Second New DIY Two Part Recipe with Higher pH Boost

[Miami Reef]

My phone is glitching.

I think I'm having a precipitation issue. Full details are in the next post.

 

[Miami Reef]

I dose sodium hydroxide upstream of the filter socks. I have 1.1mL/min pumps that slowly drip it once every hour.



I don’t see precipitation anywhere in the tank; the sump, glass, pumps, and water are clear. I have a bit of sand on both ends of the tank, but they are not hardened.



I’ve dosed over 150% more within the past 2 weeks, but the alk is still around 7dKH. It’s not normal. I’m having growth, but not significant as the alk consumption is.



I used to dose 360mL per day in my 260 gallon. Now I add 950mL daily, and the alk still drops despite adding 1dKH to baking soda.



I switched to only sodium bicarbonate and discontinued the CO2 scrubber. I want to track the alk consumption.



Do you have any explanation for why this is happening? Could there be precipitation in the socks? I’m not changing the socks any more frequently than I’ve been doing for the past two years.



The corals are doing well.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I dose sodium hydroxide upstream of the filter socks. I have 1.1mL/min pumps that slowly drip it once every hour.



I don’t see precipitation anywhere in the tank; the sump, glass, pumps, and water are clear. I have a bit of sand on both ends of the tank, but they are not hardened.



I’ve dosed over 150% more within the past 2 weeks, but the alk is still around 7dKH. It’s not normal. I’m having growth, but not significant as the alk consumption is.



I used to dose 360mL per day in my 260 gallon. Now I add 950mL daily, and the alk still drops despite adding 1dKH to baking soda.



I switched to only sodium bicarbonate and discontinued the CO2 scrubber. I want to track the alk consumption.



Do you have any explanation for why this is happening? Could there be precipitation in the socks? I’m not changing the socks any more frequently than I’ve been doing for the past two years.



The corals are doing well.

Once precipitation starts for any reason, it can build on itself and get worse and worse as each bit of precipitated calcium carbonate acts as a seed crystal for more precipitation.

Do the socks seem hard? They would get sort of crunchy if there was calcium carbonate precipitating onto them, though not if they are just catching already precipitated powder.

 

[Miami Reef]

Do the socks seem hard? They would get sort of crunchy if there was calcium carbonate precipitating onto them, though not if they are just catching already precipitated powder.

The socks aren’t hard at all.

I did add several pieces of fresh dry rocks last week, so maybe it’s happening on them.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The socks aren’t hard at all.

I did add several pieces of fresh dry rocks last week, so maybe it’s happening on them.

That might be it. If things don't settle down, maybe allow the pH to drop a bit.

 

[Miami Reef]

That might be it. If things don't settle down, maybe allow the pH to drop a bit.

Good morning, Randy.

It appears the precipitation is settling down. To do so, I stopped the CO2 scrubber and used baking soda for a few days. I unintentionally kept the pH around 8.0.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Good morning, Randy.

It appears the precipitation is settling down. To do so, I stopped the CO2 scrubber and used baking soda for a few days. I unintentionally kept the pH around 8.0.

Sounds good! :)

 

[euphlife]

If using:
sodium hydroxide
Calcium chloride
Mag
Tropic Marin c

Which of these would I be able to add vodka to to auto dose? Don’t have a 5th head. :(

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If using:
sodium hydroxide
Calcium chloride
Mag
Tropic Marin c

Which of these would I be able to add vodka to to auto dose? Don’t have a 5th head. :(

Any of those individually can be mixed with vodka, but the concern is storage, where bacteria might grow on the ethanol. To avoid that, I’d mix it with the sodium hydroxide to use the high pH to deter bacteria. The ionic strength might deter growth in the others, depending on the relative amounts and concentrations.

 

[Miami Reef]

Can vinegar be mixed with all of them, too?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm not 100% sure whether there are any trace elements in Balling Part C that might precipitate at very low pH from vinegar, but the others are OK. The reverse issue exists for bacterial degradation, with some sodium hydroxide/vinegar combinations being too neutral in pH for acid or base to prevent bacterial growth, but if made concentrated enough, like AFR, it will be OK due to the high ionic strength.

 

[euphlife]

For anyone wondering I have a sps packed tank 46 total some frags some colonies and a few torches. 48 ml a day is sufficient for me of alk cal tropic c and 6 ml mag.

Salifert testing has me pegged at 10.5 which is where my water change level is using iorc.

Used a mag stirrer and ordered the items from Amazon. Most expensive part was tropic marin c and aqua forest components. Should get 4 rounds out of each package. 40% cost savings over brs.

 

[Rshahnyc]

I’m trying to read this thoroughly but gotta admit I’m having a smidge of trouble.

Is there no way to just dose this as a true 2 part?

I only have 2 doser pumps/room in the cabinet for 1 DOS

As I understand it to do the DIY I need to do the following

Part 1 - Sodium Hydroxide
Part 2 - calcium chloride dihydrate
Part 3: tropic Marin ballin part C + trace A + trace K

Is there no way to do

Part 1 - sodium hydroxide
Part 2 - calcium chloride dihydrate + mag + trace elements?

Or can I just do

Part 1 - sodium hydroxide
Part 2 - calcium chloride dihydrate
And dump a bottle of Aquavitro ions?

 

[Miami Reef]

Or can I just do

Part 1 - sodium hydroxide
Part 2 - calcium chloride dihydrate
And dump a bottle of Aquavitro ions?

You can do the 3rd option, but you need to use either Balling Part C or AquaForest Mineral salt.

The 3rd part can be added much less frequently. You don’t need to put that part in a doser.

Tropic Marin A & K are trace elements. You can add A to the alk and K to the calcium.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

A true two part requires you to buy a lot of different chemicals.

Many folks use just the alk and calcium parts, but that is somewhat less than optimal.

Aquavitro ions appears to just be a magnesium supplement and does not fix the ion imbalance issue.

 

[Back2Reef]

Dumb question pls. When I dose the Sodium Hydroxide solution. And I do it slowly drop by drop. I see it precipitate I to white particles. But it goes away after a couple of minutes. That’s okay and normal, right ? Not any sign of anything bad, right ? Thx.

 

[KTTX]

Dumb question pls. When I dose the Sodium Hydroxide solution. And I do it slowly drop by drop. I see it precipitate I to white particles. But it goes away after a couple of minutes. That’s okay and normal, right ? Not any sign of anything bad, right ? Thx.

That's normal and why you should dose it in front of wave maker or high flow area.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Dumb question pls. When I dose the Sodium Hydroxide solution. And I do it slowly drop by drop. I see it precipitate I to white particles. But it goes away after a couple of minutes. That’s okay and normal, right ? Not any sign of anything bad, right ? Thx.

Correct. All high pH additives produce a transient precipitate of magnesium hydroxide. It redissolves as you mix it in.

Mixing too slowly or adding too fast can risk a worse problem, precipitation of calcium carbonate, which will not redissolve.

 

[reefsanz]

Hola @Randy Holmes-Farley quiero iniciarme con la sosa cáustica para aumentar el pH de mi acuario está en 7.9 y quiero rondar el 8.3 que esté más estable loque no encuentro la receta para hacer la mezcla me lo podrías decir porfavor como prepararlo un saludo amigo eres una enciclopedia

 

[reefsanz]

Hello @Randy Holmes-Farley, I want to start using caustic soda to increase the pH of my aquarium. It's at 7.9 and I want to get it around 8.3 to be more stable. However, I can't find the recipe to make the mixture. Could you please tell me how to prepare it? Greetings, my friend, you're an encyclopedia.