Unbalanced 2 part consumption?

[whitelightning77]

My reef consumes 2 part in an unbalanced manner. Is that a problem? I'm consuming about 30-40mls of alk solution daily and closer to 100mls of calcium solution daily. Is this a problem?

 

[jwshiver]

What is your Magnesium level?

 

[whitelightning77]

It was 1260 when I checked last on the 15th

 

[jwshiver]

I would slowly bring that up towards 1,400.
What are you using for 2 part?

 

[whitelightning77]

I would slowly bring that up towards 1,400.
What are you using for 2 part?

Using diy baked baking soda for alk. And the BRS calcium 2 part for the calcium portion.

 

[X-37B]

What are your alk cal numbers?

 

[whitelightning77]

What are your alk cal numbers?

Alk was 8.3 and calc was 385 so I'm bumping it back up to around 415

 

[jwshiver]

Using diy baked baking soda for alk. And the BRS calcium 2 part for the calcium portion.

My guess would be your DIY baked soda is not at the concentration to be equally dosed with the BRS calcium. I would recommend trying the BRS soda ash and see if the numbers are equal.

 

[whitelightning77]

My guess would be your DIY baked soda is not at the concentration to be equally dosed with the BRS calcium. I would recommend trying the BRS soda ash and see if the numbers are equal.

So you're saying my alk solution is more potent than the BRS version? Im following Randy's two part recipe.

 

[X-37B]

Alk was 8.3 and calc was 385 so I'm bumping it back up to around 415

How big is your tank?
My 120 uses 45ml 1&2 esv 2 part currently.
With mag 1350.
I would get the cal up to the level you quoted and dose equal amounts.
With esv I run my alk like yours 7.7-8.3 with 8 the target.
Doing this I only check alk as the cal never varies. Mag is dosed in my trace elements.
I like a balance 2 part vs diy but thats just me. There is no mixing. Just add equal parts of 1&2 and your stable.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Assuming you made the solutions correctly, water changes with a lower calcium or high alk mix will skew the results as you see. So will nitrate dosing.

you sure you didn’t make the alk part for he wrong potency calcium part? There are two recipes of different potency.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Magnesium at any level cannot ever cause substantial unbalanced demand. That idea seems widespread but isn’t a cause.

 

[whitelightning77]

Assuming you made the solutions correctly, water changes with a lower calcium or high alk mix will skew the results as you see. So will nitrate dosing.

you sure you didn’t make the alk part for he wrong potency calcium part? There are two recipes of different potency.

Can you clarify? I've been following recipe 1 for tanks with normal to low ph.

 

[jwshiver]

So you're saying my alk solution is more potent than the BRS version? Im following Randy's two part recipe.

It is possible that you inadvertently mixed the solution incorrectly. If you use BRS soda ash and the numbers are still unbalanced then you can rule out your DIY as the cause.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Can you clarify? I've been following recipe 1 for tanks with normal to low ph.

so you bake the baking soda?

My point was the potency of recipe 1 and 2 are different, so I wanted to be sure you were not using alk recipe 1 and calcium recipe 2.