How much Alkalinity and Calcium 2 Part are you dosing?

[ohiojeffsreef]

B-ionic two part using RKL running two 50ml a minute pumps from BRS. 290 gallon system, mixed reef.

330ml daily ca
365ml daily kh
kent m 20ml daily for mg.

75gal display, 4x35 gal frag tanks and 75 gal Rubbermaid sump filled about 3/4 full with rock and water. Our CA runs 430 and our dkh is 9.

 

[BlueDevil]

I am dosing 25 ml each of Alk (Randy's #1 recipe) and BRS Calcium Carbonate solution.

Following are my tank details:
The system is 10 months old
40 breeder tank and 20 gal sump. 40 gal total system volume

Corals:
10 x ~8 month old SPS frags (all acros)
2 medium and 1 large frogspawn/torch
6 assorted small-medium zoa colonies
3 small acans

1 medium maxima clam

My Alk is maintained at 8.0 and Ca at 420. Mg is at 1350.

The dosing is done from 00:00 to 10:00 via BRS 1.7 ml dosers controlled via Apex. Ca is dosed 10 times on the hour starting 00:00 and Alk is doses 10 times every hour starting 00:30. Each dose lasts for 1 min 28 seconds.

 

[Monkeytank]

600 gallon mixed reef. A lot of sps. I have never had the two parts need to be dosed equally. I shoot for 180 ppm Alk and 425 ppm Calcium.

650 ml Alk and 450 Calcium. Calcium has always been less than alkalinity.

 

[lewis.maryann08]

I dont dose mine maybe it and maybe thats why my torch and frogspawn are not opening up all the way i have mostly frags..

 

[BlueDevil]

Would dosing all at once daily instead of many smaller throughout the day with autodoser make a difference in consumption or precipitation?

Depending on how much you need to dose it could potentially cause swings in your parameters which you should try to stay away from.

 

[Monkeytank]

I've read things saying you should always dose two part equally. If I did that, my calcium would be in the 700's. Anybody know why it doesn't seem to work in my tank? I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals and skim wet. I add water to compensate for the constant small amount I'm pulling out that way. I keep my salinity at 1.025. Magnesium about 1300. Alk at 180ppm Calcium at 425. I use a Hanna Alk checker and Hanna Calcium checker. I've calibrated my alk checker and compared different batches of reagent. The readings are good.

 

[sk8elenex92]

120 gallon.
Dosing Randy's recipe 1 and BRS calcium.
84ml of Alk and 89ml of calcium.
Guessing more calcium because the entire right side is coralline.

Everyone should post a pic. Easiest way to compare.

 

[xilez]

13 gallon volume and dosing 2 ML of Brs 2 part. Does this feel super low? I have a good bit of lps and sps

Also, I noticed a change in my consumption, used to be .5ish dkh - day, now down to .2.... any idea what could chase?

 

[RussiReef]

How much Alkalinity and Calcium 2 Part are you dosing?

How many gallons of water are you treating?

How many corals do you have and what types?

 

[RussiReef]

My system consists of 280 gallon of display tank and approximately 30 gal of sump.
Everyday I automatically dozing 500 ml of brightwell alk and 100 ml of brightwell Ca
I have about 80 % of SPS colony and some frags, as well as 20% of LPS and zoas.

 

[brownsalt92]

100 gallon total water volume
68 ml of each.
And 30 ml mag each day
A few colonis of sps about 65 frags+.
5" clam

 

[Fumanchu]

I have a 75 g DT and 40 g sump have dosing
ESV Bionic
70ml Alk
73ml Cal
20 three inch Sps frags
3 Large Monti Caps 5x5
10 LPS heads hammer an torch
4 chalice 3x3
7 to 8 plugs of zoas

 

[BluewaterLa]

I've read things saying you should always dose two part equally. If I did that, my calcium would be in the 700's. Anybody know why it doesn't seem to work in my tank? I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals and skim wet. I add water to compensate for the constant small amount I'm pulling out that way. I keep my salinity at 1.025. Magnesium about 1300. Alk at 180ppm Calcium at 425. I use a Hanna Alk checker and Hanna Calcium checker. I've calibrated my alk checker and compared different batches of reagent. The readings are good.

Not all tanks will be 100% balanced as far as dosing between calcium and kH
Reasons could be as follows..
-Co2 in the home will affect the kH in the tank causing you to dose a little more per day than calcium.
- Nitrogen cycle in our tanks utilize some of these ions so some tanks will differ there but usually reach equilibrium in time.
- Having an imbalance of calcium and kH due to dosing more than consumption rate. This is a common issue from tanks that are "new" due to the other factors that consume and depress KH. Once dosing more of one ion into the water than what is being consumed it will depress the other or start to precipitate.
Precipitation can happen in some areas that go un noticed
Until found such as in the sump on or inside pumps, heaters and even on the bottom of the sump if the color is similar to the crust being formed.
Sand beds can harbor precipitation not only on top layers but around rocks, behind them where not easily seen or accessed as well as under the top layer.
Once this issue has happened the hard bound sand or crust in the sump will continue to grow / attract more ions.
I bring this up because I've seen in some systems where the person would just crush up the easier clumps and stir the sand bed putting the hard clumps under the sand or not clean out all the precipitated crust from the system and this will continue to "use " more supplement.

Hope some of this is helpful for understanding causes.
Sometimes with using hobby grade kits or even dose pumps there can and will be slight differences in the amounts dosed.
For example your dose pump is dosing 50 ml calcium per day and 60 ml kH per day.
The difference could just be the calibration of the pumps so the same amount of fluid is being dosed just the number is different due to pump calibration.
Another cause could be the strength of solutions mixed, if you use 1 gallon of rodi water per each of calcium and KH there could be more or less powder measured than required or a little less water used causing a difference in solution strength.

Good luck and happy reefing
BluewaterLa / Mike

 

[biom]

Not all tanks will be 100% balanced as far as dosing between calcium and kH
Reasons could be as follows..
-Co2 in the home will affect the kH in the tank causing you to dose a little more per day than calcium.

CO2 will NOT affect the kH and can NOT cause imbalanced consumption.

- Having an imbalance of calcium and kH due to dosing more than consumption rate. This is a common issue from tanks that are "new" due to the other factors that consume and depress KH. Once dosing more of one ion into the water than what is being consumed it will depress the other or start to precipitate.
Precipitation can happen in some areas that go un noticed
Until found such as in the sump on or inside pumps, heaters and even on the bottom of the sump if the color is similar to the crust being formed.
Sand beds can harbor precipitation not only on top layers but around rocks, behind them where not easily seen or accessed as well as under the top layer.
Once this issue has happened the hard bound sand or crust in the sump will continue to grow / attract more ions.
I bring this up because I've seen in some systems where the person would just crush up the easier clumps and stir the sand bed putting the hard clumps under the sand or not clean out all the precipitated crust from the system and this will continue to "use " more supplement.

Precipitation will NOT cause imbalanced consumption of Alk and Calcium, doesn't matter if the precipitation is happened on the pump, sand, heater or in the coral skeleton, the ions consumed are in the same ratio.

Agree that bad tests/ inaccurate testing, not calibrated dosing pumps and strength of solutions mixed are the three main reasons when imbalanced consumption is reported, the only real imbalanced consumption happens during tank cycling when more kH is used from bacteria/algae.

 

[BlueDevil]

@Randy Holmes-Farley has written a pretty thorough article on the Alk/Ca imbalance. It is definitely worth a read if not done already.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.php

BRS also addressed this issue in one of their videos here:

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video...lutions-but-the-levels-are-actually-dropping/

Here is my personal experience with an imbalance issue I had. For a while I kept having to increase my daily Alk dosage since the Alk was dropping faster than the dosing could keep up. Ca all the while was gradually going up. I had initially started at 25ml of each and by the end of it I was up to 45ml of each with no end in sight. So, I decided to do a reset and stopped all dosers and manually calibrated for a week what my daily tank requirements were. Turns out I needed only 25ml of each. Once I got that straightened out, my Alk and Ca have been rock solid at 8.0/420 respectively.

 

[Ocelaris]

For those who have "reset" and started over, how long did you wait (i.e. BlueDevil above waited a week). Did you stop dosing completely or by hand? I know I'm dosing too much, but if I stop for a day I can't reach equilibrium at a lower rate, so I guess my question is how long do you have to wait to determine your correct levels? I'm basically going with the Bulk Reef Supply video in BlueDevil's link above; but I've tried at least twice to reset but just got back to the same higher than anticipated levels.

 

[BlueDevil]

For those who have "reset" and started over, how long did you wait (i.e. BlueDevil above waited a week). Did you stop dosing completely or by hand? I know I'm dosing too much, but if I stop for a day I can't reach equilibrium at a lower rate, so I guess my question is how long do you have to wait to determine your correct levels? I'm basically going with the Bulk Reef Supply video in BlueDevil's link above; but I've tried at least twice to reset but just got back to the same higher than anticipated levels.

Here's what I did. My Alk was already lower than I wanted, and Ca was higher. After my weekly maintenance, which included a water change, I stopped the dosers. I manually dosed the Alk to bring it to 8. Ca and Mg were where they should have been. Over the next 7 days, I tested Alk and Ca daily, at the same time, and manually dosed the amount the amount that was used up. After a week, I got a pretty good trend line, which I used to figure out how much I needed to dose.

I certainly wouldn't stop dosing completely for an extended period of time. Also, make sure your Mg is where it should be before you begin the process since that is what keeps the other two levels in check.

 

[Ocelaris]

Did you dose carbonate or bicarbonate? I had a lot more luck with bicarbonate than carbonate, but figured the pH bump was worth a shot. I think the key is taking detailed notes, I test alk and CA daily, magnesium once every other week, but have been afraid to stop the dosers and then variables get too much to keep straight.

Thanks!

 

[redfishbluefish]

I was dosing 435 ml of Ca and 396 ml Kh, and 35 ml Mg daily. Then I covered the tank, & sump. That has Stopped 3+gallons evaporation/day. And I now dose 14 ml CA, 12ml Kh, and 9 mlMg /day. Been like that for 5 months now. It's a 400g mixed reef tank. I've been using reef crystals for the past year.i check parameters regularly, sometimes more often. Hope this helps

I'm confused??? Are you saying by covering your tank, your alk and calc consumption went from 396 mls and 435 mls, to 12 mls and 14 mls, respectively. Alk and calc don't evaporate. The only thing you lose with evaporation is pure water. I'm scratching my head on this one.

 

[BlueDevil]

Did you dose carbonate or bicarbonate? I had a lot more luck with bicarbonate than carbonate, but figured the pH bump was worth a shot. I think the key is taking detailed notes, I test alk and CA daily, magnesium once every other week, but have been afraid to stop the dosers and then variables get too much to keep straight.

Thanks!

I've always used sodium bicarbonate for my dosing. Its the DIY recipe using Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. I use Randy's Recipe #1 since my pH was on the lower end. Be careful if you use this recipe to make large Alk changes though as it will jack up the pH pretty substantially.
There's nothing to fear when it comes to stopping dosers. You just have to be diligent about testing and manually dosing for the week.