Help getting 2 part dosing straight

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks Randy I have read allot of your articles and want to read more and learn. One part of me says I needed to wait until I retired to have the time and the other part says I should have started a long time ago lol
But my main question is should I test and dose the Alk tonite on some kind of schedule ? I can dose up to 24 times don't need to do that but what do you dose at a time?
And then the Calcium do I leave alone for now while I get the Alk right ( but that's not right is it) Any help u can give me I will just do what u sugest to get things on track

There's no reason to not dose calcium exactly matching whatever alk you dose, at least for an extended period (weeks). I wouldn't even measure it more than once a week.

The alk dosing would be based on how much it drops. I'd focus more, initially, on how much is needed in 24 h, rather than exactly when to dose that amount.

 

[Spdjnky]

Also when you move on to the calcium portion, you don't need to test every day, maybe once or twice a week. There is more calcium in the water than alkalinity (about three times as much) and the tests are also not as accurate, so if it moves from 420 to 415 there is no way to really test for that. If you test say four times in two weeks and you get results all within about 20 ppm, that is as close as you are going to get it. Then when all this is dialed in you can test far less, alk maybe three times a week and calcium maybe 2-3 times per month.

Thx I'l \l get back to this just busy

 

[Behnken]

I agree with most of the resent posts about not chasing both at the same time. I tried chasing both in the past then stopped and got Alk in check. But I always dosed the same amount.

Everything balanced out within a week.

 

[Neo Jeo]

I have a dosing system new in box.. I’m thinking about selling it now seems like I could screw things up..

 

[RobertP]

Things got a TON easier for me when I bought a Hanna Alk tester. I have real trouble seeing the color change on the alk dropper method so this helped me. Calcium is easier for me to see so it wasnt an issue.

 

[Behnken]

http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/salty-qa-calcium-alkalinity-out-of-whack-6629/

This is a very interesting read about the displacement of dissolved solids such as alk and calcium in water.

Basically water can only hold so much dissolved solids. When you add more of one it pushes others out.

 

[Spdjnky]

There's no reason to not dose calcium exactly matching whatever alk you dose, at least for an extended period (weeks). I wouldn't even measure it more than once a week.

Things got a TON easier for me when I bought a Hanna Alk tester. I have real trouble seeing the color change on the alk dropper method so this helped me. Calcium is easier for me to see so it wasnt an issue.

Hell Yea the red sea test dam I hated that

The alk dosing would be based on how much it drops. I'd focus more, initially, on how much is needed in 24 h, rather than exactly when to dose that amount.

 

[Spdjnky]

Okay So I just tested Alk is 8.6 dKH and Calcium is 420 ppm So I will set them up to dose 25ml each and stager both so they don't dose with in 1/2 hour of each other and try to spread them out over the 7pm to 7 pm time frame and see if they stay where they are at and adjust from there. Don't worry about being right on the 9 dKH mark just concentrate on keeping them stable without the .8 dKH swings I have been getting.
Does that sound right?

 

[Potatohead]

Okay So I just tested Alk is 8.6 dKH and Calcium is 420 ppm So I will set them up to dose 25ml each and stager both so they don't dose with in 1/2 hour of each other and try to spread them out over the 7pm to 7 pm time frame and see if they stay where they are at and adjust from there. Don't worry about being right on the 9 dKH mark just concentrate on keeping them stable without the .8 dKH swings I have been getting.
Does that sound right?

Yes. Let it run 24 hours and test alk again tomorrow at the same time.

 

[manilaboy1vic]

I have been looking and can't say I see any precipitation
Okay like I said first that my alk being 8.2 and cal 420 in order to bring them up to 9 and 440 the BRS cal tells me this (this was 930pm last night and I left it like that)
Liquid Calcium Chloride 230ml
Liquid Soda Ash 42.8 ml
This Morning still not sure of things I dosed 48 ml's for Alk which brought it up to 8.8 dKH I dosed 150ml for cal and it went no where in fact I forgot I checked at 410 this morning thought that was allot to drop from last night thats why I going slow
anyways I dosed 50 ml's more and will retest here in a hour but that will still be less than 230 ml's that it was last night. It will be a total of 200ml's this morning
check back in an hour

look at your heater for precipitation.. if it turned white, thats precipitation.. when i started out dosing a few years ago i overdosed.. 230ml ??!! thats scary..

 

[Bayareareefer18]

Have you watched this one? May really shed some light on the confusion.

 

[manilaboy1vic]

heh, i gave the OP that link earlier in the thread, not sure if he/she watched it. i am doing this 7 day testing/dosing this week.. great video by brs..

 

[Spdjnky]

I will check it out and I dosed 25ml for both 3ml x 8ml over the 24 hours from 7pm last night until 7pm tonite and as much as I want to check it right now I'm going to leave it until tonite. I re-calibrated my dosing pumps and also did a test to make sure they were dosing 3ml all good. Yes they are not dosing at the same time. As I'm doing this I don't want to forget to thank everyone I think I'm starting to get it...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/salty-qa-calcium-alkalinity-out-of-whack-6629/

This is a very interesting read about the displacement of dissolved solids such as alk and calcium in water.

Basically water can only hold so much dissolved solids. When you add more of one it pushes others out.

I'm not a fan of the Calfo marble analogy, which is not, actually, accurate. It is so oversimplified that it misleads folks into believing things that are not true.

What about pH? By this analogy, the size of the alkalinity marbles changes with pH, being very small at lower pH and very large at higher pH.

What about magnesium, organics, and phosphate, all of which impact precipitation? I can't see how you'd even ram them into this analogy. Maybe they change the size of the bowl. lol

 

[Spdjnky]

I'm not a fan of the Calfo marble analogy, which is not, actually, accurate. It is so oversimplified that it misleads folks into believing things that are not true.

What about pH? By this analogy, the size of the alkalinity marbles changes with pH, being very small at lower pH and very large at higher pH.

What about magnesium, organics, and phosphate, all of which impact precipitation? I can't see how you'd even ram them into this analogy. Maybe they change the size of the bowl. lol

All above my head. But other than seeing a white residue on things is there any other telling features of precipitation?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

All above my head. But other than seeing a white residue on things is there any other telling features of precipitation?

You often can't see anything because, aside from hot surfaces like heaters, clean calcium carbonate surfaces like sand grains or rock are where calcium carbonate is mostly likely to precipitate. Sand can harden up over time.

Excessively high alkalinity demand compared to what is in the tank that uses it, and the alk/pH you maintain, is usually the way to recognize an issue.

 

[Spdjnky]

You often can't see anything because, aside from hot surfaces like heaters, clean calcium carbonate surfaces like sand grains or rock are where calcium carbonate is mostly likely to precipitate. Sand can harden up over time.

Excessively high alkalinity demand compared to what is in the tank taht sues it, and the alk/pH you maintain, is usually the way to recognize an issue.

I rarely check PH I guess it's just because I've got so used to it always being around 7.9 at least thats what it is in my sw mixing station. I just checked my reef and it's 8.2

 

[Spdjnky]

Yes. Let it run 24 hours and test alk again tomorrow at the same time.

Okay I started out last nite at 8.6dKH and 420ppm dosed 25ml for each of them 3ml x 8 my readings tonite are 8.2 dKH and 415 ppm
Should I let it go another day or bring the dosing up a bit?

 

[Behnken]

I would let it go another day and check it.

 

[Spdjnky]

I was thinking that but I did have a typo the Alk dropped .4dKH