Dosing a mixture of recipes

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Hi Dr.
I'm trying to start with 2 part dosing for alk and calcium my questions are can i mix recipe 1 for calcium and recipe 2 for alkalinity. Water changes until recently had been keeping up.
From what I can work out is recipe 1 for calcium is a stronger mix and recipe 1 for alkalinity is to raise pH as it's baked baking soda that's why I wanted to use recipe 2 for alk as pH is already high at 8.4. I only have a small 90l tank and it consumes around 0.9 dkh per daywhich sits around 6.4 and calcium @ 375 I'd like to be at 7.7 alk and 400-415 calcium. I can't work out a small say 500ml solution for just manual top up and weather I could use recipe 1 for calcium and 2 for alk. I assumed from reading that they should be dosed equally.
Sorry for the long winded question I don't think I could type this in to a Google search. Many thanks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, you can mix the calcium part to most any concentration you want. Most people like to dose close to 1:1, but if you want the calcium part more potent for any reason, its fine to make it however you want.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Thanks for the fast reply. To that reply then can i make the recipe 1 for alkalinity but without baking to make it not raise pH any more but so I can dose equal parts alk and calcium recipe 1? Sorry for coming across as annoying but I have been reefing for 12years and occasionally dosed but I used branded supplements, so as I need to dose more frequently due to sps corals using it up I want to go with your recipes as it's easier to obtain and cheaper. I don't want to kill any corals by going too high too fast. Words are definitely cheaper.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the fast reply. To that reply then can i make the recipe 1 for alkalinity but without baking to make it not raise pH any more but so I can dose equal parts alk and calcium recipe 1? Sorry for coming across as annoying but I have been reefing for 12years and occasionally dosed but I used branded supplements, so as I need to dose more frequently due to sps corals using it up I want to go with your recipes as it's easier to obtain and cheaper. I don't want to kill any corals by going too high too fast. Words are definitely cheaper.

No. At least not easily. The alk parts are close to the solubility limit and you will find it hard to dissolve a lot more. That's how the concentrations were determined in the first place.

if you want a very concentrated solution, you can use one of the newer recipes that uses sodium hydroxide for the alk part. That has nearly unlimited solubility in fresh water, and raises pH a lot more, but it may be desirable to add them slowly.

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

I might go with recipe 2 and use bicarbonate of soda as my pH is already high and don't want to go any higher. I suppose it's always easier to add more than to try and take it out of the tank.
I Many thanks for your help.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I might go with recipe 2 and use bicarbonate of soda as my pH is already high and don't want to go any higher. I suppose it's always easier to add more than to try and take it out of the tank.
I Many thanks for your help.

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing.