Is it possible for this to happen?

[fishysteve]

I recently switched from Kent CB to Randy's two part. I am currently trying figure out how much I need to add daily of both parts. So far I was adding about 2.5 mL/gal. By the same time the next day the cal and alk would drop down to 375 and 2.6 meq/L from 420 and 3.2 meq/L. So I bumped the dosage up to 3.5 mL/gal. And I got a snow storm. Is it possible for the amount of ca and alk that my tank requires daily to be too great to add all at once without getting precipitation? Do I have to split up the dosing? Some in the morning and some at night? Or does it have to be dosed throughout the day with a dosing pump. Or should I have tried 3mL/gal before I increased a full mL/gal? I do have a very high demand as I have a lot of very large and fast growing SPS and a football sized clam.

My current parameters are pH 8.3 mag 1375. My calcium and alkalinity I stated above.

 

[psteeleb]

I was getting a lot of precipitation and found you really need to dose separately to allow the solutions to get absorbed into the water column. This must be a common issue with heavier users

So, give it a couple minutes between Ca and Alk and when you pour them in, pour slowly, I was amazed at how much difference it makes

 

[fishysteve]

I dose them an hour apart and use a turkey baster to squirt it in front of a Tunze stream so it mixes well.

 

[psteeleb]

the snow storms happen when dosed too fast or when the two concentrations are mixed. Either way you are introducing too heavy a saturation, the water can not absorb the mix in liquid form, thus precipitation. You may have to go to twice a day dosing like I do or try to blow it in with the turkey baster at a slower rate

I noticed a big change when I started pouring it in slowley (almost a drip). Basically when I was dumping in my Alk I was making it uneffective as it some would precipitate

 

[fishysteve]

How far apart are your two doses?

 

[spsfreak]

You don't have to dose them at different times, as long as they are not too close together when dosed, and as long as they are dripped into decent flow. I used my sump for dosing, put the alk at the back of the sump and the other at the very front where the pump pulls water back into the tank, this worked very nicely, and I didn't have to worry about separating them.

HTH

 

[fishysteve]

I was dosing into my sump for a while but my skimmer pump and phosphate reactor got coated in white deposits so I stopped.

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12408061#post12408061 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishysteve
How far apart are your two doses?

First dose is about an hour after lights off or around 11pm. This way Ph has already started to drop and the dosing bumps it up a little

Second dose is about 6 or 7am so about 8 hours apart. This is a few hours before lights on. This also helps smooth out the day/night and dosing Ph swings

not sure of the conversion to meq/L but I dose 8oz a day of each (so 4oz at a time). Overall my system is around 300 gallons +/-

 

[fishysteve]

Thank you very much for your help. I'll give it a try. I'm leaving for vacation on May 16th so I have to get this staightened out soon.