Not sure about the particular product you’re using , but with the Aquaforest components 1,2,3 you’re supposed to dose all three equally. That doesn’t mean when you start that it can be unbalanced.
What I mean is you base your dosing of components 1,2,3 off your Alkalinity consumption. If you’re using more Alkalinity than calcium for example you would need to dose pure Alkalinity.... not more of component 2.
The components 1,2,3 in this system are made to maintain levels not increase them.
Let me post this instructional page I made for you.
This is the best way I can explain how to use components 1,2,3.
How to lock in your components 1+,2+,3+ dosing.
Before you begin dosing make sure your salinity is correct!! If your salinity is not correct your Alkalinity, calcium and magnesium will not be in range.
Please ensure you know what the proper Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium levels are for the salinity you have. Please ensure your using a properly calibrated Seawater refractometer , not a saltwater refractometer. Those are for the food industry.
Before you begin dosing make sure your Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium are set , and balanced to your desired level.
Example :
Alkalinity 7.5 dkh
Calcium 415 ppm
Magnesium 1350 ppm
If your levels are not balanced to begin with then you will struggle during this process.
If you need to increase or decrease your levels it’s best to do this before you begin dosing.
Any adjustments needed to increase levels can be done with using individual solutions and NOT with components 1,2,3.
Once your levels are balanced and are set your ready to begin the process of dosing your components 1+,2+,3+.
Day 1.
Test your Alkalinity , let’s say at 4:00pm
Write down your result.... example: 7.5dkh
Do not dose any Alkalinity products... none .
No component 2 , no Alkalinity buffer at all.
Day 2.
Test your Alkalinity 24 hours later at 4:00pm again.
Write down your result..... example: 7.3dkh
Do not dose any Alkalinity products... none .
No component 2 , no Alkalinity buffer at all.
Day 3.
Test your Alkalinity 24 hours later at 4:00pm again.
Write down your result..... example: 7.1dkh
Do this same process several days in a row until you discover your daily consumption.
In this example we can see that our consumption is about .2dkh per day.
This is what we want to match.
Before we start dosing we must test all of our levels again and make our adjustments to get them back where we need them.
FIRST we need to reset our levels again, get things back into balance.
Alkalinity 7.5
Calcium 415 ppm
Magnesium 1350 ppm
Now that we are again balanced. We can start dosing.
We will start with component +2
So for this example it will vary on tank volume
This is just an example:
So we dose 25ml of components 1,2,3 spread out over a 24hour period.
After 24hours of dosing, we test again.
We see our Alkalinity is still dropping,it’s now 7.3 dkh (remember we reset it to 7.5 before we began dosing).
So now we know we are not dosing enough components 1,2,3. We need to increase our dosing.
(*If your levels rise instead of fall then your dosing to much and should stop until your levels drop back down . Then once your reset, you can begin again but at a lower amount. *)
Continuing:
FIRST we need to reset our levels again, get things back into balance.
Alkalinity 7.5
Calcium 415 ppm
Magnesium 1350 ppm
Now we are ready to begin again to match our consumption :
So we know 25ml was not enough, we will increase 5ml of each component 1,2,3.
We begin dosing 30ml of each component 1,2,3.
24 hours later we test again. We see our Alkalinity is now 7.4dkh. We are getting closer!
(*If your levels rise instead of fall then your dosing to much and should stop until your levels drop back down . Then once your reset, you can begin again but at a lower amount. *)
FIRST we need to reset our levels again, get things back into balance.
Alkalinity 7.5
Calcium 415 ppm
Magnesium 1350 ppm
So we know 30ml was not enough, we will increase 5ml of each component 1,2,3.
Our new dosing amount is 35ml of each component 1,2,3
24 hours later we test again. We see our Alkalinity is now 7.5dkh. We are right on target , but we will continue to test all of our levels and make the minor adjustments if we need to. You MUST do this with individual solutions. You also need to make sure that your levels do not drift up. If they do then make minor adjustments to your dosing of components 1,2,3.
Example : lower each component 1ml until the drift upwards stops.
Our final result is equal dosing of components 1,2,3 @ 35ml per 24hours.
probably not been updated in a while.
