New RANDY's 2 part

[welcome]

Do you reccomend or is it really possible to use sodium hydroxide as alkalinity part? Would it be the same with kalkwasser dosing because of calcium hydroxide formation?

Yes, that alkalinity portion would be like concentrated limewater. You'd need to add it slowly and provide adequate aeration to keep the pH from possibly getting too high, and you may have trouble finding appropriately pure sodium hydroxide, but other than that it would be fine.
 
When thinking of using sodium hydroxide specially if there are kids or pets around be aware of it's safety concerns.
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~nanofab/chemicals/MSDS_Base_NaOH.pdf

Potential Acute Health Effects:
Very hazardous in case of skin contact (corrosive, irritant, permeator), of eye contact (irritant, corrosive), of
ingestion, of inhalation. The amount of tissue damage depends on length of contact. Eye contact can result in
corneal damage or blindness. Skin contact can produce inflammation and blistering. Inhalation of dust will
produce irritation to gastro-intestinal or respiratory tract, characterized by burning, sneezing and coughing.
Severe over-exposure can produce lung damage, choking, unconsciousness or death. Inflammation of the eye is
characterized by redness, watering, and itching. Skin inflammation is characterized by itching, scaling, reddening,
or, occasionally, blistering.

The substance may be toxic to mucous membranes, upper respiratory tract, skin, eyes.
Repeated or prolonged exposure to the substance can produce target organs damage. Repeated exposure of the
eyes to a low level of dust can produce eye irritation. Repeated skin exposure can produce local skin destruction,
or dermatitis. Repeated inhalation of dust can produce varying degree of respiratory irritation or lung damage.
 
Sodium hydroxide is nasty, corrosive, and very strong base (coustic) material and there is no way to eliminate heavy metal imurities such as mercury, Ni, Cr, Cd. It is very very corrosive. It is mostly used for industrial applications. Sodium bicarbonate is food grade staff that could be found in grocery, and calcium chloride is also used for pickle and jam.
 
Rnady you had sujested lime water as an alternative, I had been using your formula #1 at 1 cc/ gal plus topping off with saturated lime water. I have switched to formula #2 at same dosing rate 1cc/ gall of tank water and have started using 6cc of viniger /gal of lime water. I will soon run out of the old Dow Flake. My question is can I safley increase the viniger and will that increase the calcium and alkalinity enough to make up for what I use to use in the dow mixture, if not would supplimenting maxed out viniger enhanced lime water with the new "elivated bromide" Dow flake be safe. What are the draw backs of maxing out the viniger level? I'm under the impression that about 12 cc viniger/liter lime water is the max level but I'm not sure that is accurate nor do I know what the risks or side effects are of maxing out the viniger. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Folks have often dosed 3 teaspoons of lime and 45 mL of vinegar per gallon of top off water. The concerns are the potential for unsightly bacterial mats (not always happens, but occasionally) and the possibility for reduced O2 (not a huge concern if you have very good aeration).

Going higher on vinegar may be OK, but risks the tank pH getting too low and using up more O2.


Using the Old Dowflake to boost your new salt water is fine. For regular use, a little is OK, a lot may not be. So the more you reduce it, the less likely there is to be any concern from bromide elevation.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13634324#post13634324 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Randy Holmes-Farley
The concerns are the potential for unsightly bacterial mats (not always happens, but occasionally) and the possibility for reduced O2 (not a huge concern if you have very good aeration).
Click to expand...

Can anyone provide a picture of these unsightly bacterial mats? I have some black 'creep' on my rocks I can't identify. I suspect they are the result of switching from straight Vodka to VSV as a result of the article published in RK as I had not had this problem in the 8 months prior of straight Vodka dosing.
 
Hi Randy,

Been dosing your 2part for 1 year now with no problems. I was just wandering if there are any trace elements or anything else im missing out on, that Calcium reactor would provide?

thanks
 
Been dosing your 2part for 1 year now with no problems. I was just wandering if there are any trace elements or anything else im missing out on, that Calcium reactor would provide?

No, I do not think there is any demonstrated lack of trace elements in the two part that a reactor would provide, aside from possibly strontium if your reactor media has high levels (many don't). But I'm not a fan of strontium dosing any way.

I do recommend regular water changes for all methods. :) These have more, but are a bit out of date if people are no longer using Dowflake with it:

An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

Purity of Calcium Chloride
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2004/chem.htm

But in general, the last one shows that there are lots of trace elements in all of the brands of calcium chloride that I tested. This has more on supplements in general:

The “How To” Guide to Reef Aquarium Chemistry for Beginners, Part 2: What Chemicals Must be Supplemented http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-04/rhf/index.php
 
Wow Randy! I got 15 e-mail notifications of your post above, either you edited 15 times or something is going akward with the system.
 
I just used up the last of my old dow flake. I'm thinking of buying the calcium chloride from either Buckeyefieldsupply or bulkreefsupply. Buckeye seems to have the lower price and better shipping. Has anyone had experience using either one and is the recipe the same?

Thanks.
 
I don't have any info to distinguish the two at this time. I would assume the recipes are the same unless the tell you otherwise, since they know how people are intending to use them.
 
newbie question. is there any reason to not add the magnesium sulfate directly to the calcium part? I believe this will cause a small amount of calcium sulfate to precipitate out... but it should be relatively minor?
 
Yes, there will be a lot of calcium sulfate precipitation. Too much, IMO, to make it a good way to go. Even the impurity of calcium in MAG flake causes come precipitation of calcium sulfate when mixed with Epsom salt in the magnesium part.
 
On another note, Seachem makes a relatively cheap additive called Reef Advantage Magnesium that contains sea water ratios of chloride and sulphate (Randy i assume similar to your DIY magnesium additive). I have asked them to clarify whether there are any other major ions in this mix.

Mixing this with a little bit of epsom salts (to offset the higher chloride levels) should be a reliable way to make the 3rd part of the balanced additive, without having to source (or worry about impurities in) MAG flake.

i'm still obsessed with turning the 3 part into a proper 2 part thou :) I think it might be doable with a combination of magnesium chloride in the calc part, and potassium sulfate (potash) in the alk part. Potash is easily available, just not sure about finding it at good enuff purity.
 
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