Do you dose the water change bucket?

potatocouch · Mar 1, 2016

When you think the elements in the ASW is a tad low compared that what you're expecting (and to what in the display tank), is it common practice to dose in the water bucket prior doing WC?

That way, the water elements in the WC bucket matches to what's in the DT.

I use normal (red bucket) Red Sea Salt with the following stats:

I've always aim for 1.026, which brings me to the Corals line above.

chefjpaul · Mar 1, 2016

I would change salts personally.

Look up their other brands if you like them, as you did not mention what you wanted to elevate exactly and what your DT is / wanting to be.

That salt is a tad low for me too, I like their regular blue bucket.

Pete polyp · Mar 1, 2016

I would prefer to have to dose the new water to match my system than have it more elevated

Triggreef · Mar 1, 2016

Not sure what your asking. Sometimes my tank gets a little low in between from using water for other things (Dips, selling coral, moving coral) and ATO compensating so I usually mix new salt to 1.026 and the salt I'm taking out is around 1.025. It all depends on what levels its at when I go to change it though. My system is about 300g so it doesn't change a whole lot.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 2, 2016

potatocouch said:
When you think the elements in the ASW is a tad low compared that what you're expecting (and to what in the display tank), is it common practice to dose in the water bucket prior doing WC?
.

It is certainly a fine thing to do.

For years I used normal IO and boosted both calcium and magnesium in it with Dowflake and Mag Flake.

That actually reduced the cost of using IO to get to 35 ppt since both additives were cheaper than salt mix, and it worked very well. I never measured anything in the mix, I just added a fixed amount of the two additives every time.

Since then, IO has boosted magnesium and adding it likely is not necessary any more.

jent · Mar 3, 2016

I have been thinking after my current buckets of rscp, i may switch to the normal red sea, then use a little abc+ powder to raise things till i hit my ideal ca levels....the goal would be to have slightly higher alk than rscp when i am done....not something i have done, but considering it for sure.

jason2459 · Mar 3, 2016

I still add a small amount of Mg to my IO. But have reduced quite a bit how much I add. I used to add about 8oz to ~50gallons. Then I dropped it to 4oz. Recently the past year my Mg has been close to 1500 and I have reduced what I add down to 2oz. My Mg has been dropping slowly. I'll keep monitoring it. I'd like to keep it around 1350. Its around 1450's now. But I'm not worried as many have kept much much higher Mg levels with seamingly no harm except lethargic snails.

I have started adding Kent's Sr/Mo supplement to my new salt mix too.

Calcium has been handled by kalk and its done very well to raise the Calcium levels above the ~400 levels of the IO. I do not add kalk to the saltmix. It's in its own still resevour and dosed separately.

biom · Mar 3, 2016

potatocouch said:
When you think the elements in the ASW is a tad low compared that what you're expecting (and to what in the display tank), is it common practice to dose in the water bucket prior doing WC?

That way, the water elements in the WC bucket matches to what's in the DT.

I use normal (red bucket) Red Sea Salt with the following stats:

I've always aim for 1.026, which brings me to the Corals line above.

You mean blue bucket? At least in Europe they are blue (regular one) and black (pro version). And real parameters are not matching their claims at all, at least for alkalinity, which is about 10-11 dKh @ salinity 35 ppt for blue bucket (measured with professional conductometer). So it is good to measure real parameters before adding something in new mix.

potatocouch · Mar 3, 2016

biom said:
You mean blue bucket? At least in Europe they are blue (regular one) and black (pro version). And real parameters are not matching their claims at all, at least for alkalinity, which is about 10-11 dKh @ salinity 35 ppt for blue bucket (measured with professional conductometer). So it is good to measure real parameters before adding something in new mix.

Yes, Blue bucket, apology.

I just did my 50L mix today and tested it with Salifert.

Alk 8.3 and Mg 1,200.

I added 50 ml of Reef Foundation C to bring it up to 1,300.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 3, 2016

jent said:
I have been thinking after my current buckets of rscp, i may switch to the normal red sea, then use a little abc+ powder to raise things till i hit my ideal ca levels....the goal would be to have slightly higher alk than rscp when i am done....not something i have done, but considering it for sure.

How high?

Red Sea Coral Pro seems to claim that at 35 ppt, they have more than 12 dKH. I would not try to raise it higher than that for fear of precipitation of calcium carbonate. That is already a problem for the Coral Pro.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 3, 2016

potatocouch said:
Yes, Blue bucket, apology.

I just did my 50L mix today and tested it with Salifert.

Alk 8.3 and Mg 1,200.

I added 50 ml of Reef Foundation C to bring it up to 1,300.

What salinity?

potatocouch · Mar 3, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
What salinity?

1.026 SG.
25 celcius.

cb684 · Mar 3, 2016

In my experience, depending what is dosed and how big is your water change that could be a problem if you are keeping SPS. I dose Mg in my water but I use continuous, 1%/day automatic water change. ALK swings are known to cause problems to SPS.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 3, 2016

potatocouch said:
1.026 SG.
25 celcius.

OK. Bear in mind that a 100 ppm boost to magnesium will boost salinity by at least 0.4 ppt.

I wouldn't raise the alk over about 11 dKH, and I'd use baking soda for that since you do not want to raise the pH (which will increase precipitation risks).

jent · Mar 3, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
How high?

Red Sea Coral Pro seems to claim that at 35 ppt, they have more than 12 dKH.

Interesting...so when I mix up my RSCP to 35ppt I get pretty consistent 8dKH. I did some googling and it looks like they may have changed their formula for RSCP at some point. I can find posts of RedSea saying that RSCP should be around 8dKH, but if you look on their website it does in fact list more than 12 dKH.

This is what happens when you buy in bulk and keep using old stuff I guess, haha. I guess with that new knowledge I may not even want to use RedSea though....12 dKH sure sounds high for a ULNS. Not even sure how well my SPS would handle a water change with that much alk, or how I would go about increasing it from ~8 to 12! Thoughts Randy?

KingTriton · Mar 3, 2016

Red bucket? I use the Rea Sea's regular in the blue bucket.

I use to dose Calcium chloride and Mg for years with my IO salt prior to adding it to my DT. I have since changed to Red Sea as I like to keep my NSW at 8-8.2 dKH.

potatocouch · Mar 3, 2016

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
OK. Bear in mind that a 100 ppm boost to magnesium will boost salinity by at least 0.4 ppt..

Everyday I learn new stuff ! really? I better check my salinity again before pouring it into DT. Thanks Randy!

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I wouldn't raise the alk over about 11 dKH, and I'd use baking soda for that since you do not want to raise the pH (which will increase precipitation risks).

jent said:
I guess with that new knowledge I may not even want to use RedSea though....12 dKH sure sounds high for a ULNS. Not even sure how well my SPS would handle a water change with that much alk, or how I would go about increasing it from ~8 to 12! Thoughts Randy?

I'm intrigued ... why do you want to raised you Alk to 12 dKH?

KingTriton said:
Red bucket? I use the Rea Sea's regular in the blue bucket. I use to dose Calcium chloride and Mg for years with my IO salt prior to adding it to my DT. I have since changed to Red Sea as I like to keep my NSW at 8-8.2 dKH.

It was a typo @KingTriton ! It's the blue bucket !