Kessil

Maximum 2-Part Dosing

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pixelpixi

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I use B-Ionic and I'm having trouble keeping up with calcium and alkalinity even with the maximum dose recommended on the bottle. The bottle states "Never add more than 1ml per gallon of each component in a 24 hour period." My total system volume is about 50 gallons. If I add 50ml one day, it bumps it up to 10-11 dKh but then it's back down to 7dKh the next day.

Magnesium tends to run high in my tank, so I don't think it's an issue with calcium carbonate precipitating out. There seems to really be that much demand, mostly due to heavy growth of halimeda calcifying macro algae, I think.

Any advice? Should I just increase the amount of B-Ionic that I dose? That's potentially going to result in a fairly significant daily alk swing, but perhaps that's better than letting it run low.

Pruning the halimeda would help, but... it's pretty and I don't wanna. :)
 
I would dose it twice a day if you want to keep things really stable. Or get some peristaltic dosing pumps.
 
how concentrated is B-ionic? I dose about 2 cups (nearly 500mL) of my homemade 2-part.

But yeah, forget what it says about per 24 hours, simply add it slower, if you're having issues keeping up, obviously your tank will be swinging too far the other way as well.
 
"2800 meq/liter (7840 dKH). 1 ml per gallon of aquarium water will raise alkalinity by 0.74 meq/liter (2.07 dKH)"

How concentrated is your homemade stuff?

I suppose even if I were to dose it over an hour, it would still be a daily swing of 4 or 5 dKh. That seems like a lot. I guess maybe I need dosing pumps so I can dose it several times throughout the day.
 
I have a 28g tank, and when I first started hand dosing it was fine, but as time went on (and things grew in my tank) I was finding that I was having to dose so frequently, that I ended up getting a dosing pump. Now things are much more stable as a result.
 
Maybe that's what I'll do. I have a little aqualifter on a timer for top off. I could just get another one, use two top-off reservoirs, and add my weekly dose of two part to the reservoirs when I fill them up each week. That seems like a pretty decent solution for the cost of a $15 pump!

Mike Physics, what two-part recipe do you use? I'm thinking about making this one http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php. Where do you get your chemicals?

Thanks Mikes and Ian!
 
That calculator is neat!

Magnesium was 1600 ppm when I tested recently. I did some searching and couldn't find anything about negative effects from slightly elevated magnesium. Do you think it's a concern?
 
That's the one I use Erin, calcium part I get at Leslie's Pool Supply, "hardness plus" it's the more concentrated version of CaCl though, so use 20% less for that recipe. You can get soda ash there, but running the numbers the costco bag of Arm & Hammer just can't be beat, less than $6 for a 12 pound bag. I don't even bother baking the stuff too.
 
Version 1 of the diy recipe is 1900meq/l alk. Version 2 is half as strong.

Elevated Mg is ok, but check that snails aren't affected.

Dosing pumps are the way to go.

Most likely the halimedia is sucking down a lot of the alk.
 
So halimedia does consume alk at an uneven rate vs calcium?

And yeah dosing pumps are the way to go, I got a relatively cheap way to put together a neat system, however I was waiting for my reefkeeper to get the bugs knocked out, but I don't trust those SOBs in getting a fix "soon"
 
Halimedia consumes alk and calcium at the same ratio as corals. (it's building calcium carbonate) I've been talking in this thread about alk and not calcium just because it's easier to see fluctuations in alk and since alk affects pH, fluctuations are more of a concern.

Thanks, everyone. I'll get dosing pumps set up and keep an eye on my snails. :)
 
on the subject, what dosing pumps do people recommend? Is there such a thing as a reliable/ accurate pump which doesn't cost a fortune?
 
[quote author=Gomer link=topic=4603.msg56100#msg56100 date=1221840288]
on the subject, what dosing pumps do people recommend? Is there such a thing as a reliable/ accurate pump which doesn't cost a fortune?
[/quote]
i was going to ask the same thing. I really need to bring up my Alk. and keep it stable. I dont mind spending 250-500 for something. I just want it right.
 
I've heard of people using these dosing pumps as a cheap way of dosing. You just hook them up to a simple timer and turn it on for the appropriate time. I am possibly getting a couple of these to dose Ca and Alk.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Plumbing-and-Pumps-Dosing-and-Peristaltic-Pumps/c14_53/p461/Aqua-Medic-SP-3000-Dosing-Pump/product_info.html

Alternatively, there are more fancy ones such as these AquaMedic dosing pumps (I believe they sell them up to 4 pumps per unit):

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Plumbing-and-Pumps-Dosing-and-Peristaltic-Pumps/c14_53/p462/Aqua-Medic-Reefdoser-Twin-Dosing-Pump/product_info.html
 
Here's my DIY version
http://www.aptinstruments.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AI&Product_Code=SP100VO&Category_Code=SP100

add a wall wart for DC power, a POT to control the voltage (basically your knob to adjust) and you're set. Also you could hook it up to a timer as well so it only doses for a set period
 
Those look awesome, Mike! I like my little aqualifters but they're really way too fast and not terribly accurate. They make up a day's evaporation in less than 20 minutes.
 
Aqualifters have very poor pressure performance. Lift the output more than a couple feet over the pump and you are down to a trickle...which can be used to your advantage!
 
I bought "Drew's eco-doser" all set-up for $80, it's worked for a while now with no problems, I don't see it on the bulkreefsupply.com website right now though....
 
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