Sea lab 28 experiment

[musel101]

Day one I will officially stop Dosing in my tank and only use sea lab no 28 I will update weekly with pictures.
Alkalinity 9.5
Calcium 490
Magnesium 1410
Phosphate 1.0
Nitrate 0.9

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Folks already know I think Sea Lab 28 is a bogus product that makes totally absurd claims that it cannot possibly attain. It just dumps in some stuff as it dissolves whether you need it or not. It is like taking a recommended dose of a two part or AFR and using the dose regardless of what is actually taking place in your tank.

That said, if your experiment is going to evaluate its effects, you need to show over the same time frame what happens in your tank to the same parameters with the same kits without using the SeaLab 28 any other product that impacts those same parameters. I’d do that first so you can know what change is expected over what time frame.

Are you doing water changes during this test? That will blunt any actual changes.

Do you know what happens in your tank with no dosing? It looks to have little demand.

My prediction when dosing nothing:

1. Even without dosing, you will not reliably detect a magnesium change (aside from test error). Its demand is going to be extremely low in your tank. It would take more than a month to see a small change.

2. Calcium will decline slowly. It may take a week or more to detect the calcium change reliably. I do think the block may be able to offset the calcium demand, so with it calcium may rise or fall or be fairly steady.

3. Alk will slowly decline without it added. Sea Lab 28 does not make any explicit claims about alkalinity that I can find, but it must attempt to add it somehow based on its pH and other indirect claims. I’m not sure how much it adds as it dissolves, or what impact you will see.

 

[Seansea]

Ill be watching. There was a youtube dude that swore by these things. He had a packed mixxed reef but started testing stuff turned out his alk was mega low. It will prob work for your system at this point but when things started to grow out you will have to change it up.

 

[Doctorgori]

Should there be a spoiler alert here.?

 

[jeff1225]

Will be watching this thread. I just got back into reefing after a decade away. I’m loving the new technology (Kessil AP9X, Tunze ATO, Gyre Pumps, etc) but I used these blocks to great success a decade ago.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

We are about at 2 weeks.

Any update?

 

[Reign1]

UMMM .. Like the SL blocks? They still make those? Wow I dont know how products like that are still around as it made all sorts of claims from what I remember. I mean they may have been able to get away with it back then but the aquarist now is informed and has better testing/equipment.

 

[musel101]

Day one I will officially stop Dosing in my tank and only use sea lab no 28 I will update weekly with pictures.
Alkalinity 9.5
Calcium 490
Magnesium 1410
Phosphate 1.0
Nitrate 0.9

Update

Day one I will officially stop Dosing in my tank and only use sea lab no 28 I will update weekly with pictures.
Alkalinity 9.5
Calcium 490
Magnesium 1410
Phosphate 1.0
Nitrate 0.9

Update

Alkalinity 7.9
Calcium 458
Magnesium 1485
Phosphate 0.16
Nitrate 0.81

Randy,
no I will not do water changes
And if Alkalinity does not Improve I will have to add it But strictly alkalinity no other trace elements.

I will also need to find a way to get rid of Excess nutrients

I will get better at updating every week

 

[musel101]

Update


Update

Alkalinity 7.9
Calcium 458
Magnesium 1485
Phosphate 0.16
Nitrate 0.81

Randy,
no I will not do water changes
And if Alkalinity does not Improve I will have to add it But strictly alkalinity no other trace elements.

I will also need to find a way to get rid of Excess nutrients

I will get better at updating every week

The sea lab block is almost disintegrated . So by week three I will definitely need to put another block in

 

[musel101]

Update


Update

Alkalinity 7.9
Calcium 458
Magnesium 1485
Phosphate 0.16
Nitrate 0.81

Randy,
no I will not do water changes
And if Alkalinity does not Improve I will have to add it But strictly alkalinity no other trace elements.

I will also need to find a way to get rid of Excess nutrients

I will get better at updating every week

The sea lab 28 block is almost disintegrated by week three I will need to put another one in

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thanks for the update!

Do you recall how much of what you were dosing to maintain alk before the experiment started?

 

[musel101]

Thanks for the update!

Do you recall how much of what you were dosing to maintain alk before the experiment started?

Thanks for the update!

Do you recall how much of what you were dosing to maintain alk before the experiment started?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

how much dosed per day or week?

 

[musel101]

One cap full of alkalinity a week and one cap full of calcium every two weeks. I would have to measure the cap full in milliliters to get an exact amount.

 

[musel101]

how much dosed per day or week?

It’s 5 mL per capful
So 5 mL of alkalinity a week
And 5 mL of calcium every two weeks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

thanks. Just one more question, what do you estimate the water volume to be?

 

[musel101]

thanks. Just one more question, what do you estimate the water volume to be?

20 gallons Minus rocks and sand and equipment that’s Counting this sump as well.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Let's say 15 gallons water volume.

1 capful (5 mL) of Seachem Reef complete adds 14 ppm of calcium (added in 2 weeks).
1 capful (5 mL) of Sechem Reef Fusion alk part per week. 10 ml per 2 weeks. 1.1 dKH per week or 2.2 dKH total.

In 2 weeks with the Sealab 28 only, you dropped 1.6 dKH and 32 ppm of calcium.

There is certainly some test variability going on, but it shows little indication that it added much alk and added no calcium.

 

[musel101]

thanks. Just one more question, what do you estimate the water volume to be?

Let's say 15 gallons water volume.

1 capful (5 mL) of Seachem Reef complete adds 14 ppm of calcium (added in 2 weeks).
1 capful (5 mL) of Sechem Reef Fusion alk part per week. 10 ml per 2 weeks. 1.1 dKH per week or 2.2 dKH total.

In 2 weeks with the Sealab 28 only, you dropped 1.6 dKH and 32 ppm of calcium.

There is certainly some test variability going on, but it shows little indication that it added much alk and added no calcium.

Agree but I think this will need to go on and see if anything changes in the next week or two the Package of the sea lab 28 is telling me to put 2 or 3 blocks per 50 gallons I’ve only ever put one.
Maybe it’s in to low of a flow area To dissolve the block fast enough.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Ok, keep us updated.