Buffer Solution help...

TD13 · Dec 8, 2015

How in the world do you figure out what concentration to make a solution PER GALLON, that I can dose in small increments to my tank????? I'm using SeaChem Reef Builder and I can find how much does what, but I guess I'm missing something.

End goal- I would like to dose ~1 mL of something each hour for consistency purposes to maintain my Alk and pH. My goal is to have as low Alk as possible and maintain 8.3 pH. I just added a diy CO2 scrubber to my skimmer.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 8, 2015

You can use this calculator to determine how much is needed for a particular boost.

Then just dissolve that amount in the amount of water you want to dose (assuming you don't try to make it too concentrated):

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

That said, Reef Builder is a very bad choice to meet this goal (despite the ridiculous pH 8.3 claims):

" My goal is to have as low Alk as possible and maintain 8.3 pH"

Sodium carbonate (baked baking soda/washing soda) is a much better way to go. Limewater is better yet again.

AquamanE · Dec 8, 2015

IMHO Buffers are bad news.

TD13 · Dec 8, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
You can use this calculator to determine how much is needed for a particular boost.

Then just dissolve that amount in the amount of water you want to dose (assuming you don't try to make it too concentrated):

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

That said, Reef Builder is a very bad choice to meet this goal (despite the ridiculous pH 8.3 claims):

" My goal is to have as low Alk as possible and maintain 8.3 pH"

Sodium carbonate (baked baking soda/washing soda) is a much better way to go. Limewater is better yet again.

I have been dosing Limewater... about 26 mL per day into a 28 Gallon tank. I have a dosing pump running for 1:10/hr at night and 1:00 during the day on an Apex. I mixed 4 tsp into 1 gallon and let it settle. I then siphoned out from the middle, which is what I assume is concentrated LW, the excess Kalk that did not dissolve was at the bottom. The pH of the solution according to my Apex is 12.3, that may just be as high as the system will register. When I check my Alk with the Red Sea test I have and it says 10.1 dKH, my pH is consistently 8.16-8.17. If I take 5 mL of Red Sea Foundation B (liquid buffer) and add it to the tank, the pH raises to 8.3 or so and over about an hour and twenty minutes, returns to 8.16-8.17 Without adding the buffer the pH never gets above 8.17, seemingly now matter how much Limewater I add.

I have added Two Little Fishies CDX (Lime Soda) to a PhosBan 150 reactor( http://reefbuilders.com/2012/03/06/two-little-fishies-cdx/ ) and let the air intake for my skimmer run through it to remove CO2, doesn't seem to really be helping. I have no idea where to go from here.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 8, 2015

That's not much limewater. I replace all evaporated water with it, so more than 1% of the tank volume daily. 26 mL in a 28 gallon tank is about 0.025%.

Why not add 5x, 10x, 40x as much, and forget the buffers?

TD13 · Dec 8, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
That's not much limewater. I replace all evaporated water with it, so more than 1% of the tank volume daily. 26 mL in a 28 gallon tank is about 0.025%.

Why not add 5x, 10x, 40x as much, and forget the buffers?

Heard NIGHTMARISH thinks about Kalk, if it's safe to bump it up, cool. What, in your opinion is too much?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 8, 2015

TD13 said:
Heard NIGHTMARISH thinks about Kalk, if it's safe to bump it up, cool. What, in your opinion is too much?

Watch the alk and pH and there's no limit except replacement of all evaporation.

Dose it very slow.

Do you have a dosing pump or an ATO?

Adding 1.25% of the water volume will instantly boost pH by 0.6 pH units or so. Adding 1/10 that's amount will have 1/10 the effect.

Adding 0.025% will only boost pH by 0.01 pH unit, and that's only temporary.

TD13 · Dec 8, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Watch the alk and pH and there's no limit except replacement of all evaporation.

Dose it very slow.

Do you have a dosing pump or an ATO?

Adding 1.25% of the water volume will instantly boost pH by 0.6 pH units or so. Adding 1/10 that's amount will have 1/10 the effect.

Adding 0.025% will only boost pH by 0.01 pH unit, and that's only temporary.