Real two part dosing

biom · Aug 8, 2015

Hi Randy, I'm going to make real two part dosing, only two parts, one with calcium and magnesium and one with sodium carbonate and sodium sulfate. Could you please give me some help to calculate how much sulfate should I add to sodium carbonate part in terms of ionic balance? Thanks.

hig789 · Aug 8, 2015

These?

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/4/chemistry

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 9, 2015

So you will use just magnesium chloride and calcium chloride in the calcium part?

I haven't worked out an exact recipe for that set of ingredient, but we can work through it.

Is it sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) or sodium bisulfate (NaHSO4) that you will use?

redfishbluefish · Aug 9, 2015

I'm not quite sure how you would be able to mix the magnesium and calcium parts together considering the consumption of magnesium is a fraction of the consumption of calcium.....not to mention the amount of mag you get in your saltwater mix. I guess it could all be calculated out, but why bother when, for the most part, you are only dosing two....the alk and calc part. I can't remember the last time I dosed mag.....maybe six months ago.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 9, 2015

redfishbluefish said:
I'm not quite sure how you would be able to mix the magnesium and calcium parts together considering the consumption of magnesium is a fraction of the consumption of calcium.....not to mention the amount of mag you get in your saltwater mix. I guess it could all be calculated out, but why bother when, for the most part, you are only dosing two....the alk and calc part. I can't remember the last time I dosed mag.....maybe six months ago.

But all commercial two parts do this (or at least claim to). It should approximately keep magnesium where it is when you start dosing (ignoring effects of possible water changes).

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 9, 2015

FWIW, if you do not use the magnesium at the ratio I recommend, then you have the potential, to boost chloride relative to sulfate over time (using less sulfate from less magnesium sulfate).

biom · Aug 9, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
So you will use just magnesium chloride and calcium chloride in the calcium part?

I haven't worked out an exact recipe for that set of ingredient, but we can work through it.

Is it sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) or sodium bisulfate (NaHSO4) that you will use?

It is sodium sulfate

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 11, 2015

OK, so let's start by looking at my recipe.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

In part 1 we'll put the calcium chloride of the above recipe (500 grams of calcium chloride dihydrate per gallon of fresh water).

We'll also put the magnesium as all magnesium chloride into the calcium part.

We need about 28.5 grams of magnesium, or 238 grams of magnesium chloride hexahydrate.

Next we'll do the sulfate...

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 11, 2015

In the alk part we put 594 grams of baked baking soda (measured before baking) or 375 grams of sodium carbonate.

Then we need to add about 0.44 moles of sulfate, or 62.5 grams of sodium sulfate.

I think that's it!

biom · Aug 11, 2015

Thank you very much Randy, my calculations are pretty close: 1 gram Na2SO4 per 10 grams CaCl2.2H2O added.

Are you sure about magnesium part? 1 gram Magnesium per 4.8 grams Calcium sounds pretty much to me.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 11, 2015

Yes, that is correct. Less than a third of that magnesium is anticipated to be incorporated into the coral skeletons. The other >2/3 of it is added to the aquarium to help make a close to seawater residue of sodium, magnesium, sulfate, and chloride (the big 4 ions of seawater) that is left after the added calcium and carbonate are used up.

I discuss the magnesium amount rational in detail in the linked article.

biom · Aug 12, 2015

Thank you!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 12, 2015

You're welcome.

Good luck!

biom · Oct 16, 2015

Just to add Jim's correction of Real Two Part from another thread. Thank you, Jim!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...hould-i-expect-to-change.215171/#post-2466696

And to report first results from my test; I can see positive results - visible accelerated growth of SPS corals, which could be measured with increased consumption of alkalinity and calcium. For comparison previous month with non-balanced addition of Ca, Mg and Аlk (September) trend of consumption was +18% for 30 days, and with the Real Two Part, trend of consumption is +23% for 15 days, nothing was changed in the tank, even the stock solutions basically remained the same. I did't expect any change, I switch to RTP only because a dont have enough place for three canisters and my dosing pump have only three dosing units (one for vodka/vinegar). Of course I couldn't be 100% that the reason of this accelerated growth is RTP, but I didn't change anything, except reducing amount of DIY Nopox few days ago because of zeroed nitrates (accelerated growth requires more nutrients).
On the following picture you can see growth of this rainbow mili - i did witnessed such an rapid growth only when was under Zeo with calcium reactor. So I'm happy

.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Oct 16, 2015

That's great to hear, Biom!

pedro · Oct 21, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
In the alk part we put 594 grams of baked baking soda (measured before baking) or 375 grams of sodium carbonate.

Then we need to add about 0.44 moles of sulfate, or 62.5 grams of sodium sulfate.

I think that's it!

hi Mr. Randy
I went to buy sodium sulfate and made me a difficult question

anhydrous sodium sulfate

or

Sodium sulfate decahydrate

what should I buy?
thank you