Ok I'm lost... CA and ALK

[clowninaround7474]

So my plan for the 60g cube is to be SPS dominant with zoa's and a few LPS here and there. In the past, I had more of an LPS dominant tank with some SPS (a few monti's and acros) but nothing crazy. I always had luck using Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium. Calcium and alk always seemed to stay in check. I've considered using this again but can't remember if the really includes anything to boost alk as well.

With some recent acro frags added to the tank, I wanted to really better my understanding of dosing and get some recommendations. I'm confident that my 5g water changes every 3-4 days won't keep up for long.

The monti's in the tank are really coloring up nice and already seeing growth so I'm happy with that, however, I know they're a whole lot different then acros.

I don't have room for a reactor and am nervous about dosing 2 Part as I've never done it before... And again have limited space in my stand.

Soooo..... What do I do? Again, I really liked the Bio-Calcium but is that the best option?

Any help/advice is very much appreciated.

Thanks!!!


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[sethsolomon]

Best option is a calcium reactor but it might be tough to get one of those to fit in the bottom of a 60g cube stand. And they are expensive.

 

[Cake_Boss]

2part info in my sig

 

[Bajamike]

2 BRS dosing pumps and timers. I like brs 2 part and they have very instructive videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVI69xOb_JM

http://brs.li/2partdosing

 

[clowninaround7474]

I watched this last night and it seemed to help clear things up. I am not sure if daily manual dosing will be what I'm looking to do so I guess I'll be looking into dosing pumps.

Any feedback on the Bubble Magus BM-T01 unit? Worth the cost? Any other automated units worth looking into?


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[sethsolomon]

I watched this last night and it seemed to help clear things up. I am not sure if daily manual dosing will be what I'm looking to do so I guess I'll be looking into dosing pumps.

Any feedback on the Bubble Magus BM-T01 unit? Worth the cost? Any other automated units worth looking into?


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Note with the BM dosing pump: Make sure the dosing bottles and tank the dosing is going into are on the same level and the pumps are above them. I have found that if the dosing bottles are up high it can create a siphon and end up dumping a whole bottle in the tank.

 

[Walter White]

2 BRS dosing pumps and timers. I like brs 2 part and they have very instructive videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVI69xOb_JM

http://brs.li/2partdosing

+1 this is what I always used on my SPS nano and was very successfull with it. I dosed manually for a long time until I got to the point where dosing what was needed in one dose caused too large of a ph fluctuation. Then I went to dosing with the BRS dosers and and a controller to break out the daily doses into four segments throughout the day. I don't believe in chasing ph around but this was a great way for stabilizing it. I was able to get my ph stable between 8.2 and 8.3 with it seldom ever going outside that range not a big deal but I felt like it was I nice perk to dosing.

i like a ca reactor better but unless you don't mind the thing sitting on the side of the stand it's just not a realistic option.

it will be awhile before you need to dose a significant amount so you could start out manually until you get a controller or while you think about a controller and get comfortable with it. Some are leery of running dosers for them getting stuck in the on position but in my personal opinion there are good ways to program dosers and there are better ways to program them. Of course the better way does cost more due to requiring more monitors and equipment redundancy which I'm also sure some will say more equipment means more failure points. Each to their own!

do you have a controller yet I don't recall? I think for your setup a pair of BRS doers are an excellent and reliable option. I have a pair for my 60 as well just incase I ever switch directions with my tank. If you do end up getting some (which Mike ^^^^^ has a great deal on a pair) let me know if you want any help setting them up.

if you are a person who is worried about dosing via a controller I can show you how to build what I call an outboard relay system which can act as a significant fail safe incase your controller ever gets a mind of its own and goes rouge.

 

[Walter White]

Note with the BM dosing pump: Make sure the dosing bottles and tank the dosing is going into are on the same level and the pumps are above them. I have found that if the dosing bottles are up high it can create a siphon and end up dumping a whole bottle in the tank.

if this is true the BM dosers must be very poorly made. One of the advantages of using peristaltic pumps Is there is no chance of back siphon and if there is then they are not creating a tight enough vacuum with the surgical tube and rollers to even dose accurately anyway which in my opinion is just as large if not larger concern than back siphoning.

 

[Shaunv]

Pick up this months issue of reef hobbyist. There is an article about automation that is pretty interesting. I don't automate anything yet so I don't have any real input to give.

 

[clowninaround7474]

Kris, thank you for your help. I may just start with manual dosing and see how that goes. When it gets to be too much I can invest in a more automated approach.

I guess I should note my concern. My ALK sits at about 7.7dKH after a water change and after 3 days drops to 7.3dKH. I would really like to get that up to 9dKH... Thus my need to start dosing.

Working on getting a calcium and magnesium test kit before I start adding anything


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[clowninaround7474]

Is there any downside to dosing calcium with the TM-Bio Calcium and raising ALK with soda ash?


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[Bajamike]

I personally like the red sea mag kit easy to use imo. Also the hanna checkers seem to be unreliable as of late. I have 3 brand new bottles of the reagent and 3 different readings

 

[Bajamike]

Is there any downside to dosing calcium with the TM-Bio Calcium and raising ALK with soda ash?


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soda ash raises ph sodium bicarbonate does not

 

[clowninaround7474]

So just regular baking soda is fine?


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[clowninaround7474]

Ok I was able to do a lot of reading and also got to test CA today.

PH: 8.2
CA: 440
dKH: 7.7

My overall goal was to keep dKH at 9 so using the BRS calculator I slowly dosed sodium bicarbonate (just used baking soda) and the dKH raised to exactly 9.

I'll test again tomorrow and see where the levels are and calculate consumption.

Thanks again for the help


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[Walter White]

What kind of salt you using kent? If so you may want to consider keeping alk around 8 as kent tends to be lower on alk and you won't need to worry as much about tweaking each water change batch to maintain 8. Just something to consider (if using kent).

 

[clowninaround7474]

Yea I'm using kent right now but have been looking into ESV. I'm trying to research it a little bit more but seems like it gives good results. Not sure how difficult mixing 4 different parts is.


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[Walter White]

I use ESV still by far my favorite salt.

 

[clowninaround7474]

Is there anywhere to get local?


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[Walter White]

Not that I have found. I just buy mine through marine depot. If you go this route get yourself a little food scale rated to at least 11lbs which measures in grams. I found one on Amazon for $15 that I like allot. You will want to weigh each component instead of use the provided measuring cups. You get super consistent batches this way.

it a little more of a pain and takes a bit longer but I always mix mine a few day in advance anyway to let it age a bit.