Carbo calcium in layman’s terms

[Wildreefs]

Picked up this carbo calcium today, unsure if I am going to use it. Few questions on it:

1. is it considered balanced? For instance, like limewater or a calc reactor, does it provide similar ratio of alk to cal? If I’m at 8 alk, and drop to 7.5 daily, if I add enough to get it to 8, will it for the most part keep my calcium in line under normal conditions?

2. what advantages or disadvantages other than cost have to making your own two part , and adding them 1 at a time I equal doses?

and lastly, 3. It says to mix contents in 1.3 gallons. I have a 1 gallon jug. I mix the entire thing in one gallon, can i just dose less, knowing it’s a less diluted mixture, or will that less amount of water cause one of the minerals to not mix in solution?

thanks

 

[Rybren]

Yes, CarboCalcium is a balanced additive; it is comprised of Calcium Formate. However, you will not see an immediate alk effect because bacteria in the tank have to act on the formate to release alk. It may take up to a day for the alk to appear, so don't goes testing for it until at least a day has elapsed. Depending on your point of view, a benefit of using this additive is that it is, in effect, carbon dosing the tank due to the bacteria action. I have been able to stop dosing my DIY NOPOX since switching to CarboCalcium.

You would normally get your levels to where you want them and use carbocalcium to maintain those levels. FWIW, I use 26ml/day in my 120G and it maintains 8 dKH and 480ppm Calcium, which is right where I was when I started.

I switched from using Kalk in my ATO to CarboCalcium, and have no experience with 2-part. I think the main advantage to 2-part is that you can tweak the amount of each component as/if needed.

It takes a lot of mixing to get all of the powder to dissolve. I mix 2L batches and use a power head to mix the water; it can easily take 20 minutes.

I don't know what will happen if you make the mix slightly more concentrated. I suspect nothing much. Even if you mix it to spec, you may get a bit of a rust coloured precipitate. According to the good folks at TM, it is harmless.

 

[Wildreefs]

Ok. On the online calculator, where it gives you various options for products to dose with, it has tropic Marin “biocalcium” but not Carbo-Calcium.

if I’m trying to raise 170 gallons of water from 7.5 to 8, how can I figure the amount needed?

 

[Rybren]

You don't use it to raise alk, because it will also raise calcium, and vise versa. You use it to maintain levels.

Here is a link to the dosing calculator for carbocalcium.