Cant keep up Alkalinity

[beaslbob]

using the diy 2 part, the alk is just baking soda. Which should not be on issue on expense.

I was wondering why you switched.

 

[blasterman]

One of those discussions I cant believe is happening.

Alk = baking soda. Yep...the box sold at the grocery store for .99 cents. Food grade sodium bicarb ( baking soda) > reef grade. Ask a chemist, not a marketing guy in a youtube video.

If you are manually dosing then just use any online reef calculator , pull some tank water in quart juice jug , add the appropriate amount of baking soda via measuring with a teaspoon , shake it, dump back into tank, save massive amounts of $$$. Worked for me for the last two decades.

If you want to buy a few tablespoons of baking soda in water in a fancy plastic bottle I will happily sell you bags of dehydrated water.

 

[W1ngz]

This is true if you only consider alkalinity. A full dosing system with trace elements is more than that.

The actual issue if you re-read the thread, is the increasing costs for a student. She has advice that will cut the cost of her chosen method of maintaining her tank.

One of those discussions I cant believe is happening.

Alk = baking soda. Yep...the box sold at the grocery store for .99 cents. Food grade sodium bicarb ( baking soda) > reef grade. Ask a chemist, not a marketing guy in a youtube video.

If you are manually dosing then just use any online reef calculator , pull some tank water in quart juice jug , add the appropriate amount of baking soda via measuring with a teaspoon , shake it, dump back into tank, save massive amounts of $$$. Worked for me for the last two decades.

If you want to buy a few tablespoons of baking soda in water in a fancy plastic bottle I will happily sell you bags of dehydrated water.

 

[Bluespottedjawfish1]

I had exactly the same problem with AF 123. Just too expensive and never seemed to get to the level I wanted, changed over to the ESV concentrated solution. Just have to add RODI and I have great results.

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Test your mag. I had similar issues long ago. Low mag.

 

[Javamahn]

Why when most people speak of dosing do they reference the parameters levels they are trying to maintain instead of the daily consumption? Is it more difficult or does it take more supplements to maintain higher levels of the 3 main elements tested? And I totally agree with mixing your own AF 123+ which is far less expensive and you can supplement dose the dry ingredients alone if needed without adding more trace elements. I buy the large KH Buffer and the smaller sizes of the other 3 knowing that my tank does require a few manual doses for alkalinity so I use more of that.

 

[TARHEEL78]

Depends on the area.. where I am there is lots of first timers giving up and selling or trashing entire setups posting that they are sitting it at the curb as trash.. I run and pick up these ASAP sometimes it’s alreafy gone others I get a decent haul. The rest of the time I’m buying say someone’s used 125g salt tank for say $250 when I get there I see 2. Jackets of crushed corals, few hob filters and volume lights from smaller tanks.. I’ll offer them $300 for everything.bow I have a new tank I tear apart and reseal and bunch of equipment and supplies I didn’t need. Most times lights just need new $2 ballast or bulbs lol. Pumps just need cleaning. I have a 125 running bow that has two old ehime heaters that were at least 5 yo when I got them I can’t even read the writing in the calibration dial they are so worn. They are still running flawlessly and keep tank within 1* temp ranges even though I run my house st 76 during day and 68 at night lol. That tanks been setup for 3 years now with those heaters now approaching 8-9yo lol. Setup a new pico tank recently and used some crushed coral from a bucket I got for free as an extra as the bed for my fuge.. wove birches about all the crap I have but yet I build entire setups off pennies and junk I simply clean up and others I resell to buy new stuff. Just last week the light in my 75g turtle tank for the fish side quit. Went to garage dug out an old 36” si glue bulb hood for a 30g tank stripped the lighting part and it fits nicely lighting the area where the turtles basking area isn’t.. it’s amazing in my local area how much good stuff people are willing to give away when buying something else or sell for a fraction of the value simply cause they can’t order and replace a $5 part in a $60 light fixture like a ballast.

Palm Coast is a huge den of stupid. I lived there for a few years before it got really busy. Now I don't even like going there to visit people.

 

[marco fish]

Hey guys, i use Aquaforest components 1 2 3 with tropic marine pro reef salt and i cant keep up my alkalinity in desired ranges.

I cant keep my alkalinity at 7+ dosing 75ml of each component currently for my 65g lps dominated mixed reef. Afaik this is the recommended dose for a tank of that size. If i increase dosage further i cant efford the product. Is it unrealistic to call 50$ every ~1,5 months to expensive? Am i doing something wrong? Advice on what to dose otherwise? Help would be highly appreciated. Im reefing on a budget and i would still like to maintain my tank parameters with a dosingpump.

I use Aquaforest 123 too, and there salts as well. I am currently dosing 180 mls in about 160 gallons of total water volume via dosing pumps on a 24 hour cycle just make sure that you give them at least 15 minutes in between doses, it’s much better for stability. Buy the dry components, remember to get the micro elements too, and mix them in the 4 liter jugs that you got in the beginning. The only other thing that you need to get is a small food scale from amazon, they are not expensive! Fill the jugs with RODI water and leave them outside in the heat for a couple of hours, it makes mixing quicker and easier. The mixing chart has been already posted. Remember as your corals grow the consumption is going to rise and you have to adjust accordingly. I hope that this helps you out.

 

[Javamahn]

So did a quick cost comparison premix vs mix your own and based on today's MAP prices. The premix costs you $11.40 per liter of all 3 solutions. Mixing your own is about $5.53 for 1 liter of all 3 solutions based on a maximum of 15 liters mixed of DIY 2+ which is usually the 1st container to run out when you buy the smaller containers of all the dry ingredients. Naturally, the larger containers will last longer and you will see a bigger cost savings. The estimate does not include the cost of scale or the RODI.

 

[Kirschy17]

I use Aquaforest 123 too, and there salts as well. I am currently dosing 180 mls in about 160 gallons of total water volume via dosing pumps on a 24 hour cycle just make sure that you give them at least 15 minutes in between doses, it’s much better for stability. Buy the dry components, remember to get the micro elements too, and mix them in the 4 liter jugs that you got in the beginning. The only other thing that you need to get is a small food scale from amazon, they are not expensive! Fill the jugs with RODI water and leave them outside in the heat for a couple of hours, it makes mixing quicker and easier. The mixing chart has been already posted. Remember as your corals grow the consumption is going to rise and you have to adjust accordingly. I hope that this helps you out.

Thats what i plan on doing! Thanks for all the responses

 

[Kirschy17]

So did a quick cost comparison premix vs mix your own and based on today's MAP prices. The premix costs you $11.40 per liter of all 3 solutions. Mixing your own is about $5.53 for 1 liter of all 3 solutions based on a maximum of 15 liters mixed of DIY 2+ which is usually the 1st container to run out when you buy the smaller containers of all the dry ingredients. Naturally, the larger containers will last longer and you will see a bigger cost savings. The estimate does not include the cost of scale or the RODI.

I will definetely go about buying the dry components and mixing on my own. Where im at the 5000g of alk/cal/mag cost 30€ and the components strong cost 22€. So for 112€ ill have plenty to work for quite a while

 

[Kirschy17]

L

Why when most people speak of dosing do they reference the parameters levels they are trying to maintain instead of the daily consumption? Is it more difficult or does it take more supplements to maintain higher levels of the 3 main elements tested? And I totally agree with mixing your own AF 123+ which is far less expensive and you can supplement dose the dry ingredients alone if needed without adding more trace elements. I buy the large KH Buffer and the smaller sizes of the other 3 knowing that my tank does require a few manual doses for alkalinity so I use more of that.

Tbh i felt like this would be the failsafe method to calibrate my dosing best. I still dont have the highest faith in my test kits so i started at almost nothing and increased very slowly. I measured parameters and as long as the tank parameters still decreased i increased dosage.

I have heard to dose from consumption but i really wouldnt have trusted my measurements to be that exact to just dose of that...

 

[W1ngz]

If you really want to cut as much as you can from the costs, you could also replace the KH buffer with regular baking soda.
It's not as clean being pharmaceutical grade vs food grade, but baking soda is baking soda when it comes to the concentrations required, and thousands of people use it to manage their alkalinity. The magic comes from the 5ml of component strong.

 

[Kirschy17]

If you really want to cut as much as you can from the costs, you could also replace the KH buffer with regular baking soda.
It's not as clean being pharmaceutical grade vs food grade, but baking soda is baking soda when it comes to the concentrations required, and thousands of people use it to manage their alkalinity. The magic comes from the 5ml of component strong.

Do you have any clue if baking soda you get in the us is chemically the same thing we get in europe? Im allways worried about these diy clues because often times similar products are different chemically here

 

[W1ngz]

Do you have any clue if baking soda you get in the us is chemically the same thing we get in europe? Im allways worried about these diy clues because often times similar products are different chemically here

I'd think sodium bicarbonate is just sodium bicarbonate whether it be in in the US, Europe or Canada (ahem.. I'm not the US...)

 

[MartinWaite]

Why not swap out to ATI Essentials cost me £32GBP and it lasted me over a year. You but 3 x 1 litre bottles and make them up to 3 x 10 litres and dose through out the daylight hours easy as anything kept my system rock steady.

 

[Kirschy17]

Why not swap out to ATI Essentials cost me £32GBP and it lasted me over a year. You but 3 x 1 litre bottles and make them up to 3 x 10 litres and dose through out the daylight hours easy as anything kept my system rock steady.

I have no experience with this product. Anyone else mind to join in? Is this comparable to aquaforest? Pros cons?

 

[MartinWaite]

I have no experience with this product. Anyone else mind to join in? Is this comparable to aquaforest? Pros cons?

It's much like Triton in so much as you don't need to do water changes, you dose the 3 products and send off some water to ATI for an ICP to determine whether you need to do a water change because something has built up or add a supplement because something is using it like iodine and shrimps. You can even get your RO checked as a part of your ICP which will let you know how your RO filter is doing and if you need to use a different type of resin for silicates which can still get through a RO filter and not show up on a TDS meter. Hope this helps you there is also a Facebook group which has a manual on how to use the product in the file section etc.

 

[Kirschy17]

It's much like Triton in so much as you don't need to do water changes, you dose the 3 products and send off some water to ATI for an ICP to determine whether you need to do a water change because something has built up or add a supplement because something is using it like iodine and shrimps. You can even get your RO checked as a part of your ICP which will let you know how your RO filter is doing and if you need to use a different type of resin for silicates which can still get through a RO filter and not show up on a TDS meter. Hope this helps you there is also a Facebook group which has a manual on how to use the product in the file section etc.

I actually know about the icp tests i thought the products might be seperate from the whole testing thing. Id really wanna stay clear from “having” to do these test frequently. I think i will try switching to dry aquaforest and increase dosage. Also i will determine my daily consumption and dose accordingly. Thanks for everyone that contributet here. Great advice

 

[beaslbob]

So did a quick cost comparison premix vs mix your own and based on today's MAP prices. The premix costs you $11.40 per liter of all 3 solutions. Mixing your own is about $5.53 for 1 liter of all 3 solutions based on a maximum of 15 liters mixed of DIY 2+ which is usually the 1st container to run out when you buy the smaller containers of all the dry ingredients. Naturally, the larger containers will last longer and you will see a bigger cost savings. The estimate does not include the cost of scale or the RODI.

Excuse my ignorance but what are MAP prices?