Trying to cut costs by making own two part.

Genetics · Jan 3, 2023

It's the first week of 2023 and while I've been looking over things trying to find places to save a little cash I realized my newly setup reef is going through Component 1,,2, 3 from Aquaforest every 2 months. Easy 370 dollars a year in savings to make it myself. Reading up on Randy's Two-Part Solutions, I am trying to simplify it further for consistency and potentially fewer errors down the road.

Part 1
Its winter season and finding Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Chloride was relatively easy. The Calcium Chloride I found seems to be decent quality 94-97% calcium chloride with 2% potassium chloride and 1-3% sodium chloride. As this is the anhydrous mix I believe 2 cups of it per gallon are in order.

Part 2
Now if I work out sodium carbonate it comes out to 373g or roughly 2 cups?? also. Does this sound right? Would be way too easy if that is the case.

Part 3
This one is a bit trickier. As I want to create a mix that I can add 1:1:1 for simplification. I need 1/4 cup epsom and 2/5 cup mag chloride for each gallon.

Everyone agree this is correct? After working out the costs from purchase of materials a gallon of each part of solution is less than $1.

Genetics · Jan 3, 2023

Looks like I was wrong on the part 2. Seems soda ash should only require 3/5 cups.

redfishbluefish · Jan 3, 2023

I've been using Dr. Randy Holmes Farley's recipe for years, which you'll find HERE.

I use recipe 1....with calcium I'm using Preston Driveway Heat, so 2 cups per gallon. For the alkalinity part, I bake 2 1/4 cups of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda at 350F for an hour and let it cool; per gallon. It cost me less than five bucks a year to dose my 90 gallon tank.

I have the magnesium ingredients but haven't had to dose in years with my frequent water changes.

Genetics · Jan 4, 2023

redfishbluefish said:
I've been using Dr. Randy Holmes Farley's recipe for years, which you'll find HERE.

I use recipe 1....with calcium I'm using Preston Driveway Heat, so 2 cups per gallon. For the alkalinity part, I bake 2 1/4 cups of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda at 350F for an hour and let it cool; per gallon. It cost me less than five bucks a year to dose my 90 gallon tank.

I have the magnesium ingredients but haven't had to dose in years with my frequent water changes.

After baking your baking soda what is the amount left volume wise?

Gtinnel · Jan 4, 2023

Genetics said:
After baking your baking soda what is the amount left volume wise?

Are you starting with baking soda (sodium. Bicarbonate) that you bake in the oven or are you using soda ash (sodium carbonate)?

I may be wrong but I don’t believe the volume changes when it is baked, although the weight goes down.

redfishbluefish · Jan 4, 2023

Genetics said:
After baking your baking soda what is the amount left volume wise?

The baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) blows off carbon dioxide and water leaving you soda ash (sodium carbonate), and it's now approximately two cups.

2NaHCO3→Na2CO3+CO2+H2O

If you purchase soda ash, you want to use two cups per gallon for your alk solution.

Genetics · Jan 4, 2023

redfishbluefish said:
The baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) blows off carbon dioxide and water leaving you soda ash (sodium carbonate), and it's now approximately two cups.

2NaHCO3→Na2CO3+CO2+H2O

If you purchase soda ash, you want to use two cups per gallon for your alk solution.

I thought it was around 2 cups but looking up volume online I kept getting various numbers. Thanks for confirming!

Gtinnel · Jan 4, 2023

redfishbluefish said:
with calcium I'm using Preston Driveway Heat

Using Driveway heat do you get any precipitate in your mixing or dosing container?

I used it for a year or so but I would get a pink goo in my dosing container that eventually scared me away from using it. I have been looking into going away from the BRS calcium chloride that I have been using for several years now.

redfishbluefish · Jan 4, 2023

Gtinnel said:
Using Driveway heat do you get any precipitate in your mixing or dosing container?

I used it for a year or so but I would get a pink goo in my dosing container that eventually scared me away from using it. I have been looking into going away from the BRS calcium chloride that I have been using for several years now.

OK, first for a slight correction. My original bag of calcium chloride was Driveway Heat. After about 14-15 years, I ran out and last winter went to purchase another bag....and couldn't find it. However, I did find Winter Heat that was also produced by Scotswood Industries with same ingredient list. With both Driveway Heat and Winter Heat I do get a oh so light powdering of a precipitate in the bottom of the jug. I'm pretty sure Randy made comment on this a number of years age as something that was expected.

redfishbluefish · Jan 4, 2023

A Randy quote about the ppt in calcium chloride solution:

"I cannot tell much from the picture, but calcium chloride is completely soluble, while sometimes there are impurities in it that will precipitate and are usually of no concern."

Again, what I get is what I describe as a dusting of precipitate in the bottom of my jug.

Genetics · Jan 4, 2023

Gtinnel said:
I used it for a year or so but I would get a pink goo in my dosing container that eventually scared me away from using it.

This is what has scared me in the past from using this method. On a nano though I figure it’s worth a try. Finding quality ingredients is paramount. But also finding ingredients that are consistently available is also important.

Gtinnel · Jan 4, 2023

redfishbluefish said:
A Randy quote about the ppt in calcium chloride solution:

"I cannot tell much from the picture, but calcium chloride is completely soluble, while sometimes there are impurities in it that will precipitate and are usually of no concern."

Again, what I get is what I describe as a dusting of precipitate in the bottom of my jug.

It seems like I remember a BRS video where they were showing some diy 2 parts and they had pricipitate in some of theirs also.

When I was using Prestone driveway heat I was getting a fair amount, probably 1/2” or so at the bottom of my container.

Gtinnel · Jan 4, 2023

Genetics said:
This is what has scared me in the past from using this method. On a nano though I figure it’s worth a try. Finding quality ingredients is paramount. But also finding ingredients that are consistently available is also important.

I never had any issues even with the precipitate, but it just made me nervous so I switched to BRS calcium chloride. Now with my tanks demand going up and the cost of calcium chloride being way more than it was when I started using it I’ve been considering finding another source.

It’s still fairly affordable to use the BRS calcium chloride and much, much cheaper than any 2 part from an aquarium brand. It just bugs me paying $40 a bag for something that I can essentially buy as a driveway deicer for a small fraction of the cost.

threebuoys · Jan 4, 2023

I use these two products from amazon. They will last me for several lifetimes. I filled an empty salt bucket with part of the calcium chloride and used the rest on my driveway.

Be warned, Randy cautioned me to use either pharmaceutical or food grade products.I was not able to find a large quantity low price offering for the calcium chloride meeting that criteria so I have gambled and used this product. So far everything is working fine but this could be become a regret if conditions in the tank go south.

94% pure calcium chloride

The ingredients for this are as follows:
The material safety sheet shows:
94% Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)
5% Sodium Chloride (NaCl)
0.5% Magnesium (MgCl2)
0.25% Calcium Hydroxide (Ca(OH)2)
0.25% Insoluble Water
0.05% Sulfate (CaSO4)
0.006% Iron (Fe)

However the product has not been graded as food or pharmaceutical grade

Genetics · Jan 4, 2023

threebuoys said:
I use these two products from amazon. They will last me for several lifetimes. I filled an empty salt bucket with part of the calcium chloride and used the rest on my driveway.

Be warned, Randy cautioned me to use either pharmaceutical or food grade products.I was not able to find a large quantity low price offering for the calcium chloride meeting that criteria so I have gambled and used this product. So far everything is working fine but this could be become a regret if conditions in the tank go south.

94% pure calcium chloride

The ingredients for this are as follows:
The material safety sheet shows:
94% Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)
5% Sodium Chloride (NaCl)
0.5% Magnesium (MgCl2)
0.25% Calcium Hydroxide (Ca(OH)2)
0.25% Insoluble Water
0.05% Sulfate (CaSO4)
0.006% Iron (Fe)

However the product has not been graded as food or pharmaceutical grade

Always the safe play is with food/pharm grade materials. As long as the ratio is right though I’ll be able to figure out if something is wrong pretty quickly.

Sebastiancrab · Jan 4, 2023

redfishbluefish said:
I've been using Dr. Randy Holmes Farley's recipe for years, which you'll find HERE.

I use recipe 1....with calcium I'm using Preston Driveway Heat, so 2 cups per gallon. For the alkalinity part, I bake 2 1/4 cups of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda at 350F for an hour and let it cool; per gallon. It cost me less than five bucks a year to dose my 90 gallon tank.

I have the magnesium ingredients but haven't had to dose in years with my frequent water changes.

Why did you go with recipe 1 on the baking soda instead of recipe 2? I am trying to decide which one to do.

Gtinnel · Jan 4, 2023

Sebastiancrab said:
Why did you go with recipe 1 on the baking soda instead of recipe 2? I am trying to decide which one to do.

I realize you didn’t ask me but it offers a small pH boost. You can also substitute soda ash with lye (the quantity used to make the solution changes) to get a large pH boost. When I add alk solution to my dosing container I now use about 80% sodium carbonate solution and 20% sodium hydroxide solution to keep my pH elevated.

What you will want to use will be based upon your tanks pH.