which commercial aquarium product for Alk

Steve Wright2

New member
hello

if BRS is not an option due to location
and non reef related supplement such as the ones in Randy's recipes are not going to be easy to recognise
( as the labels would all be in Chinese)

if you had to use a commercial product for supplementing Alk in a 70 gallon reef tank, which product would you use

thus far I have tried - Seachem - Reef builder - performs OK in terms of delivering what the instructions indicate it will do for a given amount in a given volume of water
negative being it requires a lot of RODI to get it to dissolve and even then it will fall out of solution if you dont shake/ stir the holding container periodically

also recently tried Kent Coral builder
positive - it dissolves better and seems to stay in solution much better
negative being that you seem to need to add twice as much in order to get the same amount of benefit ( basically 1 teaspoon of Seachem delivers 0.25dkh into my system , I need 2 teaspoons of Kent product to achieve same)


is there a commercially available powder product that is heads and shoulder above the 2 I have tried

Arm and Hammer is not available off the shelf here

Steve
 
The differences are that I'd generally like to avoid ones that state that they contain borate. Other than that, the differences are only going to be in the pH effects, which the needs for vary tank to tank. All will work to supplement alkalinity. :)
 
borate buffers ph?

a lfs told me two little fishes makes a good product. i don't know.

i bought some of this but only used it a couple times as i'm primarily dripping kalk.
 
borate buffers ph?

Yes as do the other elements in total alkalinity such as PO4,silcate ,etc. which have the ability to neutralize acid. We are interested in carbonate alkalinity( at natural levels it is 96.5% of total alkalinity), since calcifying organisms use bicarbonate and calcium to form calcium carbonate skeletal mass.. When borate is artificially higher than the nsw 2.9% of total alkalinity as it is in some buffers,the proportion of carbonate alkalinity will be lower.

This article by Randy explains it in detail:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/5/chemistry


This is from it:

It turns out that there is an exact mathematical relationship between pH and carbonate alkalinity for any aqueous system in equilibrium with the atmosphere. In this context, carbonate alkalinity is defined as the alkalinity provided by carbonate and bicarbonate, and does not include the minor contributions to alkalinity provided by borate (B(OH)4-), silicate (Si(OH)3O-), phosphate (H2PO4-, HPO4--, and PO4---), hydroxide (OH- and MgOH+) and the negative contribution from protons (H+, HF, and HSO4-). In normal seawater at pH 8.0, the carbonate alkalinity accounts for 96.5% of the total alkalinity, so for most purposes, the contributions from these other ions can be ignored. Two situations where they cannot be ignored, however, are when borate is artificially high, as is true in some commercial salt mixes, and when one is considering the buffer intensity, where borate is significant even in normal seawater (discussed below).
 
the original poster mentioned he uses double the amount of KENT product to reach the same alkalinity level than with seachem's reef builder.if he is correct about this then im missing sth..aren't both products based on sodium bicarbonate?
 
I don't think there is too much difference in potency between most commercial buffers. Pure sodium carbonate is more potent, however, than pure sodium bicarbonate, so the more carbonate it has, the more potent it will be.
 
I use Kent Superbuffer dkH powder in my 60g system. 2tsp disolved in a cup of RODI raises the dkH by approximately 1.
 
Why would you use some expensive product when you can just walk in the kitchen and get it or am I overlooking something important? Not being a smart *** I'm really trying to learn things.
 
Randy…… I would like to thank you for all the help. You and Sk8r have help me clean a lot of wonderful information.
 
Baking soda lowers pH a bit when added, then, as carbon dioxide is outgassed, the pH rises a bit. The overall effect is very small, assume the alkalinity is in the recommended zone for a reef tank (7-11 dKH).
 
I like the Tropic Marin products.....Bio-Calcium will likely take care of your calcium and alk in one shot provided you're starting with a desirable ratio. I've seen a number of different tanks over the years that only dose TM BioXXX products and most times they look spectacular. Downside to TM is that you most definitely WON'T save money using their products.
 
Randy…… I would like to thank you for all the help. You and Sk8r have help me clean a lot of wonderful information.

Bertoni and Randy regularly give some of the best advice with the least amount of BS. Thanks!
:bounce3:
 
Bertoni and Randy regularly give some of the best advice with the least amount of BS. Thanks!
:bounce3:

Amen to that! Jonathan has help me immensely as well very good information and to the point. I would like to thank all of those who share such great knowledge with people that are try to learn the in's and out's.
 
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