Second New DIY Two Part Recipe with Higher pH Boost

[bozo]

anyone know if mag chloride hexahydrate and mag sulfate mixes clear?

I bought a bag of mag chloride from Dead Sea works and added 5 cups of mgcl2 and 3 cups of mgso4

I tossed it together and filled to 1 gallon of RODI and mixed with a magnetic stirrer.

I’ve been mixing it for 3 hours and it hasn’t cleared

Is this normal?

Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

anyone know if mag chloride hexahydrate and mag sulfate mixes clear?

I bought a bag of mag chloride from Dead Sea works and added 5 cups of mgcl2 and 3 cups of mgso4

I tossed it together and filled to 1 gallon of RODI and mixed with a magnetic stirrer.

I’ve been mixing it for 3 hours and it hasn’t cleared

Is this normal?

Thanks

This from my recipe article:

Note that combining the two materials in solution can result in some precipitation of calcium sulfate (calcium and sulfate are impurities in the MAG flake and the Epsom salts, respectively. To assure yourself that the two materials have fully dissolved, dissolve each separately in some freshwater before combining them. Some calcium sulfate precipitation is acceptable, and it is okay to let the solids get into the aquarium, assuming you can dose in a way that prevents them from landing on delicate organisms.

 

[bozo]

This from my recipe article:

Note that combining the two materials in solution can result in some precipitation of calcium sulfate (calcium and sulfate are impurities in the MAG flake and the Epsom salts, respectively. To assure yourself that the two materials have fully dissolved, dissolve each separately in some freshwater before combining them. Some calcium sulfate precipitation is acceptable, and it is okay to let the solids get into the aquarium, assuming you can dose in a way that prevents them from landing on delicate organisms.

Thanks Randy

Looks like I'll dump this mix I made and try mixing separately.

 

[bozo]

This from my recipe article:

Note that combining the two materials in solution can result in some precipitation of calcium sulfate (calcium and sulfate are impurities in the MAG flake and the Epsom salts, respectively. To assure yourself that the two materials have fully dissolved, dissolve each separately in some freshwater before combining them. Some calcium sulfate precipitation is acceptable, and it is okay to let the solids get into the aquarium, assuming you can dose in a way that prevents them from landing on delicate organisms.

Update

This worked perfectly

Thank you again

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Update

This worked perfectly

Thank you again

Great!

Happy Reefing!

 

[Chad3407]

Do you have to mix 283 grams of sodium hydroxide to get the ph above 14? I’m looking to go this route over my current kalk dosing as my calcium is wanting to climb more than I’m comfortable with. I will also add I’m dosing kalk to stabilize ph at 8.3 and I’m not worried about alk climbing but I dont want it to climb any more than it is with kalk. I’m currently dosing 1300-1500mls of kalk a day and looks like I need roughly 30ml of the sodium hydroxide mixture.

 

[Miami Reef]

Both kalkwasser and sodium hydroxide have the same pH boost per unit of alkalinity added.

If your calcium is getting too high, you can just dose sodium hydroxide until the calcium naturally drops with consumption. Then you can continue with the kalkwasser, switch to 2 part, or even mix sodium hydroxide with kalkwasser.

If I am not mistaken, adding sodium hydroxide to kalkwasser will lower the calcium in the kalkwasser, which seems ideal in your scenario.

I would wait for Randy to give you the specifics.

 

[Chad3407]

I saw that you can dissolve more than 283 grams of sodium hydroxide per gallon so I wasn’t sure if you could mix less sodium hydroxide but still get the over 14 ph.

 

[csturgis1989]

I picked up some Dowflake today and it looks like they changed their percentage from 78-80% to 83-87%. Instead of doing the exact calculation I am going to wing it and add 450g to 1 gallon of water for recipe #1. @Randy Holmes-Farley does this seem close?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I saw that you can dissolve more than 283 grams of sodium hydroxide per gallon so I wasn’t sure if you could mix less sodium hydroxide but still get the over 14 ph.

You can mix less, and then you get less pH effect when adding it. There’s nothing important about the pH before adding it.

 

[Doctorgori]

Trying to dose the Sodium Hydroxide with the BRS Calcium chloride and balling part c. I'm finding that my Alkalinity keeps dropping no matter how many mil I dose per hour. The PH definitely rises but the Alkalinity will not rise. I'm having to dose Bicarbonate to keep the alkalinity up. Currently I'm dosing 40ml a hour and my alkalinity is at 5.3! Has anyone else experienced this? My system is 70gallons heavy sps. I have been testing hourly and watching the alk drop, so I add 5ml every hour and now I'm getting worried that the ph is hitting 8.3-8.4 and the alk will not rise and Im dosing 40ml per hour! Any advice?

mag 1550
cal- 450
PO4 - .06
No2 - 28.0
Alk 5.3

So I’m looking to maybe do similar as I have the BRS calcium component and spare boxes of Part C
I skimmed this thread for a answer so I’m asking also: Anyone else doing this?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I picked up some Dowflake today and it looks like they changed their percentage from 78-80% to 83-87%. Instead of doing the exact calculation I am going to wing it and add 450g to 1 gallon of water for recipe #1. @Randy Holmes-Farley does this seem close?

Yes, adding proportionally less is called for in products with less moisture, and that amount sounds good.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So I’m looking to maybe do similar as I have the BRS calcium component and spare boxes of Part C
I skimmed this thread for a answer so I’m asking also: Anyone else doing this?

It’s the method I recommend when using sodium hydroxide. Calcium chloride, sodium hydroxide, and Balling Part C.

 

[Chad3407]

Do you get a higher ph when using more sodium hydroxide or is 14 max saturation?

You can mix less, and then you get less pH effect when adding it. There’s nothing important about the pH before adding it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Do you get a higher ph when using more sodium hydroxide or is 14 max saturation?

No one in reefing is saturating sodium hydroxide and I do not recommend it. It has more solids than water in it.

Concentration makes no difference to the pH effect, just the total amount of hydroxide added.

 

[Chad3407]

Thanks for the help.
If I could bother you with another question.
Ever since I’ve used kalk to keep ph up I don’t get the normal ph increase when lights come on. If I dont use kalk I get the typical 7.8-8.2. But when I use kalk to keep ph at 8.2 I get no increase from photosynthesis. Can this be typical of using kalk? I’ve been told it’s due to the kalk driving off all the carbonic acid available in the tank but if that were the case I’d figure ph to stop rising even if I keep dosing kalk.

No one in reefing is saturating sodium hydroxide and I do not recommend it. It has more solids than water in it.

Concentration makes no difference to the pH effect, just the total amount of hydroxide added.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the help.
If I could bother you with another question.
Ever since I’ve used kalk to keep ph up I don’t get the normal ph increase when lights come on. If I dont use kalk I get the typical 7.8-8.2. But when I use kalk to keep ph at 8.2 I get no increase from photosynthesis. Can this be typical of using kalk? I’ve been told it’s due to the kalk driving off all the carbonic acid available in the tank but if that were the case I’d figure ph to stop rising even if I keep dosing kalk.

The explanationy ou were told is simply incorrect. There is carbonic acid at any and ALL pH values of seawater.

What time of day do you dose the kalkwasser?

If you dose at night only, then the pH may not rise during the day becuase, despite photosynthesis consuming CO2, the kalkwasser consumption of it stopped then.

 

[Chad3407]

I’m pretty much dosing all day long. Some days when no one is home and lights are at highest intensity it may not dose for a few hours as the ph will hold at the value I have the doser set to maintain. But for the most part it doses 25mls every 12 min, when lights are on it won’t dose as much every 12 min due to ph not dropping as fast between doses.

This is my standard ph swing over a few days. The big drop was kalk container running out. The doser is set to keep ph at 8.15. Highest it got with lights on was 8.16

 

[Reefahholic]

I’m pretty much dosing all day long. Some days when no one is home and lights are at highest intensity it may not dose for a few hours as the ph will hold at the value I have the doser set to maintain. But for the most part it doses 25mls every 12 min, when lights are on it won’t dose as much every 12 min due to ph not dropping as fast between doses.

This is my standard ph swing over a few days. The big drop was kalk container running out. The doser is set to keep ph at 8.15. Highest it got with lights on was 8.16

That’s a pretty tight pH range though.

 

[Chad3407]

Tight yes. But I just don’t understand the science behind why it doesn’t increase with photosynthesis.

The explanationy ou were told is simply incorrect. There is carbonic acid at any and ALL pH values of seawater.

What time of day do you dose the kalkwasser?

If you dose at night only, then the pH may not rise during the day becuase, despite photosynthesis consuming CO2, the kalkwasser consumption of it stopped then.

That’s a pretty tight pH range though.