ashish
03/28/2013, 12:12 AM
I have researched many different methods of maintaining calcium and alkalinity in a reef aquarium. There are many different ways from calcium reactor, kalwasser, 2-part (many different kinds), and even seachem's reef complete (which I really don't know what this is considered.
My tank is 120 gallon and I have a lot of evaporation - 5 gallons every 2 days. I have 10 (5 gallon) containers filled with RO DI water for make-up water. I put 3 capfuls of seachems reef carbonates in container 1. On the 2nd container I have 3 capfuls each of Reef complete and Reef calcium. This allowed my calcium and carbonates to not off-set each other. I felt this way was fool proof save. Only down-size calcium and carbonates are added every 4 days and not constant; 2nd day either cal or alk.
Since Iam getting married this July:debi: My wife kind of expects me to move back to NJ:fun4: My aquarium has 24-7 (un-reliable at times) supervision. I still trust it being at the family business than moving it 300 miles away being stuck in a house being neglected. The tank also is admired by 100's of people per day and I get a lot of joy out of this even though I barely sit in-front of my tank. :hmm2:
So I plan on adding a auto-top of system directly from RO to sump. I know not safe but if my sump over-flo's someone will see it immediately. They will be trained to do visual checks on the aquarium daily. Holding 5 gallons jugs proved to be too much work for the women :fun5:
I plan on buying a automatic doser and want to know what you (based on experience) recommend I use in terms of 2-part. Should I use my seachem carbonates, calcium, complete method via doser? How do these dosers work? Do they drop in carbonate's on day 1 and calcium on day 2 to prevent perciptation? Or does it not matter since they are just dropping small amounts of cal alk together 24-7.
I have not used any other products but can tell you seachem keeps the parameters very stable. I really would like to stop buying these products as I am looking for something more cost effective. I do however want to add something that will keep my parameters balanced/stable and be easy to adjust. Is bi-onic any good? Im not sure if I spelled that correctly.
When dosing do some people put the entire content of the 2 part solution into a container? Or do you mix with RO water and then fill the containers depending on consumption? What's the longest someone has gone not re-filling a doser? Has anyone experienced a failure of the doser and how can you visually check and make sure the doser is working correctly?
If you have any other methods of maintaining Calcium Alk please share. I also have staghorns and don't test for magnesium anymore (seachems product help keep them leveled). Would Magnesium being in my doser really benefit the acros and montis?
My tank is 120 gallon and I have a lot of evaporation - 5 gallons every 2 days. I have 10 (5 gallon) containers filled with RO DI water for make-up water. I put 3 capfuls of seachems reef carbonates in container 1. On the 2nd container I have 3 capfuls each of Reef complete and Reef calcium. This allowed my calcium and carbonates to not off-set each other. I felt this way was fool proof save. Only down-size calcium and carbonates are added every 4 days and not constant; 2nd day either cal or alk.
Since Iam getting married this July:debi: My wife kind of expects me to move back to NJ:fun4: My aquarium has 24-7 (un-reliable at times) supervision. I still trust it being at the family business than moving it 300 miles away being stuck in a house being neglected. The tank also is admired by 100's of people per day and I get a lot of joy out of this even though I barely sit in-front of my tank. :hmm2:
So I plan on adding a auto-top of system directly from RO to sump. I know not safe but if my sump over-flo's someone will see it immediately. They will be trained to do visual checks on the aquarium daily. Holding 5 gallons jugs proved to be too much work for the women :fun5:
I plan on buying a automatic doser and want to know what you (based on experience) recommend I use in terms of 2-part. Should I use my seachem carbonates, calcium, complete method via doser? How do these dosers work? Do they drop in carbonate's on day 1 and calcium on day 2 to prevent perciptation? Or does it not matter since they are just dropping small amounts of cal alk together 24-7.
I have not used any other products but can tell you seachem keeps the parameters very stable. I really would like to stop buying these products as I am looking for something more cost effective. I do however want to add something that will keep my parameters balanced/stable and be easy to adjust. Is bi-onic any good? Im not sure if I spelled that correctly.
When dosing do some people put the entire content of the 2 part solution into a container? Or do you mix with RO water and then fill the containers depending on consumption? What's the longest someone has gone not re-filling a doser? Has anyone experienced a failure of the doser and how can you visually check and make sure the doser is working correctly?
If you have any other methods of maintaining Calcium Alk please share. I also have staghorns and don't test for magnesium anymore (seachems product help keep them leveled). Would Magnesium being in my doser really benefit the acros and montis?