I have slowly been adding frag after frag of coral to my nano tank. I am soon upgrading to a bigger tank where I plan to add more.
I am to a point where I think I will need to start dosing. I have already noticed my calcium creeping down and I would like to raise my Alk a hair.
I have heard a lot of good things and read a lot of good reviews on Bulk Reef Supplies stuff...but no matter how much I read about dosing, I don't understand the differences between some of this stuff.
For example, this 2 part Cal/Alk dosing kit (
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-2-part-calcium-alkalinity-starter-package-pre-portioned.html). Why exactly is it called 2 part? This kit also comes with magnesium mix, but why? Isn't this just a Cal/Alk dosing kit?
I have more questions, but will ask them as I get each one answered.
Thank you!
Hi Colin ! Welcome to reef2reef! This forum is filled with premium information and real life experiences I encourage you to dig in deep and you’ll really learn a lot. Now to answer your question...... I am not expert but do use BRS 2 part in my system.
The kit is made up of 4 actual chemicals.
Soda ash- used to raise alk
Calcium chloride - used to raise calcium
Magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride- both mixed into 1 jug and dosed as a single supplement to raise magnesium
Your corals , coralline algae etc will use alk and calcium to grow, the more you get and the bigger they get the lower the levels will drop, but the trick is these supplements are not used up and the same rate.... for example if you calcium went from 450 to 420 it’s very possible your alk could have dropped from 8.5-6.5. Now these numbers aren’t exact but it shows you that alk is used as the main building block in growing corals so alk will drop quickest out of all you supplements.
Now your magnesium is important not so much because your corals use it but it acts as a binding agent in a way for your calcium and alk. If you magnesium levels are maintained poorly chances are you other parameters will be out of whack.
So here’s what I did in my new tank: I measured my parameters of freshly mixed salt water. I then used BRS calculator to figure how much I would need to add to bring it to target level (which in my case is 9.0 alk and 450 calc and 1500 mag) once at target level I test every 4 days or so because my corals are so small there’s minimal use of supplements in the water. As per BRS once you go through a gallon of calc and alk you the. Dump one of there measuring cups of mag in. Also note that you will not be dosing magnesium on a regular basis. I dosed it to bring my magnesium to 1500mand haven’t touched it since even tho I do test it along with my other parameters. Also keep in mind that every time you do a water change, if your salt mix dose not mix to the same parameters in your tank water you should raise them. My new salt water mixes to 8.0 alk and 400 calcium, now like I said it was my choice to keep levels at 9.0 and 450. So I used the BRS calculator out current level at 8.0 alk and 400 calc , typed water as 5 gallons ( the size of the bucket I use fir new water) and added a desired level of 9.0 and 450. So now when I do water changes I use a syringe to add 6ml of alk solution to the new salt water and 12 ml of calc.
Also know the alk solution will spike your ph so if your changing anything more than .5 I would do it over a few days insof goung from 7.0 to 8.5vin one shot. Ph also increases alk consumption of your corals so the higher you keep your ph the more you will need to monitor your levels
I hope this helps, like I said I’m not an expert and dosing was really confusing to me at first but the more I read and tested the better I got at it. My personal opinion is get the $49 kit that’s not premixed, it comes with pumps jugs, funnel, and directions so as long as you can read it should be easy enough !
