New to 2 part dosing

[Matthias7]

I am now at the point where I need to start dosing. My tank has been running for about 6 months now (had a 180gallon tank prior too transferred all livestock to this tank. The tank is a 250 gallon display with a 40 breeder sump and a 20 gallon Refugium.
I have been dosing manually 2x a week with reef fusion. I have a 4 head doser and some 2 part from brs that are ready to go. My calcium consistently tests at 390 and my dkh today was low at 6.6. I would like to get my calcium around 430 and my dkh around 8.5.
I need some help to figure out how much to dose per day. I will spread the doses out over the course of the day. Any input would be awesome

 

[redfishbluefish]

Simply use a reef calculator. The one that is linked on R2R is THIS ONE. I would recommend that with ALK you don't raise more than 1 dKh per day. CALC and MAG you can raise to whatever levels you wish within a day.

 

[NanaReefer]

I have a question about THIS ONE. Where it says Randy's Part 1 and Randy's Part 2. Is this the same as the BRS 2 Part?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Where is says Randy's Part 1 and Randy's Part 2. Is this the same as the BRS 2 Part?

Yes. BRS's two part is Randy's recipe one....with the exception that the alk part is already "cooked" to sodium carbonate (soda ash). So when you make BRS's ALK two part, you only need 2 cups to one gallon of RO/DI water. Hope that makes sense.

 

[NanaReefer]

Per BRS

BRS 2Part Gallon recipe.

It takes 2.5 cups of Calcium Chloride to 1 gallon for Calcium and 2 cups of Soda Ash to 1 gallon for Alkalinity.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Per BRS

BRS 2Part Gallon recipe.

It takes 2.5 cups of Calcium Chloride to 1 gallon for Calcium and 2 cups of Soda Ash to 1 gallon for Alkalinity.

Yes....and that is exactly Randy's recipe 1 as described HERE, with the exception, as explained, that the "baking" part for the ALK doesn't need to be done since BRS supplies the Soda Ash (baked Baking Soda)....so only 2 cups.


Note that BRS also supplies sodium bicarbonate (Baking Soda), so that you can also make Randy's recipe 2 if you wish.

 

[Downbeach]

There are two things I like to get established for the purpose of consistency/accuracy, and minimize any skewing of a dosing schedule you may develope. They are: make sure of the accuracy of your SG(I prefer 1.026/35ppt) when you make up your water since this is where you're adding much of those elements during your WC, the other is the frequency and volume of those WC's. Changing your your salt mix may/can have an affect as well. I would use the supplements individually, to get your numbers up to where you want them, i.e. Ca @ 420, Alk @ 8, Mg @ 1350, etc. using the individual supplement(s) and the calculator Paul provided. Once your are there, start testing/recording to develope a trend line to determine your systems uptake of those elements over time. You will notice that your alk will drop more quickly due to the fact that it is used at a ratio of about 5 parts of alk to every 2 parts of Ca, and there is less in reserve in your system. As we measure it, that uptake would be 50ppm(2.8dKH)of alk to about 20ppm calcium. Any two part formula/recipe is designed to be used in equal parts, so once you have your numbers where you want them, and have established your trend start dosing, and readjust if neccessary. One caveat here; depending on your systems uptake, it is possible that initially you may only have to start dosing the alk part to keep up with your demand, while the normal WC schedule may be enough to keep up with your Ca needs. Keeping a SG as mentioned earlier, I have never had to dose any Mg.

 

[NanaReefer]

There are two things I like to get established for the purpose of consistency/accuracy, and minimize any skewing of a dosing schedule you may develope. They are: make sure of the accuracy of your SG(I prefer 1.026/35ppt) when you make up your water since this is where you're adding much of those elements during your WC, the other is the frequency and volume of those WC's. Changing your your salt mix may/can have an affect as well. I would use the supplements individually, to get your numbers up to where you want them, i.e. Ca @ 420, Alk @ 8, Mg @ 1350, etc. using the individual supplement(s) and the calculator Paul provided. Once your are there, start testing/recording to develope a trend line to determine your systems uptake of those elements over time. You will notice that your alk will drop more quickly due to the fact that it is used at a ratio of about 5 parts of alk to every 2 parts of Ca, and there is less in reserve in your system. As we measure it, that uptake would be 50ppm(2.8dKH)of alk to about 20ppm calcium. Any two part formula/recipe is designed to be used in equal parts, so once you have your numbers where you want them, and have established your trend start dosing, and readjust if neccessary. One caveat here; depending on your systems uptake, it is possible that initially you may only have to start dosing the alk part to keep up with your demand, while the normal WC schedule may be enough to keep up with your Ca needs. Keeping a SG as mentioned earlier, I have never had to dose any Mg.

Very simply and well put [emoji106]

 

[Matthias7]

Awesome thanks for answers and links. I do daily automated water charges of about 1 gallon per day. I am currently using Kent reef salt which has a high calcium content I believe it is 550 or so at 1.026

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Here are my suggested starting directions for the two part:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php#15

from it (BRS uses Recipe 1, as noted above):

Dosing Instructions

The dosing instructions are basically the same for each recipe, although any given aquarium will end up using about twice as much of recipe #2 as recipe #1 to add the same amount of calcium and alkalinity.

To initiate dosing, first adjust calcium and alkalinity to roughly their correct ranges. This may require a substantial dose of just the calcium part if calcium is low (e.g., below 380 ppm). I would suggest targeting calcium between 380 and 450 ppm, and alkalinity between 2.5 and 4 meq/L (7-11 dKH; 125-200 ppm calcium carbonate equivalents).

This calculator shows how much of what parts to add in order to boost one or both of the parameters by a certain amount:
Reef chemicals calculator
http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

Then, once things seem roughly correct, select a starting daily dose for routine dosing. Here are some suggested starting doses, but the exact values do not matter much. The suggested doses apply to both recipes.

Table 1. Suggested starting daily doses of this supplement in different aquaria.
Tank Description:

Suggested Starting Doses:.......Recipe #1...............Recipe #2
Fish-only with live rock................0.1 mL/gallon.............0.2 mL/gallon
New tank, few corals...................0.2 mL/gallon................0.4 mL/gallon
Low demand................................0.3 mL/gallon................0.6 mL/gallon
Mixed tank................................0.5 mL/gallon................1 mL/gallon
Heavy demand (SPS corals).........1 mL/gallon................2 mL/gallon


After a few days of dosing, note whether alkalinity is low, high or on target. Only bother to test alkalinity, not calcium, during this period, because it is much more sensitive than calcium to over- or underdosing. Adjust the dose up or down as necessary to increase or decrease the alkalinity.

Once you have determined the proper dose, continue it until there is a substantial reason to adjust it (such as falling alkalinity as the corals increase in size). When adjusting the dose, raise or lower both of the recipe's parts together.

Resist the temptation to keep jiggering calcium and alkalinity independently. They will need occasional corrections, but that should not be the normal course of dosing unless there are substantial outside influences, such as water changes with a salt mix that does not match the tank's parameters or an error in making the mixes.

Check alkalinity fairly frequently to make sure the dosing continues at a suitable rate. Check it maybe once a week to once a month (or less as you get more experienced with the system and the tank). Check calcium once a month to once every few months to make sure it continues on track.

Remember to add an appropriate amount of Part 3 each time you finish adding a gallon of Parts 1 and 2.

 

[Matthias7]

You guys are awesome thank-you. So the suggested dose to raise my alk from 6.6 to 8.2 is 960ml of solution. My plan is to dose 64ml two times daily to raise it gradually. Does this sound reasonable? I plan on monitoring alk at least daily while I raise the levels

 

[cope413]

If you got dosers, I'd spread that out evenly throughout the day rather than two daily doses.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You guys are awesome thank-you. So the suggested dose to raise my alk from 6.6 to 8.2 is 960ml of solution. My plan is to dose 64ml two times daily to raise it gradually. Does this sound reasonable? I plan on monitoring alk at least daily while I raise the levels

Sounds reasonable. The only issue is if that is so slow that it won't keep up with demand and you may never get there.