I have some questions on increasing Ca and Alk using Soda Ash and Calcium Chloride.

slief

slief

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My tank is primarily soft corals with some LPS. I have one SPS frag in my tank which is doing fine. Yesterday added a calcium reactor to my system in an effort to maintain better Ca and & levels.

I tested my Ca and Alk and my levels are as follows. Ca 360 & Alk 7.36dkh according to my Salifert Tests. From my reading, I should be targeting 420 Ca and about 9dkh. As such, I would like to raise my levels and it's be many years since I even bothered to worry about those numbers.

I have BRS Calcium Chloride and BRS High Purity Soda Ash. Based on my water volume of 600-650 gallons. I err'd on the low side (600g), the calculators suggest I need Approx 100 tsp of Calcium Chloride mixed in 1 gallon of RODI and 15 tsp of Soda Ash mixed in a seperate 1 gallon jug of RODI.

That brings me to my questions as I have never used this stuff.

First, does the amount of soda ash and calcium chloride sound correct? I used both the BRS calculator and the Reef Chemistry calculator.

For the Calcium Chloride, will 100 tsp dilute into 1 gallon of water? I'm guessing I will need to split that up over a few or more gallons.

How much should or could I raise my Cal & Alk levels per day? From my reading, I can increase Ca as much as 50ppm per day and for the Alk, I need to pay attention to my pH and make sure it doesn't change more than .2 per day.

I don't plan on using a dosing pump and instead plan on manually dosing it since this should be a one time dose. I do have 1 pump head available on my Apex Dos so I could put that to use if needed for one or the other but didn't plan on it if it isn't needed. Any advice on the best approach to take would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
ostrow said:
I would bump the Mg up too while doing this. It will help.

I think your rate of increase per day is fine.

I would anticipate the soda ash will require more water than the calcium chloride, in my experience. If you used this calculator, you may trust the numbers:
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply and feedback. That is the other calculator I used. I do have some Kent Tech M so increasing Mg isn't an issue. I think I have a half gallon or so left. What should I target for Mg?

How much solution of the Cal and Alk mixture can I dump into a high flow area of my sump at once?
 
I am the wrong one on the last question. I always raised to the target in one go, and never had any issues.

Maybe do half your target one day and the rest the next day?

MG you can do all at once. Maybe get it to 1350...
 
ostrow said:
I am the wrong one on the last question. I always raised to the target in one go, and never had any issues.

Maybe do half your target one day and the rest the next day?

MG you can do all at once. Maybe get it to 1350...
Click to expand...


If I taget 1350mg, I will need to add about 98oz. Not an issue as I have plenty of the TechM. I know from past experience I can bump my Mg up to 100ppm a day without doing any damage so I will raise it to from 1260 to about 1350 with three 32 oz doses spit up over the course of the day.

My biggest concern is how much of the other mixtures to add at once. I assume I should add the Ca and Alk solution simultaneously?
 
The MG you can bump al at once. You can do double that at once.

You have a large system. Put the alk in at one end of sump and CA at the other and will be fine!
 
I just did the math. That works out to about 6.25 cups of the Calcium Chloride and just under a cup of the Soda Ash. Now I'm wondering how much Calcium Chloride I can dissolve into the gallon of RODI water and how much Soda Ash will dissolve in a gallon. Still don't think I want to add the equivilent of 7+ cups of powder into the tank at once. I will most certainly split this up over the course of two days as I really don't want to cloud my water too much.
 
Right I meant split over two days. Start with a gallon of water, add half the soda ash and see if it all dissolves. If so add more til all dissolves and add more RO as needed to dissolve.

I believe all will dissolve in a gallon
 
ostrow said:
Right I meant split over two days. Start with a gallon of water, add half the soda ash and see if it all dissolves. If so add more til all dissolves and add more RO as needed to dissolve.

I believe all will dissolve in a gallon
Click to expand...

I was reading up on some of Randy's articles and that kind of got me more confused. I think my confusion comes because of the relationship between Ca and Alk. One of the articles I read, indicated that I may be best raising my Alk first before raising my Ca. Maybe I interpited that wrong though. I just don't want to dump a bunch of this stuff in at once or together and end up with an issue.
 
You shouldn't dose calcium and Alk at the same time. What I do is test my levels and use the Brs calculator to determine how much solution to add in order to get to the desired level. I know it's not recommended to raise alk by more than 1.4 dkh in 24hours. The BRS calculator will tell what the max is for calcium.
 
When I asked him he always said best to raise together.... That's what I have done for years.

You aren't going up that much either. If you were at 330 going to 450 but even then you don't want to shoot alk up alone.

The only issue would be if you added to the same corner of a sump. Do it several feet apart or a few minutes apart in addition to the physical spacing and it will be fine.

And that is if doing the entire increase at once. If doing half don't even worry!!
 
Crackem said:
You shouldn't dose calcium and Alk at the same time. What I do is test my levels and use the Brs calculator to determine how much solution to add in order to get to the desired level. I know it's not recommended to raise alk by more than 1.4 dkh in 24hours. The BRS calculator will tell what the max is for calcium.
Click to expand...

I did use the BRS calculator as well as the other one and both gave about the same numbers. I plan on splitting my dose over the course of 2 days. I assume I should dose for Alk first. If I dose half the Alk solution today, when would I dose the Calcium solution? Later the same day, immediately after or do calcium tomorrow and the second half of the Alk solution the day after followed by the second half of the calcium solution the following day? My head is already spinning from this. :crazy1:
 
ostrow said:
When I asked him he always said best to raise together.... That's what I have done for years.

You aren't going up that much either. If you were at 330 going to 450 but even then you don't want to shoot alk up alone.

The only issue would be if you added to the same corner of a sump. Do it several feet apart or a few minutes apart in addition to the physical spacing and it will be fine.

And that is if doing the entire increase at once. If doing half don't even worry!!
Click to expand...

ostrow said:
I may not know how to kill cladophoropsis but I can do this!! ��
Click to expand...

OK... Then that is the route I will take. I will dose them both a few minutes apart and do it reasonably slow. Just not sure how slow to go or if I should just dump it in. Will this stuff impact my skimmer? My thought was to dump it in my overfllow. That or I can dump it in between my sump and refugium which is down stream of my sump and sees all the water flow or into the return section of my sump.

I assume it would be best to warm my RODI water to help dissolve the solution before adding the powder?
 
I just started dosing my tank as well slief, I started out using the BRS soda ash but because it raises the pH temporarily I have switched to using baking soda which drops the ph temporarily but only slightly. I am using dosing pumps to do the daily dosing now as opposed to doing it manually. Also the video will point out to pay attention to the dosing notes on their calculator which will guide you on how much you can safely dose the system per day.
 
We'll do it this way.
600 gallons Desired Current Level 360........ Desired Level: 420ppm Product:BRS 2 part Calcium mix
Calculate
Need: 3684.7 ml
124.5 fl oz
736.9 tsp
Instructions

This is the most frequently used option, use this option for the Calcium Solution (liquid) in our BRS Two Part Packages. Slowly add the solution to high flow areas of the tank. Avoid directly blasting corals with the concentrated solution. Try not to increase Calcium more than 50 ppm per day. If larger changes are required spread the dose over a few days. Test between additions.

Mixing Notes

When mixing the salts with the filtered water it is best to add a small portion at a time, shake the jug and add more so the salts don't clump up. If it does clump, float the jug in hot water to warm the fluid inside and it should dissolve easier. We recommend allowing the solution to rest at least a couple hours before use so the salts have a chance to fully dissolve.
 
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