DIY Calcium Chloride Recommendations

[cdness]

So I am using about a gallon of the calcium chloride mix in approximately 1.5 weeks. It is ever so growing in demand and I don't know if or when I am going to get the calcium reactor up and running.

So I have a few questions for the people who are currently using a DIY Calcium Chloride supplement...

1. What are you currently using as your Calcium Chloride source? Please be specific as possible (Brand, maybe even a picture).

2. Where did you buy your Calcium Chloride?

3. How long have you been using this DIY recipe?

4. Can you post a picture of your tank or describe your coral inhabitants and size of tank?

I am a bit leery of putting ice melt in my tank, but if there are enough people currently using it with proven success, I will have less reservation in using the mix. I am just trying to figure out if I have a source local to me or if I should just go through BRS or another supplier.

If no one shows their proven success I will not even attempt it. So please if it is working for you, share your info as detailed as possible.

Thanks!

 

[Saltgator]

1: Dowflake (50lbs bag)
2: purchased it from a fellow reefer locally, not available down here in SWFL.
3: 3+ months
4: I'll get ya a pic when I get home, but sps frags and 1 colony, 2 six inch plus clams, frogspawn and hammer, shrooms, gsp, xenia, 2 nems, numerous fish, snails (I think that's about it,lol).

I like the ease of it, 2.5 cups per gallon, no issues. Btw, I just started using DIY baking soda (2 cups baked @ 350 degrees per gallon for at least a hour) too. Started this a month ago (was kinda worried about this like I was dowflake), but no worries as my coral show no signs of issues (knocking on wood now).


Country Boy using tapatalk on his EVO

 

[redfishbluefish]

1. Prestone Driveway Heat….2 cups per gallon (This calcium chloride is anhydrous, unlike Dow Flake, which requires a bit more.)
2. True Value Hardware (during the winter months), but also available everywhere (HD as example) here in NJ during the winter months.
3. From 2008 to Present (with a brief interruption with B-Ionic for a couple months).
4. No Picture….Custom five foot 90 gallon mixed reef using approximately 50 mls each per day…..everything growing like crazy.

 

[beaslbob]

I don't currently have a salt tank running but did use the diy method on two tanks for about 3-4 years in the past.

Sources for calcium chloride: concrete redimix companies (dow flake and cal-chlor). The cal chlor was anhydrous (92-96% compare to kent trubo cal) and was available in 25 pound bags for $10.

I also got calcium chloride in 50 pound bags from a local industrial supplier. $25 or so. tetra was brand name I think

The industrial supplier also had 50 pound bags of magnesium chloride for $30 or so and did not charge shipping. It was a brand from the north american salt company in Utah.

It was so cheap I just gave the stuff away at local club meetings and frag swaps.


my .02

 

[cdness]

Thanks for the responses! Anyone else doing this with DIY chemicals?

 

[427HISS]

Back in the day, a fellow hobbyist and I would buy a 80lb bag from a pharmaceutical company that was tagged as 100% pure calcium chloride and 0% in-purities. I used 1.5 cups per gallon. I would take a gallon juice bottle, drill a hole in the bottom and used silicone to mount a IV-drip from a medical store. I could adjust the amount of calcium drip with the drip wheel. Real cheap way of a doser and worked very well.

 

[mcarroll]

Back to just limewater for now, but I was using house-brand driveway salt from my local wholesale club.

Look for the Made In USA stamp - important if you want a mor-or-less known profile of impurities. From asking around, there's only one mine for this in the USA so the source material is all similar.

Unless you are stepping up to a purified grade (a la BRS) this is what most brands and grades will be composed of - including "food grade". Food grade is the same stuff, but with directions to dissolve in water to precipitate the major contaminant - IIRC is Borate- then filter.

After two years of heavy dosing and a sadly lazy water change schedule, a Salifert Boron test only read a 5 on my water. Not bad at all.

BRS calcium is pretty cheap if that's the only commercial reagent you use...if you are worried. FWIW I will use my driveway salt again when the time comes.

-Matt

 

[5Bucks]

Here's a thread I started with the same sort of question: CaCl2 OxyChem I've got photos and MSDS of the product I'm considering (and currently using for water changes) which is available for less than $1/lb. at my local Home Depot.

I've been researching a lot the last few days on the various CaCl2 available from deicer products. I really wanted to find a product I could buy for less money off the shelf - I hate shipping charges. I found some threads with responses from Randy Holmes-Farley who I believe developed the 2 part DIY . What I got from all the research is prior to Dow changing their formula sometime around 2008 most CaCl2 products made for deicing were manufactured by Dow. If manufactured by Dow they were okay to use. At some point around 2008 the way they made it changed. The new formula contained more Bromide. Now, there is Bromide in NSW and in the salt mixes we buy. Question is: how much Bromide is to much? Bottom line for me from what Randy has said is the newer Dow CaCl2 is okay to up Calcium for things like water changes. But, he seems hesitant to say it's okay for long-term daily dosing. The concern is overtime the level of Bromide will increase beyond that of NWS. I really could not find anything that says a certain level of Bromide is a problem. But nobody seems to really know.

The product I found is 90% CaCl2, a couple other salts and <1% Bromide. Again, see the link for photos and MSDS. I'm still up in air as to using it for daily dosing. But I did use it to increase calcium for a water change based on Randy's DIY recipe. From what I gather people use the current 90% Dow product with the <1% Bromide. Randy seemed to think (my interpretation) that water changes would keep Bromide levels in check - but he did not come right out and recommend it. Also know, as far as I can determine the product I found and Peladow are one and the same - the MSDS match each other. Peladow seems to be a popular source for CaCl2 but it's difficult to determine if that was only before the change in Dow's method. I think there's only a couple of suppliers of the CaCl2 deicing products in the U.S - the big one currently is OxyChem.

All that said, don't take my word for it. I'm still looking for someone to convince me the product I can buy off the shelf at Home Depot is okay. I have not finished my research and will not daily dose with the stuff until I do. I am however comfortable using it for a slight CaCl2 bump with water changes. There is Bromide in salt mixes. My impression is the level in them is below that of NSW. So adding a little more and removing with water changes should work out okay in my mind.

 

[mike007]

I am sorry but i would not trust anything that is not recommened for aquarium use. I have recently bought my ca., alk and mag. bulk additives from Drs. Foster& Smith. But thats how i roll. So far they are working great. I have lots of money invested in my reef so i am very picky.

 

[mcarroll]

While I haven't used any of them yet, I posted about the DrF&S chems in the DIY sticky...great value, especially if you're going through enough material to justify a 5 gallon bucket.

If you're using the CaCl product, can you tell me if it mixes with any residue?

-Matt

P.S. If you aren't going though it that fast, but are buying in bulk anyway, be aware of spoilage. If your stock isn't well-sealed, it will take on moisture, affecting weight-based measuments. Not quite as big a deal if you measure by volume, but still an issue. (In the long term, your stock will eventually liquify completely if left exposed. But you could still use the liquid, in theory.)