Auto Dosing ALk and Calcium

zemuss · Nov 3, 2014

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
FWIW, the DIY is much less expensive. That's the only reason anyone would pick it (at least that I've ever heard), unless they live an a place where the commercial mixes are also just not available.

Yes what he said.. I just switched over an watching the parameters every other day.. Not going to go crazy chasing things.

zemuss · Nov 3, 2014

On Another note, I went to the LFS sunday to get my parameters checked.

Calcium dosing worked too well and we are at 490 now.
Alk was tested at 13 so I am hoping the dosing changes and switching to the BRS two part helps bring it down some. I didn't expect the B-ionic to be so concentrated fwiw but you learn from your mistakes.

Water change will happen tomorrow and friday.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 3, 2014

At 13 dKH, I'd probably stop dosing either until they come down a bit.

zemuss · Nov 3, 2014

yea I think you are right. Will stop the dosing tonight for a few days and when its in the 9 dkh and 420 calcium range start dosing again.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 3, 2014

Sounds good.

Good luck!

zemuss · Nov 4, 2014

The Dosing has been stopped for a 24 hour period and I took another reading today.
Calcium is at 430
ALK is now at 11.5

Going to wait another day and take readings again.

wangspeed · Nov 5, 2014

The Hanna Ca meter requires some adjustments to make consistent realistic measurements. I write them and they sent me a few additions to make it easier. The worst part is accurately measuring .1ml sample water and lab grade RODI. I'm guessing typical RODI that we use must have bacterial or container contaminates.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 5, 2014

zemuss said:
The Dosing has been stopped for a 24 hour period and I took another reading today.
Calcium is at 430
ALK is now at 11.5

Going to wait another day and take readings again.

Alkalinity is drifting down as expected, but the decline will slow as the alkalinity gets lower.

zemuss · Nov 5, 2014

Good to know thanks Randy. If I am back to around 10 or high 9's I might consider to start dosing again tomorrow but I think I am going to start with 2 mil a day and work up to the ideal dosing.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 5, 2014

That seems reasonable.

zemuss · Nov 13, 2014

Update.. I hit 9.8 a few days ago so I started dosing 2.2 mil of ALK and 4.4 mil of Calcium every 12 hours. So in a 24 hour period the tank is getting 4.4 / 8.8 respectively.

Calcium is at 410 so i will bump this up again because apparently something in my tank loves the Calcium.
Alk is at 10.1 which is a bit higher than i would like to run ALK at but will give it a few days before I turn the doser back off.

Also, I think I am still seeing the effects of the higher concentrated bi-ionic two part which was still left in the dosing pumps as I switched over to the BRS two part. Need to check this again tonight.

The bigger change that I saw is things are growing again or has stopped receding from the bottom up. Garf Bonsai was receding and browning, both have stopped and now waiting for the purple to come back. Grafted cap is starting to return to its green and red/orange colors. Setosa lost a lot of flesh but is hanging on too. Chalices and acans are making a come back too from tiny eyes and now you can see flesh.

Thanks for the help Randy much appreciated.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 13, 2014

You're welcome.

Glad things are on track.

Happy Reefing.

zemuss · Nov 19, 2014

Well just a update.. Alk is steady at 10.1 but Calcium is slowly decreasing and currently at 390. Going to bump up the calcium dosing to get it back to 420.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Nov 19, 2014

Sounds good.

Are you doing water changes?

zemuss · Dec 1, 2014

I have slacked off on the water changes but will be making water tonight for two 5 gallon changes. One tonight / tomorrow and one Friday or Saturday morning.

Last check Alk was 9.5 and Calcium 390 so I bumped the dosing of calcium to three times a day to bump the numbers up.

Checking parameters tonight as well.