Help me switch to B Ionic 2 part

infinite0180 · Aug 23, 2018

Hey guys,

Ive been having a heck of a time dosing Red Sea Foundation A, B, and C. It started off great but as soon growth picked up i have been chasing alk stability all over the place. Today i went to one of my LFS and grabbed the ESV two part calcium buffer system. My tank is a nano and holds about 17 gallons of water. I have been dosing 6 ml alk morning and night for the past few days and that seems to have me in the 7.2 to 7.7 range over 24 hours. Last time i dosed cal was last friday and it was at 430 (planning on testing tomorrow to see my weekly drop). Mag has been hovering around 1220 pretty consistent and i havent been dosing any of that. I can test that again if need be. I have a few sps that i have begun to see daily growth on this week and some lps that hate me right now... i want to simplify this dosing and testing thing. Where do i start? How much of each component do i start with? I was thinking 7 ml of each daily to start?

Thank you in advance!

ndrwater · Aug 23, 2018

There is a very useful calculator on the BRS website. Know that ESV B-Ionis is a little stronger than a few of the other brands. I would suggest they when you start your dosing regimine, be sure to test regularly.
There are also the 1.1ml dosing pumps available from BRS as well. Makes keeping your parameters stable that much easier.

WillB · Aug 23, 2018

I have a mixed reef dosing b ionic. 6mL/day calc 7ml/day alk 6mL/day mag. I know this doesnt translate well for you be because every tank is different but my advice is splurging for the b ionic magnesium. Keeping your magnesium at proper levels will help keep your alk stable. Something I read about alk really being a ballpark estimate of something harder to test for and magnesium (bicarbonates I think it was) and magnesium helps keep your “bicarbonate” concentration in supersaturation. TL

R low magnesium makes it hard to keep alkalinity stable

infinite0180 · Aug 23, 2018

ndrwater said:
There is a very useful calculator on the BRS website. Know that ESV B-Ionis is a little stronger than a few of the other brands. I would suggest they when you start your dosing regimine, be sure to test regularly.
There are also the 1.1ml dosing pumps available from BRS as well. Makes keeping your parameters stable that much easier.

Thanks, Ill check out the BRS calculator! And ya i think ill be getting a dosing pump soon... dosing by hand is getting old already

WillB · Aug 23, 2018

infinite0180 said:
Thanks, Ill check out the BRS calculator! And ya i think ill be getting a dosing pump soon... dosing by hand is getting old already

I never realized how much easier a dosing pump would make my life until I got one. Best purchase I ever made

infinite0180 · Aug 23, 2018

WillB said:
I never realized how much easier a dosing pump would make my life until I got one. Best purchase I ever made

Im looking into the wifi one by coral box.. seems like its a decent piece of equipment for the money...

WillB · Aug 23, 2018

infinite0180 said:
Im looking into the wifi one by coral box.. seems like its a decent piece of equipment for the money...

I haven’t heard of that one. I just got one from bubble magnus. My LFS had them. Never had a problem. I do wish it would let me dose in more precise increments than 1mL

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 24, 2018

WillB said:
I haven’t heard of that one. I just got one from bubble magnus. My LFS had them. Never had a problem. I do wish it would let me dose in more precise increments than 1mL

You can dilute the additives if you want to be more precise by using longer times.

Mrx7899 · Aug 24, 2018

infinite0180 said:
Im looking into the wifi one by coral box.. seems like its a decent piece of equipment for the money...

I've had my coral box dosing pump for over a year with no problems nice unit for the price.

infinite0180 · Aug 24, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
You can dilute the additives if you want to be more precise by using longer times.

Randy,

It would appear im currently dosing 2 dKH of red sea foundation. If i use the calculator from your sticky can i just figure out how much B Ionic equals 2 dKH for my 17 gallons of water and then dose that amount split up over the day with an equal amount of the calcium component?

EmdeReef · Aug 24, 2018

You can use marinedepot’s calculator to determine how much ESV to dose based on consumption:

https://www.marinedepot.com/md_educationcenter_calculators_tools.html

WillB · Aug 24, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
You can dilute the additives if you want to be more precise by using longer times.

I never thought of that! Great idea!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 25, 2018

infinite0180 said:
Randy,

It would appear im currently dosing 2 dKH of red sea foundation. If i use the calculator from your sticky can i just figure out how much B Ionic equals 2 dKH for my 17 gallons of water and then dose that amount split up over the day with an equal amount of the calcium component?

Yes, that's a good starting plan. Then adjust as needed going forward.

infinite0180 · Aug 25, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Yes, that's a good starting plan. Then adjust as needed going forward.

Thanks!

infinite0180 · Aug 25, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Yes, that's a good starting plan. Then adjust as needed going forward.

One more question Randy,

I checked cal and its a little low, about 380. Should i get the level where i want it before i switch? Or should i dose a little extra cal for the first week or two and monitor it?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 25, 2018

Either way is fine. There’s nothing wrong with a 20 ppm boost to calcium in a day. Corals won’t care.

infinite0180 · Aug 25, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Either way is fine. There’s nothing wrong with a 20 ppm boost to calcium in a day. Corals won’t care.

Awesome, thank you!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 25, 2018

You’re welcome.

Happy Reefing.

infinite0180 · Sep 1, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
You’re welcome.

Happy Reefing.

Just wanted to come back here and say thank you again. I have once again achieved stability in my reef! ESV is sooooo much easier than that redsea stuff. Just dosed based on alk consumption and cal remained stable all week! In fact it didnt drop at all as expected! I did not test mag but i imagine it was stable as well... one less thing to worry about! I can finally ease up on testing!

My question now is this... my current IO salt is mixing up to a dKH of about 7.8 and cal around 380. Would it be smart to target those numbers in my reef to make WC easier? I remember reading about the ionic balance in a reef and see that the calculator states what each component should be to achieve this. Should i try to find that balance instead of what my salt mixes out to? Am i overthinking this? Thanks!