dosing ?

[Brandon Donaldson]

i have a 29 gallon bio cube lps and softy tank and i want to dose calcium and alkalinity what should i dose with b ionic or brs 2 part ?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Both are fine. I designed the BRS recipe and it works for many people, but ESV B-ionic is the commercial two part I'd use if I were to use one. From a chemical perspective, B-ionic (if made as they claim, and they are one of the few supplement companies I trust to know what they are doing from a chemical perspective) is a slightly better choice, but I've never seen any real evidence of that difference in the appearance of a tank.

That said, I use limewater (kalkwasser) in my ATO for my calcium and alkalinity needs.

 

[Brandon Donaldson]

Both are fine. I designed the BRS recipe and it works for many people, but ESV B-ionic is the commercial two part I'd use if I were to use one. From a chemical perspective, B-ionic (if made as they claim, and they are one of the few supplement companies I trust to know what they are doing from a chemical perspective) is a slightly better choice, but I've never seen any real evidence of that difference in the appearance of a tank.

That said, I use limewater (kalkwasser) in my ATO for my calcium and alkalinity needs.

Limewater ? I don't have a ATO and i would like to dose strate in the tank

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Without an ATO, a two part is probably the best choice.

If you use the BRS product, use the prescribed amount and type of magnesium whether you test for it or not. It does not raise the magnesium level when used as prescribed, just roughly maintains it where it is, and it is also key to keeping the sulfate to chloride ration in the seawater under control. Otherwise, chloride (from the calcium supplement) rises relative to sulfate. Few people seem to understand these issues, and just want to add what they test for, without recognizing that there is more to a two part than calcium and alkalinity.

 

[twilliard]

In a 29 water changes will help keep your numbers.
You want to dose straight to the tank so I would be careful of fluctuating ALK

 

[Waters]

I agree...if you haven't already, I would definitely test before you start dosing. With a softie/LPS tank, normal water changes should keep everything where it should be. Now if you aren't doing water changes and/or have a huge amount of LPS, then dosing may be necessary.

 

[Brandon Donaldson]

I agree...if you haven't already, I would definitely test before you start dosing. With a softie/LPS tank, normal water changes should keep everything where it should be. Now if you aren't doing water changes and/or have a huge amount of LPS, then dosing may be necessary.

I use the coral pro salt and do biweekly water changes thanking of getting a maxima clam wince I go led

 

[Tahoe61]

Need numbers.

 

[Brandon Donaldson]

Need numbers.[/QUOTE yes ?

 

[Tahoe61]

I test to figure out my tanks consumption of alk and cal before I decide whether to dose. Yes if you buy clams and keep clams you're going to have to dose eventually, what type of dosing works for you depends on the numbers.

 

[inetjnky]

I'm going to jump in here because I too have this question and I too have a Biocube 29. I don't mean to hijack the thread, so I apologize if this is not appropriate. All my corals are LPS (frogspawn, Galaxea, trumpet) currently but plan on adding some softies soon. I just added my coral Sunday and prior to that had zero life except 3 hermits. No coralline yet. Here are my numbers.

I do have an ATO which holds 5 gallons of ro/di water (lasts me about 5-7 days) and I have a small power head in the 5 gallon holding tank to give it some movement. Since I'm new to this hobby I'm looking for some advice on how to improve my alkalinity? Is my mag ok or do you think that is low as well? I currently use reef crystals as my salt mix. I typically mix to 1.026sg for my water changes. Still dialing in my hob-1 skimmer. Thoughts?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Magnesium is fine. If you do go back to a sg of 1.026, the magnesium will rise substantially (to about 1390 ppm), which is also OK.

Your alkalinity is OK, but on the verge of not being OK if it drops. A two part is a fine way to go, but you likely will not need much. The only way to determine how much is to boost it to where you want it (I recommend 7-11 dKH) and then monitor it until it drops more than you want. Then use a calculator to determine how much it takes to boost it back. For your tank, 8 or 9 dKH is a fine target, IMO.

FWIW, a tank with thriving coralline and just soft corals can use 2-3 dKH per day, so it isn't just tanks with hard corals and clams that require supplementation of alkalinity and calcium.

Here's a calculator to determine doses:

http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html

 

[inetjnky]

Please bear with me as I'm new to the hobby but I'm looking at a way to automate the dosing process and already have been looking at the ESV B-ionic. Would two of the BRS dosers work for this?

 

[underwaterdan]

Also new but for small depends can't we just use kalkwasher in our ato?

 

[3dees]

I have a 120 gal. tank full of softies and lps and I don't dose anything. are you sure you need to dose?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Please bear with me as I'm new to the hobby but I'm looking at a way to automate the dosing process and already have been looking at the ESV B-ionic. Would two of the BRS dosers work for this?

Yes, that is a fine way to go.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I have a 120 gal. tank full of softies and lps and I don't dose anything. are you sure you need to dose?

Some soft coral tanks with a lot of coralline growing can use 2 or more dKH of alkalinity per day, so it certainly can be necessary.

Where do you keep alkalintiy without dosing? Do you have coralline growing?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Also new but for small depends can't we just use kalkwasher in our ato?

Yes, that's all I've used for 20 years. But a two part (either DIY or commercial) is also a good method.

 

[inetjnky]

It's interesting... I have 3 lps coral, no coralline, and my alk doesn't change from day to day. Tested 3 days in a row. Same number each time using my Hanna checker. Is it possible?

 

[pondman]

When I had my 29 up my water changes were usually all I needed to keep levels in check. I would check my levels every week and when they were going down that's when I did my water change. Sometimes it may be every ten days sometimes it was every week let your tank tell you.