what to dose for Ca and Alk?

[hardimanm]

I have been using Kent tech CB part A and B for a while now but wondered if anyone has any suggestions on better products.
Also...it looks like part B (the alk booster part) is just DI water and baking soda. Is that right? Could I just use baking soda and a liquid calcium instead of the part A and B combo.
Is there a safe substitute to buying the expensive pre-bottled liquid Ca?
Thanks in advance
Michael

 

[Tomoko Schum]

You can do DIY two part dosing.

Here's the recipe by Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley.

You can find all the necessary ingredients from Bulk Reef Supply and places like WalMart.

As you might remember, I use a combination of calcium reactor and lime (a small amount of food grade lime in top off water.) I buy CO2 gas from a local welding shop. 20 lbs of CO2 gas (costs me about $12) lasts me well over two years. A 50lbs bag of the lime ($11) has lasted more than 5 years so far (I still have 1/2 of it left most probably.) Although the initial cost is more with a calcium reactor setup, the running cost is much lower - a great saving in the long run. My reactor is a home made version converted from a whole house water filter (sold at Lowes). The cost was something like $80 - 90 with all the fittings included (8Ball made it for me.) You also need a small pump, too. I bought a CO2 cylinder and a regulator inexpensively at the welding shop.

 

[JR's Reef]

I use BulkReefSupply's brand its cheap and I can get in dry bulk

 

[chefmur]

I also use bulk reef supply 2 part, works just as well as the premade stuff at a fraction of the cost. I also picked up a couple of their dosing pumps and hooked them to timers, automates the whole system by slowly dripping set amount every day, less of a stress on your tank and keeps water parmaters stable.

 

[hardimanm]

How long does the stuff from BRS last. If I got the kit with a gallon of each and dose .2 to .3 per gallon (maybe 20ml) daily how far would it go? It makes ~9 gallons of the 2 part dosing system.
Is it just my math or would this stuff last a LONG time?

 

[Tomoko Schum]

If you dose 20ml daily, you will use 600ml per month roughly (20 x 30). One gallon is about four liters (4000 ml). 4000/600 = 6.66 According to this calculation, one gallon of the solution should last roughly 6-1/2 months. That's a long time. You only need 500g of calcium chloride in a gallon of water. One gallon jar of calcium chloride from BRS is 7 pounds which is roughly 3180g. 3180g/500g = 6.36 That means you can make 6.63 gallons of CaCl from one gallon jar of CaCl powder. That would be more than 3 years of supply for you. Hmm, that's a long time.

I know that BRS sells reagent grade chemicals, but food grade chemicals are fine for our reef. You can get a 13.5 lbs of baking soda from places like Sam's Club for a little over $5.