3 posters
DIY 2 part, since someone asked what I dose.
Fern- Admin
- Posts : 2620
Join date : 2011-03-09
Age : 41
Location : Fort Myers FL
Very good link! I shall further investigate this...
FishVixen- Modorater
- Posts : 1141
Join date : 2011-03-09
Age : 66
Location : Cape Coral Fl
great link Thanks
pope- Posts : 41
Join date : 2011-03-10
Sourcing Calcium Chloride and Mag Chloride are easier in northern states. If you want the easy route, the bulk reef supply 2 part system is the same recipe. It's not as cheap as doing it yourself IF you can source the 2 chemicals, but for 40 bucks you get 3 1 gallon jugs with dosing pumps and all 3 parts.
Fern- Admin
- Posts : 2620
Join date : 2011-03-09
Age : 41
Location : Fort Myers FL
I have looked at their dosing pack, do you use it daily?
Not sure if we will keep dosing or look further into a calcium reactor. What do you think the pros and cons of each are?
Not sure if we will keep dosing or look further into a calcium reactor. What do you think the pros and cons of each are?
pope- Posts : 41
Join date : 2011-03-10
Calcium reactor is a set it and forget it method. It's also expensive. What I recommend more than anything at all is determining if you actually need to dose or not before you do anything else. Weekly water changes should handle all alkalinity/calcium/magnesium supplementation in a new system. If you're ammonia/nitriate/nitrate readings are anything other than 0/0/0 Then you probably shouldn't even be worrying with dosing.
So the real question then is ... "When should I start dosing?"
and the answer to that is "When your daily testing indicates problems holding alkalinity at the desired level"
This is outright noticeable so there's no guessing involved here. Testing your alk will tell you everything you need to know. Chart it over a week without doing anything at all to the system. If the alk stays stable every day the entire week. You don't need to dose a 2 part. It's pointless because your system isn't using it. With the 58 I'm still not dosing daily. Alk is holding at 8 from the salt mix because my nitrates haven't stabilized at 0 yet. I'll never get optimized growth from my stoney corals as long as the nitrates are above 5ppm, and any calcium consumption can be handled with a water change.
As of last testing the system had gone from holding at 20ppm to 10ppm to now 5ppm nitrates over the last 6 weeks. This indicates the system is stabilizing to some degree, and i've increased alkalinity testing to watch for it to fall before resuming 2 part dosing. I anticipate this begins really taking off in another month for my system, and from my experience.
The only thing I'm currently dosing is phyto which I feed about 45ml to my 70 gallon (net actual water volume) system (with the skimmer off for a 2 hour window) every other day or so.
So the real question then is ... "When should I start dosing?"
and the answer to that is "When your daily testing indicates problems holding alkalinity at the desired level"
This is outright noticeable so there's no guessing involved here. Testing your alk will tell you everything you need to know. Chart it over a week without doing anything at all to the system. If the alk stays stable every day the entire week. You don't need to dose a 2 part. It's pointless because your system isn't using it. With the 58 I'm still not dosing daily. Alk is holding at 8 from the salt mix because my nitrates haven't stabilized at 0 yet. I'll never get optimized growth from my stoney corals as long as the nitrates are above 5ppm, and any calcium consumption can be handled with a water change.
As of last testing the system had gone from holding at 20ppm to 10ppm to now 5ppm nitrates over the last 6 weeks. This indicates the system is stabilizing to some degree, and i've increased alkalinity testing to watch for it to fall before resuming 2 part dosing. I anticipate this begins really taking off in another month for my system, and from my experience.
The only thing I'm currently dosing is phyto which I feed about 45ml to my 70 gallon (net actual water volume) system (with the skimmer off for a 2 hour window) every other day or so.
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