how much 2 part do you guys dose?

[Jason7504]

i tested my Ca and Alk after a week without dosing to see how much my tank used in a week and it looks like it uses 20ppm Ca and 0.5-.75meq/L Alk so it would be about 10ml/day of 2 part. I was just wondering how much 2 part everyone else doses so how much 2 part do you usually dose daily or weekly?

 

[Fragmented 99]

You want to dose daily to avoid spikes in alkalinity. You also should dose eqaul parts of 1 & 2 Each day. Do a search, there are a lot of good articles on dosing available

 

[Jason7504]

You want to dose daily to avoid spikes in alkalinity. You also should dose eqaul parts of 1 & 2 Each day. Do a search, there are a lot of good articles on dosing available

i am going to dose daily, 10ml/day of Ca and Alk, but i was just wondering how much everyone dosed

 

[flamron]

I dose about 225ml a day in my 75G. I have mainly SPS with one derasa clam.

 

[bertoni]

10 ml a day in a 34g seems reasonable to me. My 29g systems took 15-30 ml per day, if my memory is correct.

 

[SWINGRRRR]

I dose about 225ml a day in my 75G. I have mainly SPS with one derasa clam.

:eek1::eek1::eek1: 2 gallons a month??? I feel for your BRS bill.

I do about 50ml/day.

 

[flamron]

And that is why I'm moving to a reactor :beer:

:eek1::eek1::eek1: 2 gallons a month??? I feel for your BRS bill.

I do about 50ml/day.

 

[CleveYank]

I dose 200ml a day of each on my SPS dominated growouts.

You need to determine your Ca and Alk load by working up towards the dose you need. And the best way to do that is dose the starting dosages, test, and chart as you increase and walk it up slowly. You can always add, but it's hard to subtract once it's in there so test and chart and don't wing it and you'll be fine.

 

[Henry Bowman]

FWIW - Reef tanks will NOT use / consume alk and ca in equal parts. The uptake does not work that way.

I use 55ml alk and 34ml ca a day.

 

[broke1]

Around 90 ML a day in a 200g system. But I don't dose mine in equal amounts, don't ask me why but my tank uses up about 20% more Alk than Calcium.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Reef tanks will NOT use / consume alk and ca in equal parts. The uptake does not work that way.

What doesn’t work that way?

Two parts are designed to be used in equal parts, and if you do not (sometimes for valid reason), then you are missing out on a big benefit of them.

The primary reason that many folks do not "need" equal parts is that many salt mixers have excessive calcium, so water changes with them are really what throws off the balance. The actual demand by corals and such will match well with the ratio in the two part.

Many folks go for many years without anything but equal parts dosing (with two parts, limewater, or CaCO3/Co2 reactors) because they use a salt mix that matches the tank.

What salt mix are you using? With less calcium demand, maybe it has high calcium?

FWIW, I discuss the true (and fairly slow to be observed) imbalanced demand issues here:

When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm

 

[sjm817]

240ml of each part/day and 2.5 - 3G of saturated Kalk/day.

 

[stanlalee]

Reef tanks will NOT use / consume alk and ca in equal parts. The uptake does not work that way.

What doesn’t work that way?

Two parts are designed to be used in equal parts, and if you do not (sometimes for valid reason), then you are missing out on a big benefit of them.

The primary reason that many folks do not "need" equal parts is that many salt mixers have excessive calcium, so water changes with them are really what throws off the balance. The actual demand by corals and such will match well with the ratio in the two part.

Many folks go for many years without anything but equal parts dosing (with two parts, limewater, or CaCO3/Co2 reactors) because they use a salt mix that matches the tank.

What salt mix are you using? With less calcium demand, maybe it has high calcium?

FWIW, I discuss the true (and fairly slow to be observed) imbalanced demand issues here:

When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm

sounds like he's refering to the nearly 3:1 ratio of carbonate to calcium uptake. I think we can all agree 2 parts are formulated at ratios to dose in equal amounts. my problem is I refuse to use 2 part calcium products which are diluted to 50,000-100,000mg/L when I can get 140,000-160,000mg/L calcium products for the same price with the benefit of dosing way less. some 2 part calcium products I'd go thru three bottles by the time I'm thru one of what I'm using. whatever benefits of 2 parts are totally negated by the required watered down calcium in order to dose in equal parts. the calcium/carbonate ratio is known so I dont see why I need to be spoon fed equal doses when I can figure it out using unequal doses. using non matched products I dose much more carbonate than calcium and I guess what I'm trying to say is so what? the end result is still stable ca and dKH.

 

[Henry Bowman]

Reef tanks will NOT use / consume alk and ca in equal parts. The uptake does not work that way.

What doesn't work that way?

The primary reason that many folks do not "need" equal parts is that many salt mixers have excessive calcium, so water changes with them are really what throws off the balance. The actual demand by corals and such will match well with the ratio in the two part.

Many folks go for many years without anything but equal parts dosing (with two parts, limewater, or CaCO3/Co2 reactors) because they use a salt mix that matches the tank.

FWIW, I discuss the true (and fairly slow to be observed) imbalanced demand issues here:

When Do Calcium and Alkalinity Demand Not Exactly Balance?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.htm

It appears that you answered your own question within the article you wrote.

Like most aquarium reefkeepers use a high Ca salt mix. Red Sea Coral Pro for me. Thus the need for less Ca. I do not use a store bought two part (ESV, B-Ionic etc..). I purchase the components dry and weigh them before mixing so that my solutions are fairly consistent by hobby standards. Over the past years of using a two part very similar to your recipe I have never dosed equal parts of the solutions, so for me, it doesn't work that way. In addition, I know a few other hobbyists that dose via a similar system and it doesnt work that way for them either.

 

[flamron]

So I guess my question is this.

Does a Ca rx work in the same way as dosing two part unbalanced? I do dose less calcium than alkalinity in my dosing pumps, so when I switch, will the reactor work the same way?

 

[Henry Bowman]

Because a reactor simply melts coral skeletons, it is perfect for growing corals. I'll let the experts answer the chemical reasoning behind this.

Once you get the reactor dialed in, you should be fine.

 

[bertoni]

Calcium reactors supply alkalinity and calcium at the ratio of 1 meq/L per 20 ppm calcium, so they are a balanced additive.

 

[bertoni]

It appears that you answered your own question within the article you wrote.

Like most aquarium reefkeepers use a high Ca salt mix. Red Sea Coral Pro for me. Thus the need for less Ca.

Okay, then your statement was a bit misleading. The aquarium is in fact consuming calcium and alkalinity in the standard ratio, but water changes are providing part of the supplementation.

 

[Stanley-Reefer]

I add 30cc of kent tech a/b to my 90 60 net gal daily in the am

and 60cc of each in my 175 170 net gal daily in the am

I do 25% weekly water changes divided into 2 changes per week with seachem reef.

 

[rsuplido]

I dose 71.5ml of Ca and Alk (each) daily to my SPS dominated 30g tank. 5.5ml every hour for 13 hours.

If my computations are correct, that's about:

52.94 ppm of Cal/day
1.4 dKH of alk/day