ATI Essentials pro Alkalinity has solidified somewhat

The Opinionated Reefer · Apr 25, 2019

I have a couple of bottles of ATI Essentials pro the two-part version. It's been sitting for a while and I have noticed in the alkalinity bottle that some of it has solidified into a solid lump at the bottom of the bottle. Is there any way to get this back into the solution? There has only ever been a tiny amount taken out this 2 Litre bottle and I don't want to waste it. But if I dose it the way it is surely the alkalinity will have been reduced in potency and it will no longer be a balanced two part.

ryeguyy84 · Apr 25, 2019

Try soaking it in hot water then shake. I'm not sure if anything will be lost but that should get it back in suspension

WWIII · Apr 25, 2019

All of mine came like this. I assume the cold weather when it was shipped led to the alk part forming solid partially. I soaked in hot water bucket for an hour and that got 95% of it. I ended up diluting the solution to make a whole gallon. That worked and it remained liquid from there on out.

ComfortRacing · Feb 17, 2022

Yeah so weird. Mine was delivered and part one has a 5”x2” solid white chuck of something that i now butt u m e is what you are talking about.

I.AM.MR.MIKE · Mar 30, 2022

Just had same issue with the 2 liter alk bottle. Soaked in hot water in a sink and shook a lot. Took over an hour. I didn't dilute. I am switching from Reef Fusion 1 & 2.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 31, 2022

Yes, many two part systems are close to the solubility limit in the alk part, and if it gets cold, the material (sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate) can precipitate.

Heating and/or diluting will generally solve the problem.

I.AM.MR.MIKE · Apr 1, 2022

Starting to think I should have stuck with Reef Fusion. I am dosing undiluted and was dosing around 30ml of Fusion 1 and 25 ml of Fusion 2 prior per day. I started dosing the essentials pro at 8ml each because it is so strong according to ATI and Alk dropped from 8.5 to 7.8 in a day and Calcium from 455 to 405. Trident controlled dosing. As it was dropping I was tweaking the Trident controlled level lower and lower to keep it from defaulting. Anyway I dosed around 30ml of each essential pro and still at 7.9 and 415. Got home and tested with test kits to confirm Trident readings and they are correct. I turned off the Essentials Pro 2 pump today and manually dosed 15ml of Pro 1 and tested 30 minutes later and Alk went from 7.8 to 8.1.... Bad Pro 1? I don't know... This is a Reefer 250 with SPS frags up to small colonies.

May order a gallon each of Fusion and keep using...

I.AM.MR.MIKE · Apr 1, 2022

Maybe a magic solution that resets to 8 and 415 or as close as possible. I feel I could dump a liter of Essential pro 1 and test and maybe hit 9 then test half hour later and be near 8 again.

I.AM.MR.MIKE · Apr 1, 2022

Ok manually held button on DOS for Pro 1 and got my ALK to 8.35. An hour later I held the button on my DOS for Pro 2 and dosed 2.4ml. My calcium was at 435 prior to this 2.4ml dose. I waited 15 minutes and tested. My ALK dropped to 8.11 and Calcium went to 437. All of this during lights out. I don't get it. All I can figure is Essentials Pro is so concentrated that it just will not work at full strength in a 250 liter tank because even dosed a half hour apart it precipitates.

I.AM.MR.MIKE · Apr 1, 2022

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Yes, many two part systems are close to the solubility limit in the alk part, and if it gets cold, the material (sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate) can precipitate.

Heating and/or diluting will generally solve the problem.

Any ideas Randy - see my last few posts.

I.AM.MR.MIKE · Apr 1, 2022

By the way, every doser I ever had, even the cheapest had an anti-interference setting for dosing. I could set a minimum time between dosing each one. Now with the most expensive system I ever bought, Trident,DOS and DDR and Trident controlled dosing I do not get this setting. This is so ridiculous and I see it has been an issue since inception. Trident controlled dosing will dose at the same time or 1 minutes apart etc... SO SHORT SIGHTED NEPTUNE!!! I don't want to hear that I can dose right into a power head and it will solve this etc etc... I am dosing 3 feet apart and into power heads.

Quit making excuses for Neptunes short sighted issues and lack of fixing known issues.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 2, 2022

Concentration should not make it any less effective, unless too much is dosed at once, inducing calcium carbonate precipitation.

If you prefer the ATI, and think it may be the potency, it's fine to dilute it with RO/DI.

Otherwise, just dose more and don't fixate on the stated potency since changes in other things may alter the demand (like the pH).

I.AM.MR.MIKE · Apr 2, 2022

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Concentration should not make it any less effective, unless too much is dosed at once, inducing calcium carbonate precipitation.

If you prefer the ATI, and think it may be the potency, it's fine to dilute it with RO/DI.

Otherwise, just dose more and don't fixate on the stated potency since changes in other things may alter the demand (like the pH).

Based on your response in another post by a different Reefer I figured since I was dosing 30ml of Fusion 1 and 25ml of Fusion two I should be dosing around 12ml of essentials pro 1 and 2 undiluted. He is diluting 9 to 1.

QUOTE: