Ca consumption too.
He said, that he has four species of porites corals in this tank and that they constantly shed their skin. He also claims that they are poisonous and if he has too much contact with these corals, he gets flu-like symptoms. He suspects that the damage was not caused directly by Bolus, but indirectly by the poisoning from the Porites corals. He still has T5 lights, so he was unable to increase the light output. In earlier times Porites used to be considered rather difficult to keep, as some cannot tolerate large fluctuations in KH.
When he switched back to continuous dosing, the SPS and other corals recovered and the colors came back.
The only positive thing for him was the pH stabilization at 8.2, which was lower and more fluctuating without bolus.

A second person wrote that he had not noticed any change at all. Neither in the consumption (currently 280ml KH from Balling light) nor in the corals themselves. However, he did not increase the light output.

A third started with Bolus on 30.12. and is positively surprised. The light output was increased as specified at the start of the lighting phase. He started with a consumption of 200ml KH and is now at 425ml after a about 10 days. The corals look slightly better, a red monti is obviously growing very well and the euphyllia are doing better. He has also noticed a stabilization or increase in the pH value. He writes that he never got above 8, now the pH value is 8.06.

Even if these experience reports are incomplete, it would be nice if more people would report on their experiences. Good or bad, it's not about right or wrong. And perhaps we can make it so that not everyone with positive experiences is immediately regarded as a disciple of FM ;-)

Perhaps this will give us an idea of when and how bolus "works" or not.
Perhaps the coral species play a role, or perhaps the amount of KH that is dosed. Adding 200ml per bolus/day or 2000ml can make a difference. Likewise the light: if someone has a lot of light over the tank and then increases it by another 20% by bolus, this could stress the corals and stagnate growth. Conversely, if a tank is poorly or moderately lit and you then increase the light output, this can have a very positive effect. And and and...

I find this interesting in that it has been my suspicion all along that the increase in lighting is the key to the whole thing. In my case, I have increased lighting intensity by roughly 50%. The only negative effect on corals was my toadstool which reacted negatively which was expected. All the sps corals reacted very positively. To your point about the starting point, I was using the preprogrammed sps setting using ATI Stratons. So don't feel that my starting point would be considered less than adequate.
I think the next step would be to use some other companies three part and traces and see if there is any change.

 

[Pod_01]

Critical questions for anyone seeing/wondering about a pH change, in addition to obvious ones about any other changes, are whether the steady dosing is maintaining alk at the peak alk of a bolus, and the bottom just before bolus, or something in between.

I’ve outlined these concerns a few times in this thread.

Not sure if this can help or not. Here are the Alk values for same period for BOLUS (July). I believe this was fixed dose of Alk.
The BOLUS was added at 6am. The Alk reading was done at 1am and 1pm.

Maybe someone can get something from it.

This is using FM Balling light, FM trace 1,2,3 and FM ICP.

 

[Beruka]

I am not advocating for either way.

Watching a Bolus video, it was stated "this is the way" after trying all methods. But that is all you got. A european accent and a we know promise. I wont be buying it.

Promises made.
+more nutrient uptake by corals
+better coloration
+faster growth
+no old tank syndrome

Alternate facts not mentioned
- 90s used live rock that was full of bateria and in oceans for a 1000 years for all we know
- Halides were often on after 30 min to 1 hour in 90s anyway
- ESV used bicarb for years en drained many a wallet for simple chemicals.
-old tank syndrome, either your tank is thriving and needs to be hacked down in 5 years or you likely already left hobby.

Little disappointed in hobby at times. The Bolus intro videos are trash full of promises and little or no data other than showing magnesium hydroxides swirling around.

 

[ingchr1]

...Now Reefbum is adopting Bolus dosing and recently came out with a new video stating this ...

But what conclusions will he be able to draw other than how it compares to the previous method he was using on that specific tank? Which was kalkwasser and a calcium reactor.

Will the conclusions be quantifiable or subjective?

 

[Welsh Reefer.]

Good to see this thread still rolling on! Life and health issues got in the way so I ran out of energy on this thread for some time and questioned why I was putting so much energy into responding to the heat and accusations of either being Doug or a FM employee

My tank is still doing amazingly well on Bolus, pH continues to be very strong despite the Welsh winter conditions in a closed up small house with 2 kids 2 adults pets etc. Now at the 11 month mark running Bolus.

KH dose is now 185ml per day (up from 110ml when I first posted here) on 275ltrs,calcium I dose 40ml per day. I see you've now learned that the KH powder is bicarb based, saved me having to get the wife's baking powder out!

So my Bolus pH kick is around 0.1-0.15 when bolus is dosed before lights come on - is this what you'd expect Randy? I don't know what the science says for a pH increase amount based on my dosage? According to Fauna label I dose 3.4dkh but I see there's a lot of discussion around potency so I'm not sure what dkh amount you believe I am actually dosing based on 185ml in 275ltrs?

KHD shows an increase from 7.5 to 9dkh shortly after the Bolus dose,unfortunately it overfilled the waster container so the 9:30 and 10:30 tests are not in this graph. The first 9.0dkh reading is captured at 11:30 which is 2.5 hours after 9am Bolus dose. I set it to test every hour over 24 hours for this.

It's good to see others having success and posting here, I believe I was the first user to post here and faced a lot of suspicion haha!

Happy reefing folks

 

[Big E]

Good to see this thread still rolling on! Life and health issues got in the way so I ran out of energy on this thread for some time and questioned why I was putting so much energy into responding to the heat and accusations of either being Doug or a FM employee

My tank is still doing amazingly well on Bolus, pH continues to be very strong despite the Welsh winter conditions in a closed up small house with 2 kids 2 adults pets etc. Now at the 11 month mark running Bolus.

KH dose is now 185ml per day (up from 110ml when I first posted here) on 275ltrs,calcium I dose 40ml per day. I see you've now learned that the KH powder is bicarb based, saved me having to get the wife's baking powder out!

So my Bolus pH kick is around 0.1-0.15 when bolus is dosed before lights come on - is this what you'd expect Randy? I don't know what the science says for a pH increase amount based on my dosage? According to Fauna label I dose 3.4dkh but I see there's a lot of discussion around potency so I'm not sure what dkh amount you believe I am actually dosing based on 185ml in 275ltrs?

KHD shows an increase from 7.5 to 9dkh shortly after the Bolus dose,unfortunately it overfilled the waster container so the 9:30 and 10:30 tests are not in this graph. The first 9.0dkh reading is captured at 11:30 which is 2.5 hours after 9am Bolus dose. I set it to test every hour over 24 hours for this.

It's good to see others having success and posting here, I believe I was the first user to post here and faced a lot of suspicion haha!

Happy reefing folks

Do you have any before/after pics showing growth or color changes in specific corals in your system? Any pics of corals that were struggling and now thriving.

This is all any Sps keeper cares about.

Not picking on you specifically but every time I ask this nothing is provided, regardless of product...............it's usually "crickets". You would think Fauna would be flooding you tube or any social media platform to prove it does something of value.

 

[164644]

One thing we should all agree, Claud is a brilliant in some aspect.
His product is around for years and he found an elegant way to boost it by slightly changing its dosage (which of course works - as many methods)

Right it down for the future when this cools down:

“To fix X problem… should dose the third part over night via step-wise-Boulos…”

 

[Welsh Reefer.]

Do you have any before/after pics showing growth or color changes in specific corals in your system? Any pics of corals that were struggling and now thriving.

This is all any Sps keeper cares about.

Not picking on you specifically but every time I ask this nothing is provided, regardless of product...............it's usually "crickets". You would think Fauna would be flooding you tube or any social media platform to prove it does something of value.

I have posted a growth pic on a frag into colony previously in this thread, I think I only have 11 posts so should be easy to find. I'll get an up to date pic of it shortly too to compare although I have fragged it for people.

For sure I've seen somewhat dormant and pale acro frags/colonies come to life and grow very well, however there's also another factor - time. It's even almost a year on Bolus so it's hard to say what I can attribute to it now.

Here's the tank pic I posted from July vs today's one. I don't believe I've bought any coral since then at all perhaps just moved a couple about.

July 11th

January 11th

 

[Garf]

I'm not sure what dkh amount you believe I am actually dosing based on 185ml in 275ltrs?

1.8 DKH

 

[Welsh Reefer.]

Okay here we go,

1st Feb 2024

August 15th 2024

January 12th 2025 - has been fragged multiple times now.

 

[Welsh Reefer.]

1.8 DKH

Cool. So what does Randy suggest is the expected immediate increase in pH based on dosing 1.8dkh of bicarb?

 

[Garf]

Cool. So what does Randy suggest is the expected immediate increase in pH based on dosing 1.8dkh of bicarb?

0.07pH increase

 

[Welsh Reefer.]

0.07pH increase

Cool, I did a big coral food flood feed last night and overnight oh dropped to 8. Can it be explained why the same amount of alk increases pH by 0.2 before lights on? Lights go on 9:30am.

 

[Garf]

Cool, I did a big coral food flood feed last night and overnight oh dropped to 8. Can it be explained why the same amount of alk increases pH by 0.2 before lights on? Lights go on 9:30am.

Dunno, do you open some doors or windows, take the dog out, otherwise adjust the CO2? Do you calibrate at 4 and 7 or 7 and 10 out of curiosity?

 

[Welsh Reefer.]

Dunno, do you open some doors or windows, take the dog out, otherwise adjust the CO2? Do you calibrate at 4 and 7 or 7 and 10 out of curiosity?

No, I don't do anything to substantially affect room co2, if anything it rises as its a weekend and we are all in that room from ~8am.

Probe is calibrated with 7&9 as per GHL solutions, it is fairly new and accurate vs Fauna ICP data (my peak of 8.51 recently came back as 8.48). Bicarb is dosed in return chamber and probe is sat before the return chamber so solution does a full lap before hitting the sensor.

I think we need a Reef Chemist to answer this one

 

[Garf]

No, I don't do anything to substantially affect room co2, if anything it rises as its a weekend and we are all in that room from ~8am.

Probe is calibrated with 7&9 as per GHL solutions, it is fairly new and accurate vs Fauna ICP data (my peak of 8.51 recently came back as 8.48). Bicarb is dosed in return chamber and probe is sat before the return chamber so solution does a full lap before hitting the sensor.

I think we need a Reef Chemist to answer this one

Ok, but I wouldn't rely on a pH reading from a vial of active saltwater thats been sat for a day or 2 to be extremely reliable.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The pH drop on adding bicarbonate, and then the rise as the tank blows off the excess CO2 that the bicarbonate brought in depends on three things:

1. The amount of bicarbonate added.
2. The starting alkalinity.
3. The starting pH.

This graph shows the relationship between alk and pH for seawater that is fully equilibrated with the air around it. Remember that 7 dKH = 2.5 meq/L.