What are you dosing?
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Forum Name: Reef Chemistry
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URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=78950
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Topic: What are you dosing?
Posted By: reefer86
Subject: What are you dosing?
Date Posted: January 29 2016 at 10:11pm
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I thought I'd start a thread on what Ca, Alk, Mag, etc people are dosing to get a sense of what most people in the club are using. It seems like there are a ton of different reef additives commercially available (or DIY alternatives) for maintaining Ca, Alk, Mag. I've been maintaining calcium and alkalinity with kalkwasser in my ATO reservoir, but I'm going to switch over to two-part soon. What two-part additive are you all using? DIY two-part or commercially available two-part? Also what do you think about two part additives that also contain other components such as borate and strontium etc? Thanks everybody! |
Replies:
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: January 29 2016 at 11:16pm
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I've used a few different two parts that are commercially bought I really like B-Ionic if I go that way. Right now I am using the bulk reef supply additives as you can buy the powders and mix them yourself so it ends up cheaper. ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: Marcoss
Date Posted: January 29 2016 at 11:33pm
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I use B-Ionic on both systems. Like Jackie said it can get costly so I don't know how scalable they are as I continue to grow. I like the convenience of using it and all my levels stay regular. I think eventually I'll switch over to a reactor when I'm ready to tackle learning it. ------------- RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin |
Posted By: phys
Date Posted: January 30 2016 at 3:58am
| I use seachem reef builder (powder) for alk and red sea magnesium and calcium. Seachem's bicarbonate to carbonate mix is better than most others and causes less issues from what I've seen. Red sea has the proper mix of sulfate to chloride while offering a better price point to others. Their calcium is high quality too. They all mix well and don't have any nasty trace elements. Other stuff I don't like to use (like baking soda, Epsom salts) because I've seen corals react poorly to them. They have more bad trace elements that may be harmful when built up in our systems with dosing. |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: January 30 2016 at 6:06am
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Alkalinity(Alk): Arm and Hammer Baking Soda combined with baked baking soda(soda ash/washing soda). Mixed in RO water and left to sit with extra on the bottom of the mixing bottle to concentrate the solution so dosing requires less liquid and makes a pretty cloud in the water. (FYI, the cloud is a temporary reaction with Mg in the water) Calcium(Ca): Calcium Chloride purchased as any of the common brands of CaCl2 Ice Melt such as Peladow and Morton mixed with RO water and separated from the residue. Magnesium(Mg): Epsom Salt mixed with RO water. Sometimes MgCl2 flake is used, but Utah Oolitic sand provides a fair amount of Mg so dosing isn't frequent. I've been growing all kinds of coral for profit for 20 years and cannot recall ever having a problem with my DIY mixes. Why DIY? The less I spent on supplements, the more profit I made.  Of course I am somewhat discriminating in what I buy and how I mix it. I'd be happy to offer mixing tips if you're interested. Last but not least, I dose Kent Coral-Vite. It has a buffet of useful coral growth enhancers and is less costly than other products made for the same purpose. There is more but that's the basics.  Aloha, Mark
 ------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member 
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Posted By: Fatman
Date Posted: January 30 2016 at 7:43am
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I use the Number 2 recipe from Randy Holmes-Farley. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/ Right now I'm dosing kalkwasser because I had it on hand and adding two part as needed. Fat |
Posted By: Electro4112
Date Posted: January 30 2016 at 8:27am
Hey marcos and jackie they also sell B-ionic by the 5 gallon bucket that makes 4 gallons of concentrate which seams more reasonable priced than the one gallon jug. |
Marcoss wrote:Posted By: Marcoss
Date Posted: February 01 2016 at 11:29am
Thanks! ------------- RedSea Max S400 - 90G Rimless Frag Tanks x2 - 185 Lookdown Bin |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: February 01 2016 at 1:32pm
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Been using BRS 2-part for years. Love how clean it is, how there is no residue in the container, and how i don't have to worry about the quality of the ingredients changing. I know what I'm getting every time. Just started my first system with a calcium reactor so I'll be running both on different tanks at my place. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Reefer4Ever
Date Posted: February 01 2016 at 6:44pm
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BRS 2 part as well. Always mixes easily and completely. Love the stuff. ------------- 90 gal reef w/refugium 24 gal softie tank 11 gal nano anemone tank 5 gal fresh water |
Posted By: neurotivity
Date Posted: February 02 2016 at 7:41am
| I use B-Ionic as well, it's relatively inexpensive opposed to other pre mixed 2-part solutions. As for dosing Mg, I swear by Aquavitro ions (Seachem) |
Posted By: relethg
Date Posted: February 02 2016 at 8:57am
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210 gallon uses Kalkwasser stirrer and use BRS two part with Fauna Balling Light Trace 1,2 and 3 added. 45 gallon uses BRS two part with Fauna Balling Light Trace 1,2 and 3 added The 120 I am setting up will have calc reactor and make up with 2 part. I use very little two part on the 210 gallon at this point because of the Kalk Stirrer. It adds about 2500 Ml a day to the system. Doser feeds the reactor and overflows into the sump. I like the BRS two part as it mixes easily and is a know. I have not tried the DYI 2 part. ------------- 210 G Filled 18 Mar 15 120 G Filled 11 Jun 16 |
Posted By: jsol12
Date Posted: March 15 2016 at 2:33pm
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This is a very helpful/informative thread. My question to add would be how many people manually dose vs use reactors/dosers and why?
------------- 150gal/25gal sump Red Sea Max S650, started 3/28/15 |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: March 15 2016 at 3:15pm
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What do you consider manual dosing? I think a large portion of the users responding on this thread have controllers and use parastaltic pumps to dose automatically. The main reason that most choose this option is for stability. Dosing in small amounts throughout the day ensures no spikes in the system parameters like there are if you dump a measuring cup of 2 part in a couple of times a day. Spikes in pH and Alkalinity from hand dosing can be harsh to SPS and some LPS corals and they will not do well in that setup. Reactors are along the same lines but can take some of the guess work out of the amount of each supplement to does because they (in theory) break down the media in the exact amounts needed by our corals. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: jsol12
Date Posted: March 15 2016 at 8:44pm
That just answered my question :) By manual dosing I meant what you said not to do, adding a measuring cup of whatever once/twice day. I suppose that may be what my problem is as I mentioned in my post today with the SPS, namely the acroporas. I haven't gotten any controllers or dosing pumps yet, and I get that a stable level would be much more desirable than a spike(s) each day. Just more equipment I need to add to my list.. ------------- 150gal/25gal sump Red Sea Max S650, started 3/28/15 |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: March 15 2016 at 9:03pm
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Jabao DP-4 is an inexpensive 4 channel dosing pump that works very well and is programmable. So you don't need a separate controller for the whole team. They can be picked up for less than $100 and each channel can be programmed individually. You should check them out. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: bstuver
Date Posted: March 15 2016 at 9:36pm
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Yeah I just got my jebao dp-4 through Amazon for $68 with prime shipping ------------- Jackie Stuver "wait these aren't the happy Hawaiians oompa doompa godly heaven on your face zoas? I dont want them then. lol!" Ksmart |
Posted By: jsol12
Date Posted: March 15 2016 at 10:07pm
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Thanks guys! I'm ALL about Amazon Prime!! ------------- 150gal/25gal sump Red Sea Max S650, started 3/28/15 |
Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: March 16 2016 at 6:02am
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Buy some extra heads or just some extra tubing for it. The tubing in it will last about a year and then needs to be replaced. Seams like a long time but it sneaks up fast. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |
Posted By: Mark Peterson
Date Posted: March 16 2016 at 8:08am
In previous coral farms I dosed manually because I could, I had the time to dose. In my most recent coral farm, I had more difficulty keeping Alk where it needed to be for the larger quantity of stony coral I was producing. I got tired of frequent dosing and testing. I was adding about 1-2 liters of homemade Alkalinity solution every week**. Setting up a single doser on an appliance timer to deliver my homemade Alkalinity solution was good for me and good for the coral. Aloha, Mark ** This was a 300 gal full coral farm. See the link below. About that same time, I was learning how to concentrate the Alkalinity dosing solution. Not that it really mattered, but it was fun to add the more concentrated solution and see it cloud up in the usual Mg reaction. http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=71912" rel="nofollow - http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=71912
------------- Reefkeeping Tips, & quick, easy setup tricks: www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9244 Pay it forward - become a paid WMAS member
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Posted By: Krazie4Acans
Date Posted: March 16 2016 at 8:22am
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Mark what were you using for the single doser? A BRS single 1.1ml/min doser costs ~$85 and an appliance timer is $8-$18 (for a digital one that will run in minutes instead of quarter hours or hours). That single doser setup costs as much or more than the DP-4. Even if you only use one channel of it that gives you everything built into a single programmable unit instead of trying to find a spot to plug in another appliance timer to your power strip. It's really hard to beat the price of the DP-4 for dosing setup. ------------- My ocean. 90g (yup, won it!), 40g, 28g, & 10g Systems PADI Advanced Open Water http://utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=63568&title=krazies-nano-paradise" rel="nofollow - Tank Thread: |