SPS Two Part Question

[Brandon McHenry]

Brs is Randy's recipe

For close to a decade I've used only Kalk in my topoff and arm an hammer baking soda purchased at Costco in large bags and CaCl purchased either locally or from brs in 5 gallon buckets, plus Epsom salt and MgCl bought from brs

This is my current setup, been up over five years.

The only thing that confused me was the drying of the baking soda in the oven. I know BRS sells soda ash that is ready to mix which is what I was considering. I know when you get right down to the chemicals, they are the same thing from BRS and what Randy talks about. I guess for ease of use I was thinking about just buying it ready to be mixed from BRS.

 

[twon8]

The only thing that confused me was the drying of the baking soda in the oven. I know BRS sells soda ash that is ready to mix which is what I was considering. I know when you get right down to the chemicals, they are the same thing from BRS and what Randy talks about. I guess for ease of use I was thinking about just buying it ready to be mixed from BRS.

If you use Kalk on your topoff you will have a high ph so you don't have to bake the baking soda

 

[Brandon McHenry]

If you use Kalk on your topoff you will have a high ph so you don't have to bake the baking soda

If I don't have an ATO can I still use the kalk or not really?

 

[twon8]

How are you replenishing evaporated water?

But the answer is yes you can use Kalk

 

[Brandon McHenry]

How are you replenishing evaporated water?

I top off manually with RODI water twice a day, morning and night.

 

[twon8]

I top off manually with RODI water twice a day, morning and night.

I would invest in a tunze osmolator or other ato device and use the Kalk via that route. It may be that the Kalk alone will meet your alk/Ca demands and you won't have to use two part

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I would invest in a tunze osmolator or other ato device and use the Kalk via that route. It may be that the Kalk alone will meet your alk/Ca demands and you won't have to use two part

Is an ATO really necessary? Sure it would be convenient but I see it as $200 that could be spent elsewhere. And if I'm not mistaken doesn't kalk start to fall off in usefulness once the demands get too high? Im not sure where that threshold is or how close I am to it but I feel like my tank is fairly stocked and I use a decent bit of 2 part. I could be wrong though and feel free to correct me please.

 

[twon8]

No it's not necessary but it's more than just convenient. It contributes to stability of your water parameters. Kalks' ability to maintain alk/ca is limited by your evaporation. It can be increased by adding vinegar to the reservoir. You may find that you do also have to use two part but you will have to use less

 

[Brandon McHenry]

No it's not necessary but it's more than just convenient. It contributes to stability of your water parameters. Kalks' ability to maintain alk/ca is limited by your evaporation. It can be increased by adding vinegar to the reservoir. You may find that you do also have to use two part but you will have to use less

I can see that. Well I guess until I get some spare money to buy a new piece of equipment I may just have to stick with the two part. It is looking like the BRS CaCl and Soda Ash are going to be winners, at least from what everyone is saying.

 

[Jdmonealp]

Here are the directions to the kit. If you can do some math and figure out how much powder is in a gallon, then you'll know how many gallons you can get out of the kit. I find it odd that they don't put that on the site.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Here are the directions to the kit. If you can do some math and figure out how much powder is in a gallon, then you'll know how many gallons you can get out of the kit. I find it odd that they don't put that on the site.

I agree that is odd. Dry weights never quite equate to volumetric measurements like the 1 gallon that they post on their website but it would appear that you could get like 6 gallons of liquid supplement from the 1 gallon of dry chemical. That would put you roughly at $4 per 1 gallon of liquid supplement, much cheaper than the Natureef 2 part that I use. This is starting to seem like my best bet.