Let's get a TWO PART discussion going! Question for today!

[cracker]

I dose twice a day. However Iv'e stopped at the moment . Call it a reset of sorts . I'm having a hard time keeping levels stable.

 

[Vahanyos]

1. How much are you dosing daily?
8ml a day currently - using ESV B-ionic 2 part

2. How much water volume do you have?
about 50 gallons

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium?
7.5 dkh, anywhere from 400-420 calcium

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral?
medium stocked, i would say

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?
biggest pros..... STABILITY!

cons?... MORE TESTING! lol

 

[OriginalUserName]

1. How much are you dosing daily?
Currently .6 Mls (do 10% weekly WCs with red sea blue bucket)

2. How much water volume do you have?
140 DT, Sump is about 40.

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium?
8 dkh

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral?
Lightly, a few small frags.

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?
I like that it's easily scalable. When my 29 cube was going nuts I was able to easily ramp to 5ml a day from my 1ml starting point.

 

[ReefyB]

1. 6ml each Alk and Ca (Seachem Fusion)

2. About 35-40 gallons (45g AIO)

3. Target for Alk is 8.0, Ca is 450

4. I’d say semi-heavily stocked with SPS, LPS, and softies. A lot of smaller frags.

5. Pros: Stable and controllable water chemistry. My 2 part also maintains Mg at the appropriate level.
Cons: None that I’ve experienced yet. But I sometimes worry my doser may go haywire one day and nuke my tank.

 

[DarthSimon]

I was 2 Part dosing, my demands of my SPS called for more then I could DOS, and my numbers would fluctuate. No I use a calcium reactor, and number are stable and growth is terrific.

 

[Mortie31]

1. How much are you dosing daily? 40ml each of ATI essentials pro (equivalent to 200ml of balling lite)

2. How much water volume do you have? 800L

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium? 8dkh and 420

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral? Medium

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing? Flexibility and accuracy of dosing (I use a GHL KHD)

 

[Mortie31]

I’ve pulled about 2/3rds of a 5 gallonbucket of ORA German blue digi out before, pulled an enormous red monti cap (which is almost completely grown back). Almost every coral in the tank is already encrusted next to it’s neighbor and is warring with each other. The WWC slimeball anacropora is bigger than a basketball now. Everything in this tank was a frag, just FYI, no colonies were put in here.

To top it all off, the consumption rate is still steadily increasing and every few weeks I have to up the dosage! Lol

Tank looks great, it’s those big montis, they grow so fast and they just hoover up Alk like it’s going out of fashion...

 

[redfishbluefish]

1. How much are you dosing daily?

Hard to say since I'm using BRS 1.1 pumps that were never calibrated. I run them by time, and adjust after testing by adding or taking away a minute, but if I were to guess, about 65 - 70 mls of alk, 60 - 65 mls of calc.

2. How much water volume do you have?

115 - 120 gallons

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium?

7.5 - 8 dKh / 400 ppm

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS corals?

Truly mixed colonies; 1/3 softies, 1/3 LPS, 1/3 SPS .

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?

Pros: A. Cheap as dirt. I've been using Randy's DIY since I started (over ten years), and if I were to guess, it cost less than five bucks a year to dose my tank.

B. Rock solid easy with minimal testing. When you first start, you're constantly testing, maybe once, twice a day. As you start to dial in the pumps, that goes to every couple days. Once the pumps are dialed in, and you know your tank, maybe test every month or so. When I do my testing, I typically just need to add or take away a minute from the pumps. That's it!

Cons: Remembering to fill the dosing containers. It's happened once since the containers were put into a closed cabinet that is rarely opened.

 

[Rick.45cal]

.

Tank looks great, it’s those big montis, they grow so fast and they just hoover up Alk like it’s going out of fashion...

Oh for sure! They definitely are the major consumers. The excessive coralline algae growth doesn’t help much either. Lol

 

[MnFish1]

I was 2 Part dosing, my demands of my SPS called for more then I could DOS, and my numbers would fluctuate. No I use a calcium reactor, and number are stable and growth is terrific.

Do you mean dose? or using the Apex DOS. The pump I have allows 9999 ml/day (of each solution) - now that would be a lot

 

[themcfreak]

1. 30ml/day
2. ~100gallons
3. Target is 8.5 dkh and 421 calcium
4. I have mostly SPS, 4 softies. Coralline has finally started growing on the rocks, also, after about a year of being established and steady.
5. Con-Sometimes I get unexplained fluctuations (using Hanna checker) on a day to day basis that aren't obviously explained. Pro-Super easy to dose, adjust, and mix/use.

 

[madweazl]

1. How much are you dosing daily?
a) alkalinity - 45.6ml and calcium - 50.6ml (BRS Pharma soda ash & calcium chloride)

2. How much water volume do you have?
a) 74 gallons

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium?
a) alkalinity - 6.5-7.0 dKh and calcium - 425ppm

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral?
a) Acropora dominant tank but most are small frags with a couple "colonies" (largest measuring 10" across so they're all relatively small)

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?
a) I haven't run into any cons yet but do wonder if the two-part can become cost prohibitive in this size of a tank at some point.

 

[MnFish1]

1. How much are you dosing daily?
a) alkalinity - 45.6ml and calcium - 50.6ml (slowly increases with time)

2. How much water volume do you have?
a) 74 gallons

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium?
a) alkalinity - 6.5-7.0 dKh and calcium - 425ppm

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral?
a) Acropora dominant tank but most are small frags with a couple "colonies" (largest measuring 10" across so they're all relatively small)

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?
a) I haven't run into any cons yet but do wonder if the two-part can become cost prohibitive in this size of a tank at some point.

Nice tank - the actual chemicals (in 2 part) are fairly cheap - unless you are using some proprietary formula - or am I wrong - I dont use much now.

 

[madweazl]

Nice tank - the actual chemicals (in 2 part) are fairly cheap - unless you are using some proprietary formula - or am I wrong - I dont use much now.

It's very inexpensive at this point, I'm just curious if the long term costs of two-part will ever exceed that of a calcium reactor.

 

[Ferrell]

1.How much are you dosing daily? 25ml Alk/Ca + 250 ml kalk

2. How much water volume do you have? 80 gal total

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium? 8.6-8.8
430-450

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral? Majority LPS and a couple SPS

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?
Pro: ease and precision of a doser. Spot on most days. Ease of mixing and refilling gallon jugs
Cons: can’t think of any off hand

 

[saltyhog]

100 cc alk, 100 cc calcium divided in 24 doses and dosed via BRS pump/Apex

Water volume ~ 160 gallons

Alk 8.5, Ca 425

2 large SPS colonies, 2 medium sized colonies and about 10 SPS frags, 2 euphyllia, 2 plate corals.
Right now my 2 part consumption is probably largely driven by coralline algae growth.

Pros...very stable parameters, easy to administer
Cons...none at the moment but 2 part dosing will likely become impractical in a year or two (I hope).

 

[vetteguy53081]

1. How much are you dosing daily? I use an auto doser dispering about 120m/l daily

2. How much water volume do you have? 360gal main tank and also 93 cube on a doser at 54 m/l dailiy

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium? 9-11 dkh

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral? I have about 110 corals in 360 and about 16 are SPS

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing? Be careful what you apply as it is easy to burn coral

 

[AquaLifeStudio]

1. How much are you dosing daily? I dose BRS soda ash and calcium chloride @ 36ml/day each but spread over 18 doses. Adjustments are controlled by a GHL kh Director, testing 4 times/day

2. How much water volume do you have? 200 gallon water volume

3. What is your target DKH and Calcium? 9 dkh and 450 calcium

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral? eight 1-2" SPS frags and a baseball sized birdsnest colony

5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing? stability and the ability of making adjustments with my smartphone

 

[pecan2phat]

120 ml of each part (ESV B-Ionic)
180g DT but around 165g water volume
Target for 8.5 DKH & 430 ppm Ca
SPS =70%
Pros: Better coloration in SPS vs CaRx IMO, no C02 tanks to go get refilled.
Cons: Constant monitoring of salinity. As dosing rates get higher, salinity creeps up quickly necessitating replacing saltwater with RO water every 2 weeks.

 

[reef80]

Two Part Calcium and Alkalinity Questions for those of you who dose!

1. How much are you dosing daily? 90ml

2. How much water volume do you have?
Approximately 130 gallon total
3. What is your target DKH and Calcium? 7 to 9alk

4. How heavily is your tank stocked with SPS coral?
Everything is sps
5. What are the biggest pros and cons you have found with two part dosing?
Pro- simple, easy to use, fairly straight forward with less hassle and devices

Con- I hate having to mix the B-Ionic 5 gallon. Need to adjust every 2 weeks or so. Costly due to heavy consumption, but took out all live rock to reduce coraline and usage. At one point i was dosing 175ml due to lots of coraline build up. I also feel like I'm missing some natural trace elements that a CalReactor can provide. You can get lazy and forget to check your parameters and re-adjust.