About to start dosing... 1 last question

Shawn_epicurious · Jul 25, 2020

It looks like I am all set to start dosing. The pics below show my water parameters as of last night. There is also a pic of the 2 Part dosing kit I got from BRS. I’ve watched the videos... done the math on their calculator. I am feeling comfortable. .....with one looming question.

background: 200 gallon. mixed reef, no SPS in tank yet... my water parameters are what my water change routine, current bioload, feeding Habits and all other routines produce on their own.

So, this 2 part dosing kit is really three parts : ) my only question is this... can I “not” dose the calcium chloride and still dose the soda ash? My calcium is fine at the moment... nothing in my tank is really using it (live rock, coraline, conches and snails) my calcium number never move... I’d like to increase the Alkalinity and Magnesium at a little...

the question might have gotten lost in there... can I skip the calcium chloride for now?

Flippers4pups · Jul 25, 2020

Yes you can dose independently depending on the needs of the tank.

Shawn_epicurious · Jul 25, 2020

Flippers4pups said:
Yes you can dose independently depending on the needs of the tank.

Thank you!!!

Flippers4pups · Jul 25, 2020

Shawn_epicurious said:
Thank you!!!

Your welcome.

blasterman · Jul 25, 2020

Yes, you can skip calcium. With no hard corals in your tank calcium can be replenished via occasional water changes. That's assuming it will fall at all which it wont. Even if you buy some SPS frags calcium levels wont budge much because a 200gal tank has so much of it.

Alkalinity is consumed by hard corals but also many other biological processes. Especially younger tanks. A common and harmless diatom bloom after cycling can make your alk plummet which inexperienced reefers think is being consumed by corals. They then start dosing and end up with inevitable sky high calcium because nothing is really consuming it. They then have to use water changes to get their sky high calcium down which disrupts nutrient levels and further ticking off coral.

Until you actually see calcium levels drop on a daily basic , and that will require SPS corals or clams theres no point in two part dosing.

Crustaceon · Jul 25, 2020

This hasn’t been mentioned and is a little off topic but it’s worth saying. When you dose soda ash, add it EXTREMELY slowly and directly into a circulation pump. I’m talking 10ml per minute at the most. You can get precipitation issues really easily using soda ash and by doing this, you’ll avoid that issue and save yourself a headache.

Shawn_epicurious · Jul 25, 2020

Crustaceon said:
This hasn’t been mentioned and is a little off topic but it’s worth saying. When you dose soda ash, add it EXTREMELY slowly and directly into a circulation pump. I’m talking 10ml per minute at the most. You can get precipitation issues really easily using soda ash and by doing this, you’ll avoid that issue and save yourself a headache.

Good advice! So, yeah... I just put 1.5 ounces in. I poured it in slowly directly into a Powerhead, but I didn’t pour that slow : ( I’ll remember that

Shawn_epicurious · Jul 25, 2020

Lol... I just dosed my tank for the first time ever.... I feel all grown up now hahahahaha

Shawn_epicurious · Jul 25, 2020

R2R has made my reefer life so easy, the only wat it could be better is if one of you volunteered to clean my tank! : p

Thank you everyone!

Shawn_epicurious · Jul 26, 2020

When I first used the BRS dosing calculator to determine how much Magnesium I needed to dose, I thought I did the calc wrong.... maybe picked the wrong media or something. It was telling my I need a LOT of that dosing liquid.

Wow, it takes a lot to get that number to move. How much can I get away with dosing? I am dosing very small amounts (mostly out of fear) so that I don’t have any huge a day swings. I have been using 3 ounces of the Mag mix.

i am not chasing a number. Not really... just getting it up to around 1,350... ish

Shawn_epicurious · Aug 21, 2020

I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually had a last question. Haha.

Not really a question, more of a comment for conversation.... my biggest surprise since I started dosing.

...the sheer volume of product it takes to make a minor move and stay in the right range...

Everyone here has told me to make “small moves”... everyone. These products that are out there... they did the math already. Most of those companies “suggest” using a higher level of their products than I actually use. My point is... they have gotten to the point with these products, that they almost take ignorance out of the equation They are designed to make “small moves”

I am still amazed by how many ounces of calcium chloride mix it takes to move a number I use the BRS 1 gallon pre-measured calcium chloride mix And RODI water.