Manual 2 part dose

ReefJCB · Feb 22, 2020

After about 2 years it looks like I need to turn in the kalk and upgrade to 2 part. Goal is to get a doser set up in the next month or so, but I’m the mean time I’ll need to manually dose.

For the alk, it’s looking like I’m going to need to dose 60+ ml liquid soda ash mixture daily.

I’m planning on doing 30 in the morning and 30 at night. Is that enough to spread it out or will I need to do 3 20s?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 22, 2020

Need to know either the tank volume, or better yet, how much that is in dKH per day.

ReefJCB · Feb 22, 2020

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Need to know either the tank volume, or better yet, how much that is in dKH per day.

120g display 40g sump, My guess is about 120g total water volume when you take out rocks and sand.

My calculations are about 1dkh a day. I should know more in the next few days. I’ve taken kalk out of ATO to get a better idea on my daily usage.

Greg P · Feb 22, 2020

How much you dose at a time will also be dictated by what duty cycle your pumps can handle. I read on the BRS site a number of years ago about them not recommending running their's for up to an hour as they can heat up, and this will prematurely wear them out.
I was dosing up to 120mls/daily on my last tank and had the timers set for 12x/day. I alternated the Alk and Ca 1 hour apart.

Michael Gray · Feb 22, 2020

30ml at once. U might have a pH problem. That will raise pH quite a bit.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 23, 2020

ReefJCB said:
120g display 40g sump, My guess is about 120g total water volume when you take out rocks and sand.

My calculations are about 1dkh a day. I should know more in the next few days. I’ve taken kalk out of ATO to get a better idea on my daily usage.

if you are adding 0.5 dKH twice a day, I think that is ok, but more spread out is better.

Hallowhead · Feb 23, 2020

From my understanding you should also dose soda ash after your lights are out.

X-37B · Feb 23, 2020

Before I went to a carx on my 120 I was dosing 45ml of esv 2 part in the morning. Alk first then cal 10 minutes later with no issue. It did raise my alk about 0.8 after the add with no appatent effect on the tank.
That was what my tank used in 24 hrs.
I would spread out the adds if possible too.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 23, 2020

Hallowhead said:
From my understanding you should also dose soda ash after your lights are out.

That is true from a pH perspective, but not from an alk stability perspective since most alk is consumed during the day.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Feb 23, 2020

90's reefer said:
Before I went to a carx on my 120 I was dosing 45ml of esv 2 part in the morning. Alk first then cal 10 minutes later with no issue. It did raise my alk about .08 after the add with no appatent effect on the tank.
That was what my tank used in 24 hrs.
I would spread out the adds if possible too.

Is 0.08 a typo? That is dKH?