Randy hits the spot

Nano_Man

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Well everyone used one of Randys recipes
And oh boy it worked at treat . First of all I have had marine tanks on and off from the early 90s and never used this thought carbon and poly filters was the best way to make the water look polished. Hold on there this is an old dog learning new tricks moment . Then I tried calcium carbonate clean your glass get a turkey Baster blow all the detritus off the rock so it’s all floating about turn off your main filter but leave your power heads on . Then before that you have mixed your calcium carbonate and let it mix for five minutes then when all of the above is done pour it into your tank . Don’t worry your tank will go white and you will not see much apart from panic on my face lol .
Let it do its thing for half an hour then turn on your main filter takes 2 to 3 hours to clear depending on your filter . I looked at my tank the next morning and couldn’t believe how crystal clear the water was unbelievable . So how much carbonate did I use

One level teaspoon of calcium carbonate
8oz of rodi water
Mix and stir then together for at least five minutes
Then pour it into your reef
One level tea spoon doses fifty gallons
I think most people do this once a week after cleaning
So another big thank you to @Randy Holmes-Farley
 

TX_REEF

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Can you kindly link where you found this recipe? I'd like to understand how it works, is it just for making the water clearer?
 

Troylee

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Can you kindly link where you found this recipe? I'd like to understand how it works, is it just for making the water clearer?
 

JayM

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Can you kindly link where you found this recipe? I'd like to understand how it works, is it just for making the water clearer?
It's a flocculant. Basically binds all the little bits and pieces together into bigger bits and pieces so that they are easier for your mechanical filtration to remove.
 

Court_Appointed_Hypeman

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Hmmmm, I wonder if this would help with dino removal. Been battleing for 5 days so far and making a little progress, but my manual removal has been siphoning into a sock and not blowing it away with a syringe.

Maybe I should try this?
 

Troylee

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Hmmmm, I wonder if this would help with dino removal. Been battleing for 5 days so far and making a little progress, but my manual removal has been siphoning into a sock and not blowing it away with a syringe.

Maybe I should try this?
If def won’t hurt! If you dose it and stir the dinos up it will help get them into a skimmer or sock for easier removal.
 
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Nano_Man

Nano_Man

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Kinda all over and trying to wrap my head around what this post even is trying to get at ?
It’s called sharing information to help people that didn’t know about this for water clarity
 

KStatefan

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There was an earlier one here


I have not seen Randy's recipe for this. Is it different then these two?
 

Troylee

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There was an earlier one here


I have not seen Randy's recipe for this. Is it different then these two?
I don’t know who came up with it… I got it from Sunny x waaaay back in the rc days before r2r was around…. Randy was the pimp scientist over there so he might have turned everyone on it back then I’m not sure… regardless it should be all the same!
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Dosing calcium carbonate has a long and checkered history, and still does. I don't remember giving a DIY recipe for flocculant calcium carbonate, but I might have.

A variety of products, some still sold, tried to convince folks that dosing fine particles of calcium carbonate was a good way to boost parameters. That, of course, is not true since it cannot dissolve, and I discussed that in detail in an article in 2002:


But such products are still sold for that application:

"The safe, easy way to add calcium, buffer and essential trace elements. CaribSea Aragamight is a revolution in reef keeping! The power of aragonite in a fast dissolving, easy to use 10 micron powder."

"Tech Notes
ADD DIRECTLY TO AQUARIUM: In a clean container, mix approximately 1 teaspoon/2 cups of R/O or aquarium water. Stir or shake well, then add a tablespoon at a time to tank until aquarium water takes on a slight haze. For best results, use daily."
 

Court_Appointed_Hypeman

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There was an earlier one here


I have not seen Randy's recipe for this. Is it different then these two?
I followed the first one linked in this post today.

I adjusted it to 380ml water and 8tsp

Looking at that vs your recomendation, the one I followed is waaaay more CaCO3

Should I redo it? Or is this concentration fine?
 

KStatefan

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I followed the first one linked in this post today.

I adjusted it to 380ml water and 8tsp

Looking at that vs your recomendation, the one I followed is waaaay more CaCO3

Should I redo it? Or is this concentration fine?

I did not recommend either just posted a link to an earlier thread.
 

Troylee

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I followed the first one linked in this post today.

I adjusted it to 380ml water and 8tsp

Looking at that vs your recomendation, the one I followed is waaaay more CaCO3

Should I redo it? Or is this concentration fine?
You can’t over dose it! It’s really not a big deal how strong or much you dose.
 

Court_Appointed_Hypeman

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Hmmmm, I wonder if this would help with dino removal. Been battleing for 5 days so far and making a little progress, but my manual removal has been siphoning into a sock and not blowing it away with a syringe.

Maybe I should try this?
Follow up, this really made my manual removal of dinos super easy, usually if I did it while lights on the tank would be covered again within 2 hours, no matter how careful I was to to siphon every bit I scraped off out.

I did a little microbacter7 in the mix, i used a coral feeder to blow everything off, shut off the return for 45 minutes and the lights for about 1 hour, 7 hours ago. Didn't siphon out a single bit, just let it blow around the tank.

I barely saw any creep up before lights off just now.

Even if it doesn't help with the war, it definitely brought a lot of relief to my corals, and made manual removal 30x easier.

I had a few large coral colonies stay mostly closed for about 4 days now, they opened up after lights came back on today. So I am from now on going to recomend it for at the very lease respite for corals.
 

Court_Appointed_Hypeman

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Little update to the use of this dosing in my dino fight.

Day 13 dinos are gone. I dosed this daily for 4 days with a 10ml dose of microbacter7 in the solution. Day 5 there were barely any dinos so I waited for them to come back a little more before going to the effort of blowing everything off and dosing again, blew everything off on the 1st, which wasn't much, dosed the last one. I can't find a trace of dinos 2 days later.

It was getting covered so bad every day the week prior to trying this. I thought I was in for a long battle, i soent hours everynight scraping and siphoning. I have not siphoned once since dosing calcium carbonate.

I am going to do this now at least once a month with the MB7 to keep whatever it does going. My nutruents bottom out so easily if I skip 1 feeding and 1 day of dosing the dinos show back up even after months of seeing 0 of them.

Thank you @Nman for posting this.
 

Troylee

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Little update to the use of this dosing in my dino fight.

Day 13 dinos are gone. I dosed this daily for 4 days with a 10ml dose of microbacter7 in the solution. Day 5 there were barely any dinos so I waited for them to come back a little more before going to the effort of blowing everything off and dosing again, blew everything off on the 1st, which wasn't much, dosed the last one. I can't find a trace of dinos 2 days later.

It was getting covered so bad every day the week prior to trying this. I thought I was in for a long battle, i soent hours everynight scraping and siphoning. I have not siphoned once since dosing calcium carbonate.

I am going to do this now at least once a month with the MB7 to keep whatever it does going. My nutruents bottom out so easily if I skip 1 feeding and 1 day of dosing the dinos show back up even after months of seeing 0 of them.

Thank you @Nman for posting this.
Any idea what strain of Dino’s you had?
 

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