Red Sea Reef Foundation ABC - liquid or powder for 1000L System

[MarsRover]

Hello folks,

I'm about to polish off my Bionic 2-part jugs and my intention is to switch over to Red Sea foundations dosing with my auto-dosers.

I tried to do some searching but all i can find are people using one or the other and haven't been able to find something comparing/contrasting the two Red Sea Reef Foundation ABC+ Mixed powder supplement vs the Liquid systems.

My system is approximately 1000L, probably slightly bigger, but thats what i guesstimate it at after rocks etc....

Trying to figure out what the differences are between powder vs liquid Red Sea Reef Foundation supplements:

https://www.amazon.com/Red-Sea-Foun...4457&sr=1-13&keywords=red+sea+reef+foundation

https://www.amazon.com/Red-Sea-Fish...74457&sr=1-9&keywords=red+sea+reef+foundation

One thing that comes to mind with the powder, mixed bucket of everything version is, i am unsure how do they assure homogeneity of doses from scoop to scoop? This leaves me inclined to go for the 3-part version....

thanks folks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

You can weigh it if you are very concerned with the exact concentration.

https://www.redseafish.com/reef-care-program/reef_foundation_program/reef-foundation-a/

Concentration:
Liquid supplement: 1ml will raise the Ca level of 100 liters (25 gal) by 2ppm.

Powder supplement: 1g will raise the Ca level of 100 liters (25 gal) by 3.6ppm.
1 kg will make 1.8L of stock solution.

https://www.redseafish.com/reef-care-program/reef_foundation_program/reef-foundation-b/
Concentration:
Liquid supplement: 1ml will raise the Alk level of 100 liters (25 gal) by 0.036 meq/l (0.1dKH)

Powder supplement: 1g will raise the Alk level of 100 liters (25 gal) 0.12 meq/l (0.33dKH)
1 kg will make 10L of stock solution.

 

[Martin Kuhn]

Like for other products, choosing the powder versions is definitely cheaper than the liquids. Especially for larger tanks like yours this is an argument.

Besides the small effort needed to mix your solutions by yourself with RODI water, there is no other argument against the powders.

I even prefer them because they are giving you the option ....
- to dose also pure salt for needed corrections (besides the dosing of the self mixed liquid solutions to compensate your tanks daily consumption)
- to mix higher or lower concentrated liquid solutions
- to mix only the amount at a time to fill your containers

 

[MarsRover]

Reef Foundation ABC+ should be dosed on a daily or weekly basis according to the aquarium type and according to a measured uptake of calcium. Over time an imbalance may occur between the foundation elements.

If dosing daily, you should test all of the foundation elements weekly and make adjustments with the individual A, B & C supplements. If dosing weekly you should test all of the foundation elements monthly and make adjustments with the individual A, B & C supplements.

See, i feel like in light of the above, i should just get the individual supplements.......that way i can setup my dosing pumps to just dose each as needed to maintain the tank's consumption of each...otherwise, i'm buying powder, plus all the individuals, and its all the more stuff to have to store somewhere and futz with....

 

[MarsRover]

You can weigh it if you are very concerned with the exact concentration.

https://www.redseafish.com/reef-care-program/reef_foundation_program/reef-foundation-a/

Concentration:
Liquid supplement: 1ml will raise the Ca level of 100 liters (25 gal) by 2ppm.

Powder supplement: 1g will raise the Ca level of 100 liters (25 gal) by 3.6ppm.
1 kg will make 1.8L of stock solution.

https://www.redseafish.com/reef-care-program/reef_foundation_program/reef-foundation-b/
Concentration:
Liquid supplement: 1ml will raise the Alk level of 100 liters (25 gal) by 0.036 meq/l (0.1dKH)

Powder supplement: 1g will raise the Alk level of 100 liters (25 gal) 0.12 meq/l (0.33dKH)
1 kg will make 10L of stock solution.

Like for other products, choosing the powder versions is definitely cheaper than the liquids. Especially for larger tanks like yours this is an argument.

Besides the small effort needed to mix your solutions by yourself with RODI water, there is no other argument against the powders.

I even prefer them because they are giving you the option ....
- to dose also pure salt for needed corrections (besides the dosing of the self mixed liquid solutions to compensate your tanks daily consumption)
- to mix higher or lower concentrated liquid solutions
- to mix only the amount at a time to fill your containers

I'm realizing i wasn't clear in my first post....

I didn't mean foundations A: powder vs liquid....


I meant, what I am debating is between purchasing the A, B, C supplements as separate, or, purchasing the tub of powder that has A+B+C+ all combined...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I meant, what I am debating is between purchasing the A, B, C supplements as separate, or, purchasing the tub of powder that has A+B+C+ all combined...

I'm not sure I understand which product exactly (you mean trace elements?), or what the question is.

As an aside, are you involved with the Rover? My brother is the lead project scientist for the 2020 rover.

Did I already ask you??? Deja vu....

 

[Martin Kuhn]

For such a huge tank, A B C separate products (powders) that you mix to 3 liquid solutions, dosed by a 3+ dosing pump station

The combined ABC+ is more expensive, inflexible and can‘t be mixed as a liquid solution.
So, instead of automatically dosing with dosing pumps, it would need you to dose a big amount of the powder „by hand“ each day

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm not a fan of solid dosing products that must be dry dosed. It risks undissolved solids landing on delicate organisms if you do not do it in a good place in the system, and it risks more calcium carbonate precipitation from locally high concentrations..

 

[MarsRover]

I'm not sure I understand which product exactly (you mean trace elements?), or what the question is.

As an aside, are you involved with the Rover? My brother is the lead project scientist for the 2020 rover.

Did I already ask you??? Deja vu....

I have worked on all the rovers (MER, MSL, M2020) over the last few years. I recently left the mechanical design team on the sample handling arm's end effector to move onto the Europa project!

Thanks for you responses RHF and @Martin Kuhn

Much appreciated

 

[Martin Kuhn]

You‘re welcome

.... enjoy your reef !

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have worked on all the rovers (MER, MSL, M2020) over the last few years. I recently left the mechanical design team on the sample handling arm's end effector to move onto the Europa project!

Cool. My brother is Ken Farley. I also had a tiny involvement trying to help the team protecting the 2020 collection tubes from organic contamination before they arrived on Mars since looking for Mars organics is a main desire.

 

[mrmole83]

I am following this thread and was wondering if redsea foundation abc+ can be mixed with tank water into a container for autodosing? Or it must be added in powder form solely and directly into the tank?

 

[mrmole83]

I am following this thread and was wondering if redsea foundation abc+ can be mixed with tank water into a container for autodosing? Or it must be added in powder form solely and directly into the tank?

 

[windemerejack]

What are you following? the last post was 5 years ago.
But to answer your question the instructions say to dose as powder.