Let's get a TWO PART discussion going! Question for today!

Are you dosing two part in your reef tank? (more questions in the thread)

  • Yes

    Votes: 538 58.9%
  • No

    Votes: 263 28.8%
  • No, but will in the future.

    Votes: 113 12.4%

  • Total voters
    914

revhtree

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Two Part Calcium and Alkalinity Questions for those of you who dose!

1. How much are you dosing daily?

2. How much water volume do you have?

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium?

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral?

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?


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Amazing Reef Image via @Bacon505
 

Billldg

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25 ml Soda Ash
5.5 ml Cal
120 gal water volume
Target 9.0 dkh, 420 Cal
No Sps currently
Pro: Dial in consistent dosing

Only 3 weeks past rebuilding tank
 
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Crabs McJones

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1. How much are you dosing daily? I'm up to 70ML a day

2. How much water volume do you have? Around 60 Gallons

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium? Target DKH is 8 to 8.5 and Calcium 420-460

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral? I would at this point say i'm SPS Dominant. I have LPS and softies, but not nearly as many as SPS

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing? Pros - Steady parameters, healthy and growing sps corals
Cons- I can't really think of any major cons. If I were to be nit picky the only thing I can thing of would be having to replenish your 2 part when your jugs get low/run out. But thats with any chemical :)
 
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revhtree

revhtree

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25 ml Soda Ash
5.5 ml Cal
120 gal water volume
Target 9.0 dkh, 420 Cal
No Sps currently
None so far

Only 3 weeks past rebuilding tank

Would you even need to be dosing right now?
 

tankstudy

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1. How much are you dosing daily?

~10-12 mL. My tank consumes ~0.5 dkh daily.

2. How much water volume do you have?

45 gallons

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium?

I run things at 9.5 dkh. This gives me a large margin of safety if the testing devices are slightly off. It's +/- 2.5 in either direction.

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral?

I have single 2 inch SPS atm but I do have several LPS/torch colonies.

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?

Biggest pro is that I don't do water changes anymore. The biggest con is that if you dose incorrectly, things will kick the bucket pretty quickly.
 
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Billldg

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Would you even need to be dosing right now?
I have several lps that survived the crash and a bunch of baby trochus snail, still drop about .3 dkh daily without water changes.
 

JDowns

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1. How much are you dosing daily?

85ml of each 2-Part (for 170ml total Alk/Cal) and 2800ml Kalk

2. How much water volume do you have?

120 gallons

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium?

9.0 / 450

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral?

Medium

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?

Pros : Stable and easy to dose. Cons: Not really any unless you consider the cost of dosing pumps.
 
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MnFish1

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1. How much are you dosing daily?

70 cc each (BRS stock solutions)

2. How much water volume do you have?

140 gal

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium?

8 480

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral?

Majority SPS, Goniopora, hammer.
5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?
Pros - I dont test as often. No real cons.
 

ajhudson15

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1. I am dosing 32ml of sodium bicarb and about 20 ml of calcium
2. about 80 gallons
3. target is 8.0-8.5dkf and roughly 425 calcium
4. I would say I have a mixed reef leaning more on the sps side.
5. I love the that I can change the dosage for alk and cal separately.
 

Js.Aqua.Project

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1 - 20/ml dKH 5/ml Ca (using Red Sea supplements - dose Trace Colors at .5ml/ea daily by hand)

2 - ~60 gallons

3 - 11.5 dKH 450 Ca

4 -Med-Heavy if counting frags

5 - Swings/shifts when missing days prior to hooking up my DOS
 

RobZilla04

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18ml each of Alk & Cal
90g DT w/ sump (approx. 90g total water volume)
Target to maintain 8dKH / 420ish Calcium
Med sized corals (all started from frags)
30%ish SPS (two clams) mostly LPS w/ some softies

If you like to tinker, dosing is for you. I do regular (every other week) 20g water changes. As the coral grow, consumption changes. I try to maintain less than a .4dKH swing in either direction. Only dosing adjustments are made when the swing gets outside of that range for a couple straight tests. Introducing Mag dosing, get ready to adjust Alk/Cal again. Mostly shoot for a range as opposed to an exact number due to human error and test kit accuracy limitations.

I dose equal parts of Alk/Cal simply to avoid unequal amounts in storage and eventual waste. Purchase from LFS (Oceans Blend) and they only sell as a pair.
 

Brew12

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1. How much are you dosing daily?
1400ml saturated kalkwasser
64ml each, alk and calc

2. How much water volume do you have?
170ish gallons

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium?
9dkh, 450ppm

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral?
I'd say lightly
DSC_0011-5.jpg


5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?
Pro's - Very easy to do, requires almost no interaction for weeks at a time.
Con's - Will be tough in a heavily stocked tank.
 

Robink

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1. Dosing daily, with doser:
Calc: 37.8 ml
Alk: 32.4 ml

2. Water volume: 139 gallons

3. Target DKH 8- 8.5, Calc 420- 450

4. Mostly sps, some lps and softies. Tank started end of February 2017. All corals started as frags, so some small colonies at this time.

5. No noticeable cons, pros stability, healthy corals, good growth and color.
 

hart24601

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I dose about 40 ml/day - however since my tank is a 34 nano I make the recipe 1/4 concentration so about 10 ml/day.


Reason for this is I use Randy/Jim’s sodium hydroxide 2 part so diluting it and dosing more gives me better consistency over the day.


Run dkh around 7.5, tank has a good load of sps and clams.
 

JDowns

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18ml each of Alk & Cal
90g DT w/ sump (approx. 90g total water volume)
Target to maintain 8dKH / 420ish Calcium
Med sized corals (all started from frags)
30%ish SPS (two clams) mostly LPS w/ some softies

If you like to tinker, dosing is for you. I do regular (every other week) 20g water changes. As the coral grow, consumption changes. I try to maintain less than a .4dKH swing in either direction. Only dosing adjustments are made when the swing gets outside of that range for a couple straight tests. Introducing Mag dosing, get ready to adjust Alk/Cal again. Mostly shoot for a range as opposed to an exact number due to human error and test kit accuracy limitations.

I dose equal parts of Alk/Cal simply to avoid unequal amounts in storage and eventual waste. Purchase from LFS (Oceans Blend) and they only sell as a pair.

I pretty much follow the same trend. I check alk every morning or if I've done something major to the tank or something is way out of wack once in the morning and once at night. If my Alk drifts below 8.8 then I just add another 10ml of Alk and Calcium to the dosing schedule. This has always worked out that my Alk never drifts outside of 0.2 dKh. I use to target 8.6 but after switching salts I found that the system stabilized better at 9.0.
 

shollis2814

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Last night was my first night dosing with Red Sea A, B, & C liquid. I don't have a lot of SPS, maybe 2, but I think other corals like my duncan and candy canes are sucking up the dKH pretty well. Tarket alk is about 10, Ca 440.

Testing and tweaking today.

I think my noob questions is how long after daily dosing do you start seeing results?
 

marco fish

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I dose Aquaforest which is 3 part, and I cannot get them to balance all equally. So for the meantime I am testing almost everyday and trying to adjust to get to the desired parameters.
Currently I dose 210 ml of #1 (calcium)
160 ml of #2 (alkalinity)
0 ml of #3 (magnesium) because it’s around 1600.
My tank is heavily stocked (SPS dominant)
and total volume is 130 gallons. My target parameters are 9.5 dkh, 440 calcium, and 1400 magnesium.
Biggest pro is that 95% of the inhabitants are very happy!!!
Biggest con is trying to get all 3 parts of the Aquaforest recommendations to be equal!!! So for the meantime I am going to keep doing what I have been doing and adjust accordingly, till I get the right formula with the Doser. Happy Reefing :)
 

Mixing lighting technologies: Do you use multiple types of lighting for your reef?

  • I currently use multiple types of lighting for my reef.

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  • I have used multiple types of lighting for my reef in the past.

    Votes: 18 12.9%
  • I haven’t used multiple types of lighting for my reef, but I plan to in the future.

    Votes: 20 14.4%
  • I have no plans to use multiple types of lighting for my reef.

    Votes: 36 25.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 2 1.4%
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