BRS 2-Part avg. consumption

[mirkus]

A quick question for you BRS 2 part users..

I have recently ramped up my dosage considerably over the last few months. I started out around ~70 ml and now I'm up to 100 ml and my alk is still on the low side 6.5-7

I have added some new frags and growth seems to have picked up on a few corals but 100 ml seems like a lot. I've dosed more (100ml+) in the past only to find out it was precipitating, so I don't want to go down that road again.

What are your thoughts based on my picture?

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[CoralNerd]

I went through this problem myself.
What size is your tank?
What chamber of your sump do you dose in?

 

[oscar.millan]

By how much did you raise your ml from 70m to 100ml? In what increments?

You have a massive colony, looks like a staghorn in towards the middle. That doesn't seam too off base. But there are so many variables to this. I'd be interested in my original question and what process you went through when raising the alk.

 

[mirkus]

I went through this problem myself.
What size is your tank?
What chamber of your sump do you dose in?

My tanks is ~90 gallons (60x20x22). I'm dosing into the 2nd chamber of stock redsea reefer sump, its a decent sized space. I have powerhead blowing in the area to help circulation/mixing.

I have increased my dosing by 5ml or so each time. My alk does increase, but it seems to always end up settling around 6.5-7.

 

[CoralNerd]

I'm not sure how the red sea sump is configured, but my suggestion would be try and dose in the pump section. This is what I had to wind up doing. I'm dosing about 50ml of each of course each tank is different.

 

[mirkus]

I may have to give that a shot, but I might have to order more tubing..

Yesterday, I reduced the frequency of my dosing from ~140 times per day to 100 to see if that makes a difference.

 

[koral_lover]

I've been down this path before too...you have any evidence of your sandbed clumping or hardening?

 

[koral_lover]

also I'd suggest dosing as far away from a pump as possible...potential for lock up. I ended up dosing up over the tank in the overflow section...

I'd get another test kit or at least double check your readings on another kit and make sure Mag is high enough...

 

[mirkus]

I've been down this path before too...you have any evidence of your sandbed clumping or hardening?

Ha, yes I should check my sandbed out. I don't think it is hardening because it still blows everywhere. A couple tanks ago my sandbed turned to concrete, and I had to use a chisel to remove the sand. I can think of so many ways that could have ended badly!!

Mag is okay @ 1215. I use API, but also have red sea. I have compared in the past and they are the same. Api is just not as "precise"

Is it possible I really am consuming ~100ml a day? I would think my tank would need to be a little more grown out. I guess the one thing is BRS is definitely weaker than B-Ionic.

 

[CoralNerd]

I may have to give that a shot, but I might have to order more tubing..

Yesterday, I reduced the frequency of my dosing from ~140 times per day to 100 to see if that makes a difference.

I had to get more tubing to move the dosing over also.

I've been down this path before too...you have any evidence of your sandbed clumping or hardening?

Yep, my sand bed clumped up. That was back when I was dosing in the skimmer section and dosing heavy.

also I'd suggest dosing as far away from a pump as possible...potential for lock up. I ended up dosing up over the tank in the overflow section...

I'd get another test kit or at least double check your readings on another kit and make sure Mag is high enough...

If you dose with a doser and it separates the alk calcium dose by five minutes I don't think there should be a problem but it's possible.

 

[rovster]

Based on your pics I would have guessed 80-120ml each. Your numbers make sense. I've been as high as 70 but I don't really have big colonies...

 

[lynchmob3000]

Based on your pics I would have guessed 80-120ml each. Your numbers make sense. I've been as high as 70 but I don't really have big colonies...

+1. That huge Monti and the other few in the middle there probably consume everything! Give em more and water how fast sps can grow

 

[oscar.millan]

I don't think it's a lot. I'm doing 80ml of Ca and 110ml of Alk every day. It's a 36x30x24 cube with medium to large colonies of SPS. Honestly, I don't think it's high at all.

 

[minus9]

I have a 22g (roughly 16g of water) and i'm dosing 18.5mL of alk a day and this keeps me in the low 8's. As stated above, it doesn't seem like a lot, given the size of your corals and tank. If you have a lot of stoney corals and coralline growing, they're going to consume a lot of alk and calcium, not matter what size tank you have. Don't get hung up on the amount, just make sure your parameters are where they are supposed to be.
Nice tank!

 

[buy_baff]

I would say by looking at your tank you corals are definitely consuming it. My tank is a 150g and has a large fragtank also and it's loaded with large colonys and big clams. I'm consuming 250ml a day of both alk and calcium.

 

[Hentz]

Don't mean to hijack... But what causes clumpy or hardening of the sand? I myself am going to start dosing soon, this would be a nice piece of knowledge to know prior

Thanks in advance.

 

[nemodan]

Why are you worry about the volume dosed ?

You have to be worry about keeping the Alk at 7 dkh and the Ca around 380-420.

The dosed volume will depend on your tank bioload (you can't compare with others) and the concentration of the components in your solutions.

Keep the tank between 6.5 -7.5 dkh with low nutrients and enjoy seing the SPS growing.


Tips :

- dose in the return chamber.

- if using a dosing pump along the day, hence the dosing volume is small (~1 ml/dose) then, if you dose 5 minutes apart, there will NOT be any precipitation. The return pump flow mix the components VERY fast. You can have both tubing one beside the other.

Those 2 tips are from my own experience, in my tank, using B-ionic 2 parts solution.

I am dosing now "83 ml" in a total system of 100 G (RSM 250 66 G and Sump 40 G) with the bioload you can see in the picture below.



Cheers
Daniel

 

[mirkus]

Why are you worry about the volume dosed ?

You have to be worry about keeping the Alk at 7 dkh and the Ca around 380-420.

The dosed volume will depend on your tank bioload (you can't compare with others) and the concentration of the components in your solutions.

Keep the tank between 6.5 -7.5 dkh with low nutrients and enjoy seing the SPS growing.


Tips :

- dose in the return chamber.

- if using a dosing pump along the day, hence the dosing volume is small (~1 ml/dose) then, if you dose 5 minutes apart, there will NOT be any precipitation. The return pump flow mix the components VERY fast. You can have both tubing one beside the other.

Those 2 tips are from my own experience, in my tank, using B-ionic 2 parts solution.

I am dosing now "83 ml" in a total system of 100 G (RSM 250 66 G and Sump 40 G) with the bioload you can see in the picture below.



Cheers
Daniel

Nice tank! (reminds me of my old tank, but your's is still better) It's not that I am worried about the volume. I just don't want to over do it. As I mentioned earlier, I have blindly followed test kits in the past and ended up with a concrete sandbed and pumps that needed to be soaked in vinegar frequently. I don't know for a fact that overdosing caused my sand to harden, but it was all around the same period.

The reason I was concerned about my dosing was my increased dosage over a relatively short period of time, up 30 to 40 ml with very little impact on alk. I also seem to always have some kind of particulate blowing around in my tank. It could be sand from fish moving it around, could be urchin poo, could be precipitate, not sure. It could even be microbubbles caused by gyre and surface agitation.

Of course consumption of alk/ca can vary significantly from tank to and depends on many different factors. It doesn't stop me from being curious about what others are dosing and how much. It would be silly for me to look at your tank and say he's at 83ml, let me set mine for the same.

 

[Chris_Gillespie]

My 40 breeder was consuming 170 mL/day (each part) at the time these pictures were taken. I'm up to 200 mL/day now and it's affecting salinity. I just bought a calcium reactor.