BRS doser question

[shaneh]

my tank is finally starting to take off and I bought BRS doser a while back but i did not need additional ALK and CAl. i have been dosing 30 mil alk and 50 mil cal.

I tested last night and my CAl is 410 and Alk is 9.

Is it a one to one ratio of CAl and ALK?

Last night i watched the BRS video but it did not address the amount to start or the ratio.

Also do any of you dose MAG? I tested about a month ago and was 1350, i hate the MAG test from seachem it is very hard to do and takes a long time. like 10 min! haha

PS: I have 2 clams, i think they consume mag right?

 

[northbay-reefer]

You have to test your tank daily to determine how much your corals consume each day in term of Cal and alk. And then use one of the online calculator to determine how much of each to dose (not 1-2-1 ratio). If you are dosing two parts, then go to Randy chemistry forum and look for his dosing calculator. All your corals uses mag so make sure to maintain it at 1350.

 

[gdm42001]

This video explains why we need Mag and the Ca and Alk link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI52IyBtjp0
at least it made sense to me

 

[Reef Bass]

I'm hearing several questions here:

1. is the ratio of dosing alk and ca necessarily 1:1?

No. The correct ratio is whatever amounts of each result in appropriate levels of each as demonstrated by testing. Currently, my ratio of alk to ca is roughly 3:4 or 3:5.

2. how much should I start dosing with my pumps?

You know how much you are manually dosing (30 and 50mls). Each dosing pump puts out slightly different amounts of fluid per minute, generally between 1.3 and 2 mls / minute. Run the pump for 10 minutes into a graduated container (they come with one) and see how much is in there. If it's 16mls, divide that by 10 (number of minutes), and that pump is putting out 1.6 mls per minute. If that's going to be your alk pump, divide your current dose (30mls) by 1.6 mls / min and you should run that pump a total of 19 minutes a day to deliver 30 mls per day. Do the same for the pump that will dose ca. Then you have your starting points for automated dosing.

Test weekly and make minor changes if necessary to the times (number of minutes) that the pumps run to produce precise and stable levels. Because you started with the manual dose quantity (which was producing adequate levels when dosed manually, right?), you know you're close when you started with automated dosing.

I also divided my daily dose by 4 and set my dosing pumps to deliver 1/4th the total daily dose 4 times a day. I am getting way more stable levels than I ever could with manual dosing and I don't have to do anything other than make sure my dosing reservoirs still have supplement fluid!

3. What about mag?

I believe in dosing mag and do so automatically with my alk and ca. So that's a third dosing pump for me. The mag pumps runs much less than the others but without it I can't hold my mag up at 1300. And when I wanted to run higher to battle bryopsis, I just up'd the time (number of minutes) the pump runs and the controller does the rest.

4. What changes are likely over time?

What I have noticed is that over time the levels observed when testing begin to drop. IMO, what is happening is that your corals have been growing and so now require more calcium to support the increased size of each colony. So over time you will be slowly increasing the number of minutes your pumps run to accomodate the growth of your corals and to maintain your ideal levels of alk, ca and mag.

In my own experience, I was manually dosing way too long until I was adding about 100mls of ca supplement daily (50mls twice a day). Then I automated the process, which was a huge relief and made my corals very happy, as the controller was much more reliable and consistent than I was. Now my dosing pumps are putting in more than 3 times as much as they were then. And while I am an excellent candidate for a calcium reactor, I enjoy the precision and ease of adjustment of automated dosing.

 

[northbay-reefer]

Ken, thank you for the details instruction. This is very usueful.

 

[shaneh]

Ken,

Thanks bud I was hoping you were going to chime in. You must be refilling your gallon jugs once a month or more for as much as you dose.

I still have a few corals that have not "taken off" I just hope the time is coming soon. It seems to be pretty standard to use more cal than alk.

How many outlets do you have on your controller? You have the reefkeeper elite right?

I may need to get a new controller or add another. I only have 8 outlets on my controller,
1 heat
2 fans
3 lights MH
4 lights t5
5 light actinic
6 light fuge
7 doser alk
8 doser cal

I may need another timed controller for my mag. Or maybe I can just dose manual.

Also I have a slight concern, i set my cal to recipe 1 and it is increasing my PH slightly as it said the problem is my PH is not 8.5-8.6concistant. Should i be concerned? I have not seen any problems but i do not want anything bad to happen.

 

[Reef Bass]

Yes, I do refill my alk and ca jugs at least monthly, probably more like every couple weeks. I think I could mix up supplements in my sleep.

My controller has 2 4 outlet plug strips. Because I run both my 400w MHs off one dual ballast, the total current draw on that is greater than the max for the power strip, so I run the MH ballast on a separate plug on a separate circuit. My lps tank's T5s are on a separate plug also, as tank is a ways from the controller.

Keep in mind the difference between plugs 1 and 4 and plugs 2 and 3 on the strip. 1 and 4 are on electronically controlled relays, which switch power on and off very cleanly and completely. 2 and 3 are not. I use 1 and 4 for my dosing pumps and fan and 2 and 3 for heaters. I'm not clear on which devices work better on which circuits, but if a device that is plugged in to plug 2 or 3 keeps running after the power strip led for that channel goes off (indicating that circuit is off), try running it in plug 1 or 4. I had a fan stay on when plugged into plug 2 or 3, so I moved it to plug 4 and it turns on and off perfectly. My heaters seem to work fine in plugs 2 and 3.

With the amount you're currently dosing, you could possibly get by manually dosing mag. You're the only one who will know when you've had enough of doing it manually and could automate it at that point.

Fortunately, I have not explored the effects of high pH on reef aquaria. I use the Randy recipe that calls for 500g of calcium chloride, which I believe is the 1st one. My ph is amazingly stable at about 8.3-8.4. I believe the second Randy recipe calls for using 1/2 the CaCl2 if pH is an issue. You might try the second recipe the next time you mix up a batch of supplement.