2 Questions, One about dosing programing and one about calcium level

[FairbanksReefer]

Hello, I have been manually dosing Seachem's Reef Fusion 2 part and decided to put it on a doser. Its a new tank, mostly small frags so it has really low demand. Wanted to see if anyone has thoughts about how I programed the doser? The idea was to run about 4 minutes a day but only if my alk is low right after trident test. The levels I have in the program, 9.11 and 9.25, are just where about my levels have been so I figured I would try to keep them there. I can move them slowly if I should shoot for different numbers.

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Alkx5 < 9.11 Then ON
If Alkx5 > 9.25 Then OFF
If Time 00:00 to 01:00 Then OFF
If Time 01:02 to 07:00 Then OFF
If Time 07:02 to 13:00 Then OFF
If Time 13:02 to 19:06 Then OFF
If Time 19:08 to 24:00 Then OFF


I also just noticed my calcium is pretty high, about 650... How big a deal is that? I pretty much planned to do some water changes over time and stop with part 1 from the 2 part. I had been dosing them in even amounts and thought 650ish was close to being in the right area until I looked up the proper levels again.

 

[HuduVudu]

Be very very very VERY cautious using closed feedback loops for dosing.

Probes are notoriously unreliable and if there is no mechanism to protect from a drifting or failing probe. REALLY bad things can and will happen.

 

[HuduVudu]

I also just noticed my calcium is pretty high, about 650... How big a deal is that? I pretty much planned to do some water changes over time and stop with part 1 from the 2 part. I had been dosing them in even amounts and thought 650ish was close to being in the right area until I looked up the proper levels again.

650 is not a good number to be working with. That said you need to bring it down slowly.

It is really important that you understand how 2 part works. You need to dose both parts because there are more than just calcium and carbonate (bicarbonate) being dosed. I would just stick to the water changes to lower the calcium and keep dosing in equal amounts.

 

[FairbanksReefer]

It is really important that you understand how 2 part works. You need to dose both parts because there are more than just calcium and carbonate (bicarbonate) being dosed. I would just stick to the water changes to lower the calcium and keep dosing in equal amounts.

Seachem's Reef Fusion says part 1 is caluim, mag, strontium, etc. and part 2 is carbonate and biocarbonate alkalinity. As far as I can tell part 2 is just alk and everything else is in part 1 so at a minimum I figured I need to stop dosing part one if not both for a bit.

 

[HuduVudu]

Seachem's Reef Fusion says part 1 is caluim, mag, strontium, etc. and part 2 is carbonate and biocarbonate alkalinity. As far as I can tell part 2 is just alk and everything else is in part 1 so at a minimum I figured I need to stop dosing part one if not both for a bit.

This is a common mistake.

Part 1 contains chloride and Part 2 contains sodium.

This is why you need both parts in equally. You can test for neither of these elements unless you use an ICP test and the effects of their being out of balance and by what degree is unknown.

If you dose just one then you will need water changes to bring the sodium and chloride back into balance. Also you need water changes to bring the sodium and chloride back into balance with the other elements even if you dosing equally. This needs to be clearly understood when dosing two part and sadly too many people think that they are just dosing the elements that they reading on the bottle.