Ca and Mg source I found today.
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Topic: Ca and Mg source I found today.
Posted By: gateb
Subject: Ca and Mg source I found today.
Date Posted: February 16 2007 at 12:20pm
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I found this site:
http://www.twopartsolution.com - www.twopartsolution.com
and ordered 20lbs of CaOH and 32 cups of Mag Flake today since I haven't been able to find any Mrs. Wages in the stores in Ogden. 20 lbs of CaOH is only $29.99 and the 32 cups of Mag Flake is $19.99. Not sure how much 32 cups of Mag Flake weighs, but the shipping on both items was $26.00. Just thought I'd pass on this info to anyone that may be looking for these items.
Bryan ------------- 120 Gal RR 2 Pan World 100PX return pumps AquaC EV-180 w\Mag 9 40 + 13 Gal refugia 2 175w Iwasaki Aqua2 MH 4 48" URI Super Actinic VHO IceCap MH and VHO Ballasts Ogden, UT |
Replies:
Posted By: ReefBones
Date Posted: February 16 2007 at 12:40pm
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you can get all this stuff locally ...
here is the info onj how to mix the stuff:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php - http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php ------------- 140 gallon Reef 65 gallon Reef 55 gallon Aggressive www.thesalttank.com 801-865-6074 "encourage other divers and sea enthusiasts to take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but bubbles" |
Posted By: Kevin
Date Posted: February 16 2007 at 1:17pm
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Where can you get all this stuff locally? I know I can get the pedalow locally, but how about the magnezium?
Jon Finch said there was a place that you could buy food grade magnezium locally but it was not as cheep as getting a bag of mag flake. If you know I would like to hear about it. |
Posted By: ReefBones
Date Posted: February 16 2007 at 1:40pm
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I do believe its available at home depot ... ------------- 140 gallon Reef 65 gallon Reef 55 gallon Aggressive www.thesalttank.com 801-865-6074 "encourage other divers and sea enthusiasts to take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but bubbles" |
Posted By: jfinch
Date Posted: February 16 2007 at 2:01pm
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I prefer food grade products if available, so for lime I prefer Mrs. Wage's ( http://www.mrswages.com - www.mrswages.com ) or Ball brand (which is getting hard to find). The lime at Home Depot is not food grade, but might be ok to use. Peladow, Dowflake, Prestone Driveway Heat are all available locally.
MgCl2 can be bought at The Chem Shop in Centerville for about $20 for 10lbs. It is not the Dead Sea brand and is manufactured from the Solvay process which means it has residual ammonia in the mix. As a supplement that's not much of a problem, but I wouldn't use it for a salt mix.
Epsom Salt is also an ok Mg supplement and be bought at any pharmacy and is pharmaceutical grade. ------------- Jon https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6y_EzjI_ljbIwf2n5uNzTw" rel="nofollow - What I've been doing... |
Posted By: gateb
Date Posted: February 16 2007 at 2:03pm
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Peladow is Calcium Chloride (CaCl), not Calcium Hydroxide (CaOH, Kalkwasser). All I've seen at Home Depot and Lowes in Ogden is Prestone Driveway Heat (CaCl) for $8 for a antifreeze container sized bottle. Anyway I've probably spent more than the shipping costs already putting gas in my 12 miles per gallon SUV driving around looking for Peladow and Mrs. Wages.
I can't get my ph above 8.1 anymore which I've read can happen when using CaCl for long periods of time. So I'm going to try using Kalkwasser and see how it goes. ------------- 120 Gal RR 2 Pan World 100PX return pumps AquaC EV-180 w\Mag 9 40 + 13 Gal refugia 2 175w Iwasaki Aqua2 MH 4 48" URI Super Actinic VHO IceCap MH and VHO Ballasts Ogden, UT |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: February 16 2007 at 2:05pm
| I'd like to know where you can find the Magnesium locally - I just ran out. |
Posted By: ReefBones
Date Posted: February 16 2007 at 2:35pm
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Really .. is it worth it? .. who really used this DIY for a long time? ... I am really thinking about going back to B-Ionic .... since I have started using the Preston driveway heat and baked baking soda I cant seem to get my Ca up past 360 .. and my alk is down to 9 ... and I have NEVER been able to get my PH past 8.0 anyway .. so ... (I know tests are not bad but they could be better). but with B-Ionic I was able to maintain my Ca at 400 and my Alk at 10.5 ... and I used a whole lot less of each (50 Ml VS 210 Ml) .... ------------- 140 gallon Reef 65 gallon Reef 55 gallon Aggressive www.thesalttank.com 801-865-6074 "encourage other divers and sea enthusiasts to take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but bubbles" |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: February 16 2007 at 2:44pm
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Lots of people use this method, but you should use whatever you feel most comfortable with. I am more comfortable with this method because of the price.
 Isn't your ph suppose to be 8.0? |
Posted By: ReefBones
Date Posted: February 16 2007 at 2:48pm
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Well .. if anyone has any MAG Flake they would be willing to sell .. please let me know!!!!! ... I need some ...
I may have made the Ca too weak .. I think I only used 2 cups per gallon ... and after reading that site that I posted I should have used 2 1/2 cups of the prestone driveway heat ....
I will remix and try again ...
BTW .. I thought that 8.3 was the target for PH ------------- 140 gallon Reef 65 gallon Reef 55 gallon Aggressive www.thesalttank.com 801-865-6074 "encourage other divers and sea enthusiasts to take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but bubbles" |
Posted By: gateb
Date Posted: February 16 2007 at 2:58pm
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Yeah, I've been using Seachem Advantage Calcium and Reef Builder for 2 years, not the DIY additives. I also run Rowa Phos in a reactor and my phosphates are slowly climbing (was .2 yesterday). Kalkwasser is supposed to help keep phosphates down and not give you the buildup of chloride ion that I've read can depress ph and alk when used long term.
Anyway I'm going to give Kalkwasser a try for a while just to see how my tank does. I have 2 Premium Aquatics controllers on my tank and I clean and callibrate the ph probes (3 point calibratrion) regularly, so my ph readings should be good. They are always pretty close in the readings on the display.
So maybe I should just be satisfied that the ph stays fairly constant as does my Dkh at about 10-12 by adding 3 tablespoons of Reef Builder every 3 or 4 days. Also my Ca stays at about 400 adding 3 tablespoons of Reef Advantage Calcuim every 3 or 4 days.
Guess we're always experimenting and trying to find better and hopefully less expensive ways to take care of our tanks and there really is no one perfect method to maintain Ca and Alk. Meanwhile the animals in our tanks are doing well, but we always think we could be doing something better. ------------- 120 Gal RR 2 Pan World 100PX return pumps AquaC EV-180 w\Mag 9 40 + 13 Gal refugia 2 175w Iwasaki Aqua2 MH 4 48" URI Super Actinic VHO IceCap MH and VHO Ballasts Ogden, UT |
Posted By: gateb
Date Posted: February 20 2007 at 7:17pm
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I got my shipment today, so it only took 4 days USPS Priority Mail and that's with the President's Day holiday yesterday. The Kalkwasser is food grade (VitaCal� H Calcium Hydroxide): http://www.mississippilime.com/products/hydratedlime/vitacalhcalciumhydroxide - http://www.mississippilime.com/products/hydratedlime/vitacalhcalciumhydroxide It came to only $2.30 a pound delivered in 2 boxes ($29.99 + $8.10 shipping per 10 lb. box). Buying Mrs. Wages online is $45.00 for a 12 oz. case + whatever shipping is. So looks like it's a pretty good deal since I can't find it in Ogden. Now I just have to read up on how to use the stuff. I was a chem major before I got into the computer field, so it shouldn't be that tough to figure out. Guess I could set up one of my controllers to maintain a ph of 8.3 and have it control a pump to keep the ph at that level. Also I'll keep an eye on Ca and Alk to see if I still need to add any Seachem Ca and Reef Builder to supplement the Kalkwasser. Any suggestions from anyone that has experience with this would be appreciated. Thanks, Bryan Also I got my algae only second refugium going on my tank last night. I modified the unused bio tower from my old wet/dry and since it's black acrylic I'm going to run it 24/7. Never seem to run out of things to do to improve my tank. ------------- 120 Gal RR 2 Pan World 100PX return pumps AquaC EV-180 w\Mag 9 40 + 13 Gal refugia 2 175w Iwasaki Aqua2 MH 4 48" URI Super Actinic VHO IceCap MH and VHO Ballasts Ogden, UT |
Posted By: Shane H
Date Posted: February 20 2007 at 10:27pm
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Do a search for kalkwasser on this board and you should be able to find plenty of information of how to use/dose it. You can also check out the Presentations section to the left. There is a DIY presentation on building a kw reactor. This is a good method to deliver kalkwasser. It doesn't have to be that complicated, but its an awesome gadget and easy to build.
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Posted By: gateb
Date Posted: February 20 2007 at 11:13pm
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Thanks for pointing me to the kw reactor presentations Shane. Building a DIY Kw reactor is what I will do then. The fact that my ph has slowly been trending downward despite good (10-12 dkh) consistent alk readings has been worrying me. Reef Buffer doesn�t raise it at all anymore and the lows are now getting to 7.8 at night. And I do open the window next to the tank a couple of times a week. My poor tank was moved twice last year and I'm finally getting the upper hand on the algae bloom that has plagued it the last few months after the last move in October. You always read that bad things happen quicky and good ones slowly and that seems to be the case here. My tank is using more and more Ca these days and the excess chloride that I'm probably dumping in the tank with the products I've been using is something I've been giving a lot of thought to lately. Anyway, I'll see how it goes with the CaOH. ------------- 120 Gal RR 2 Pan World 100PX return pumps AquaC EV-180 w\Mag 9 40 + 13 Gal refugia 2 175w Iwasaki Aqua2 MH 4 48" URI Super Actinic VHO IceCap MH and VHO Ballasts Ogden, UT |