Dosing help

CamBarr

CamBarr

New member
Hey guys,
I have a fairly new tank total system volume is about 48-50 gals. I am dosing daily 2part for CA and Alk via a BM doser with the supplemental dosing of MG when needed... I seem to be dosing what I would consider a lot of solutions considering a light load in the tank.im also getting a lot of percipient on my pumps and in on my heater... I can't seem to keep the levels consistent and up at recommended parameters... What gives??

Provided a snapshot of graphs used to track these fluctuations as well

Using Warner marine additives

I'm dosing 180ml of CA per day and 190ml of ALK

My my current parameters are:

Alk: 8.9 DKH
CA: 350ppm
MG: 1400 little high target is 1300ppm I know


Going to do a water change to balance things out..

Any advice
 
That does sound like a lot of those supplements for a tank of your size and apparent load, and that most of it is pricipitating out of solution, collecting on heaters, pumps, etc. How are you dosing them, i.e. where, what times and intervals, how much, etc.?
 
seems like a lot for 50g tank.

Did you put the ALK and CAL output near the return pump? Make sure you don't dump it in the sump's baffles.
 
downbeach said:
That does sound like a lot of those supplements for a tank of your size and apparent load, and that most of it is pricipitating out of solution, collecting on heaters, pumps, etc. How are you dosing them, i.e. where, what times and intervals, how much, etc.?
Click to expand...

i am dosing via a BM dosing pump. intervals are 4 times per day and with 1hour between CA and ALK dosing
 
gtareef said:
seems like a lot for 50g tank.

Did you put the ALK and CAL output near the return pump? Make sure you don't dump it in the sump's baffles.
Click to expand...

i have stopped dosing for now to see if i can get things to settle and did a small water change last night. I'm dosing in the main sump compartment where my overflow drains in to.. pretty high flow in there and i have a small pump in the compartment to make sure the water is circulating pretty well
 
seems like most people experience the precipitation issues when MG is out of alignment.... what else could be contributing to the high additions to maintain the levels and the precipitation...
 
I don't know much about the Warner Marine additives. Are you sure that they a 2-part? That level of consumption seems very high. I might try dosing baking soda for a few days. It leaves the pH unchanged, as opposed to the two-parts, which often raise the pH, and thus encourage precipitation.
 
yep the two part solution they make is called B-ionic


i have never had trouble dosing in the past?
 
I think B-Ionic is made by ESV.

I'm not sure why the tank is having problems now. You might try dosing by hand a few days, if you'd rather stick with the B-Ionic, to check that the pumps are working properly.
 
In going to dose by hand for the next few days, my levels tonight are:

CA-350ppm
Alk- 8.6
MG-1350

Added 8ml ALK solution to see if I can hold a dkh of 9.

Hope I can keep this stable... I'll update with results after i test tomorrow.
 
Update time

Let the tank settle here are the most current measurements:

Ca:300ppm
ALK: 7.8 dkh
MG:1350
PH:8
 
I do not know how big your tank is but mine is by volume 90gallons. My calcium some how got to 380. Seriously, you will need A LOT of solution. B-ionic is great stuff. I used it myself. But I needed 12.5 fluid ounces of calcium solution to get myself up to 420. Youd use quite a bit of your solution.B-ionic will cost a ton of money if your not consistently maintaining your levels.if I were you I would go the Bulk Reef Supply route and make your own solution. Especially, if you have an LPS or SPS dominated tank. It takes getting used too but I'm not spending huge amounts of money to do the same thing.
 
Spectorman said:
I do not know how big your tank is but mine is by volume 90gallons. My calcium some how got to 380. Seriously, you will need A LOT of solution. B-ionic is great stuff. I used it myself. But I needed 12.5 fluid ounces of calcium solution to get myself up to 420. Youd use quite a bit of your solution.B-ionic will cost a ton of money if your not consistently maintaining your levels.if I were you I would go the Bulk Reef Supply route and make your own solution. Especially, if you have an LPS or SPS dominated tank. It takes getting used too but I'm not spending huge amounts of money to do the same thing.
Click to expand...


I actually was using the bulkreefsupply solutions and ran out of solution so I picked up the B-ionic
 
Update:

ALK: 6.7DKH
MG:1380
CA: 300ppm
PH:8.0
SG: 1.026
Temp: 78-79F

What should I do to bring the parameters back up and in what order?

Should I start with CA or ALK? And what dosing interval? As in start with an ALK goal instead of bumping up to 8.5-9dkh all at once?

Thanks for the help!

Cam
 
The magnesium level is okay, so you can dose either calcium or alkalinity first. I'd probably target 50 ppm for the first calcium dose, and keep subsequent doses at 100 ppm or less. Alkalinity can be dosed 1 dKH at a time for the first shot, and likely 1-2 dKH after that. I recommended a lower dose for the first shot since most of us don't have a very good estimate as to the true water volume of the system, so the effect of a given dose is often different than was expected.
 
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