Diliting 2 part. How much is too much.

[Mikosreef]

Hi all

I currently Have a 90 gallon tank with 20 gallon sump about a 100 gallons worth of water volume.

I am doing about one gallon of top off per day.

I am also dosing about 20 ml of soda ash from brs 2 part solution.

I am wondering if diluting 20 mliters of the 2 part solution of soda ash into the 1 gallon ro/di jug before adding it into the tank as top off is detrimental in any way/is the soda ash any less effective if its diluted that much?



I also do the same for my calcium carbonate (10 ml diluted into about 500 ml of ro/di water)

Thank you

 

[Ron Reefman]

I don't think diluting either alk (soda ash) or Ca before adding it to your tank is an issue. It should work just like before.

 

[homer1475]

So you want to add it to your 1G evap? Do you add this all at one time, or do you use an ATO?

Only reason I ask, if your doing it by hand, you will see the small deviations from evap(sometimes you won't need a gal, sometimes you might need more). If you using an ATO, then these small deviations won't be noticed, and you might end up sometimes overdosing, and sometimes under dosing.

 

[Mikosreef]

So you want to add it to your 1G evap? Do you add this all at one time, or do you use an ATO?

Only reason I ask, if your doing it by hand, you will see the small deviations from evap(sometimes you won't need a gal, sometimes you might need more). If you using an ATO, then these small deviations won't be noticed, and you might end up sometimes overdosing, and sometimes under dosing.

At the moment i am manually topping up about 1/2 to 3/4 gallon in the morning before lights come on and 1/4 gallon after lights out. Plan is to have an ATO.

My plan is to have a 10 or 30 gallon tank with RO/DI hooked up to the Auto top off and add in the soda ash OR baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) using randy's two part method and have the alkalinity combined with the top off.

As for the calcium, i was going to hook it up to a doser.

My Alkalinity needs are much higher than the Calcium needs.... or i would just dose diluted kalkwasser with the ATO.

Thoughts?

 

[homer1475]

Again, evaporation changes day to day, heck even hour to hour sometimes. Certainly seasonally depending on where your located.

As such some days you would be dosing the right amount, some days you would undershoot, and even some days you may overshoot. These wild alk swings would not be good for the coral.

 

[Mikosreef]

Again, evaporation changes day to day, heck even hour to hour sometimes. Certainly seasonally depending on where your located.

As such some days you would be dosing the right amount, some days you would undershoot, and even some days you may overshoot. These wild alk swings would not be good for the coral.

Now i understand what you meant.

Given i live in a location without much variation in weather, this should not be an issue.

My evaporation is pretty consistent. Maybe +/- 250 ml per day out of 1 gallon (3780ml's)

 

[homer1475]

Your reef, your choice.

It's been discussed many times and the general consensus is that it wasn't too good of an idea(evap not being very consistent is the biggest problem). Don't think I've ever seen it actually tried though?

Dosing pump for Alk and CAL is whats "normal".