New to 2 part. have questions

[mikem.dvm]

have a three year old 210 gallon reef tank. For some reason the importance of alk/ calcium didn't really sink in until recently.

tested the alk and calcium and used the calculators to get them corrected and then re-tested to see what my tank was consuming. I have dialed in my alk and dosing to maintain ~9.0dKH. I'm dosing 40mls of Alk (liquid soda Ash) per day to maintain that. when I test my Calcium its never low. I'm not adding Calcium at the moment and when I tested today it was 567. I use hanna checkers and bough lab grade pipettes to try to make the dilution step as accurate as possible.

Should I be dosing calcium?

I'm also waiting to get another dos and additives for the balling method so I'll have a pump for part C.

 

[Unregistered1]

I guess you can dose unequal amounts if your calcium is high. I am not sure its matter much. I think most dose in equal parts though. Whatever works

 

[((FORDTECH))]

have a three year old 210 gallon reef tank. For some reason the importance of alk/ calcium didn't really sink in until recently.

tested the alk and calcium and used the calculators to get them corrected and then re-tested to see what my tank was consuming. I have dialed in my alk and dosing to maintain ~9.0dKH. I'm dosing 40mls of Alk (liquid soda Ash) per day to maintain that. when I test my Calcium its never low. I'm not adding Calcium at the moment and when I tested today it was 567. I use hanna checkers and bough lab grade pipettes to try to make the dilution step as accurate as possible.

Should I be dosing calcium?

I'm also waiting to get another dos and additives for the balling method so I'll have a pump for part C.

I have been only dosing soda ash from 2 part for months now. my calcium never drops below 460 so I never need to dose calcium. I also do daily auto water changes that equal about 10% a week. Which is why I think my calcium never goes low. Gunna follow this because I have same issue if I dose calcium it would be out the roof high. Not sure why someone would tell you to dose both if your calcium is already at 567. I’d love to know there reason why to dose calcium. I am dosing 50ml of brs 2 part soda ash and my system is about 250 gallons. For what it’s worth I have a second system that is 300 gallons not much coral tho and same issue I dose 40ml of soda ash but 0 calcium and still maintain calcuim at 450

 

[Unregistered1]

well they call it two part for a reason

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

have a three year old 210 gallon reef tank. For some reason the importance of alk/ calcium didn't really sink in until recently.

tested the alk and calcium and used the calculators to get them corrected and then re-tested to see what my tank was consuming. I have dialed in my alk and dosing to maintain ~9.0dKH. I'm dosing 40mls of Alk (liquid soda Ash) per day to maintain that. when I test my Calcium its never low. I'm not adding Calcium at the moment and when I tested today it was 567. I use hanna checkers and bough lab grade pipettes to try to make the dilution step as accurate as possible.

Should I be dosing calcium?

I'm also waiting to get another dos and additives for the balling method so I'll have a pump for part C.

Your demand is VERY low, and when demand is so low, you cannot easily detect the amount of calcium being consumed even if it is being consumed exactly 1:1 to make calcium carbonate. Moreover, processes that are minor and usually losty in the noise of high demand tanks can dominate very low demand tanks, and make the apparent ratios consumed far off the expected values. Things like nitrate increasing, decreasing or being dosed, water changes with a mix not exactly matchign the tank, etc.

It is always best to give dosing in dKH or ppm per day, not mL. It requires much more understanding of your setup and the products dosed to know what mL per day actually means.

I'm not a big fan of the Hanna checker for calcium, but more often it reads low, not high, due to its freakish sensitivity to traces of calcium in the blank.

Since you did not specify exactly what product you are dosing, I will just assume it is my DIY recipe (as sold by BRS).

40 mL a day of my DIY Recipe #1 in 210 gallons is only 0.27 dKh per day. The balanced calcium demand when forming calcium carbonate is only 2 ppm per day, and as I noted, may be lost in the noise of testing and other minor processes.

 

[mikem.dvm]

Your demand is VERY low, and when demand is so low, you cannot easily detect the amount of calcium being consumed even if it is being consumed exactly 1:1 to make calcium carbonate. Moreover, processes that are minor and usually losty in the noise of high demand tanks can dominate very low demand tanks, and make the apparent ratios consumed far off the expected values. Things like nitrate increasing, decreasing or being dosed, water changes with a mix not exactly matchign the tank, etc.

It is always best to give dosing in dKH or ppm per day, not mL. It requires much more understanding of your setup and the products dosed to know what mL per day actually means.

I'm not a big fan of the Hanna checker for calcium, but more often it reads low, not high, due to its freakish sensitivity to traces of calcium in the blank.

Since you did not specify exactly what product you are dosing, I will just assume it is my DIY recipe (as sold by BRS).

40 mL a day of my DIY Recipe #1 in 210 gallons is only 0.27 dKh per day. The balanced calcium demand when forming calcium carbonate is only 2 ppm per day, and as I noted, may be lost in the noise of testing and other minor processes.

Thanks. I am dosing the BRS Soda ash.

I know that my tank demands are pretty low but after a lot of dumb mistakes and loosing a lot of coral I'm making sure Im doing it better and get ahead of everything instead of trying to catch up. I gave up on SPS for a while and have some soft corals but really want to have SPS in my tank. I will try another Ca test to see where I'm at and start dosing Ca. I like the digital read out of the hanna and I read about the issues but I was hoping that using pipettes would help.

Thanks again for the response.

 

[blasterman]

Mikem,

The only time calcium and alk are consumed in equal amounts is when you have lots of fast growing SPS or clams. For most reefers this isnt the case. They end up with (drum roll) super high calcium and wonky alk. Just like here. Too many factors affect alk consumption. Very few affect calcium consumption.

Decouple alk from calcium consumption because it doesn't apply unless you have massive SPS growth going on.

In a 210 with light coral load like yours a 10% monthly water change can probably keep calcium fine. Calcium between 380-450 is fine. I would go so far as to not bother testing it but maybe once a month at most.

Focus on keeping nitrate and phosphate in stable ranges and invest in those testers. Were finding those params increasingly critical for SPS.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks. I am dosing the BRS Soda ash.

I know that my tank demands are pretty low but after a lot of dumb mistakes and loosing a lot of coral I'm making sure Im doing it better and get ahead of everything instead of trying to catch up. I gave up on SPS for a while and have some soft corals but really want to have SPS in my tank. I will try another Ca test to see where I'm at and start dosing Ca. I like the digital read out of the hanna and I read about the issues but I was hoping that using pipettes would help.

Thanks again for the response.

The calcium will fall over time with water changes and consumption, but is not a problem for SPS as is.