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View Full Version : Calcium/Carbonates.. Everyone has there own methods - Please share


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?

ashish
03/28/2013, 12:26 AM
My method grew this clam in 5 years old, few SPS & a toadstool which grew to 18". After fragging my toadstool down to just the head he looks so bad I did not want to show you him; my calcium in-take went down drastically. The evaporation method is very stable and reliable that I could count on anyone to do it. The holding on 5 gallon containers and having an open sump (to accomodate) the 5 gallon is not good for keeping my salinity stable. My sump takes 6 days to dry up so you can bet there were days when top-off's were forgotten.

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downbeach
03/28/2013, 05:54 AM
Oddly enough, I just did this for someone on another forum. There are two recipe's for this, recipe 1 is twice the strength of recipe 2, and uses soda ash for its alk supplement, recipe 2 uses baking soda, both use calcium chloride for Ca.
These solutions are made using RO/DI water in one gallon containers, and dosed according to your specific needs. Since recipe one is twice as strong you'll only need to dose half as much. I think the best way to confirm your dosing is to dose into a measuring cup. If you're doing regular WC's you will most likely never have to dose Mg.

Here is the cost analysis:

1 gallon of Calcium Chloride is $17.09 @ BRS. Using recipe #2, it yields about 14 gallons of solution which works out to $1.20 per gallon.

12 lbs of A&H Baking Soda is $7.57 @ Walmart. Using recipe #2 it yields about 14 gallons of solution which works out to $ .54 per gallon.

So, Seachem - buy both for $ 55.38

DIY both for $ 1.74

Recipe #1 might be twice as expensive, so say at most $ 3.48.

reefgeezer
03/28/2013, 06:41 AM
Here is the cost analysis:

1 gallon of Calcium Chloride is $17.09 @ BRS. Using recipe #2, it yields about 14 gallons of solution which works out to $1.20 per gallon.

12 lbs of A&H Baking Soda is $7.57 @ Walmart. Using recipe #2 it yields about 14 gallons of solution which works out to $ .54 per gallon.

So, Seachem - buy both for $ 55.38

DIY both for $ 1.74

Recipe #1 might be twice as expensive, so say at most $ 3.48.

+1 - Just test the alk and CA weekly and adjust the Doser accordingly. Soon you'll have it dialed in and can leave it for a while. Some testing and adjustment might be needed if consumption were to change.

ashish
03/28/2013, 07:19 AM
I've heard about making your own calcium/carbonates supplements and never realized why. I don't really trust myself but will consider it.. I was looking into this 2-part from BRS. If this lasted even 6 months in a 120 gallon heavily stocked tank i'd be happy. The DIY supplement I will do for sure once I have a 300gallon tank. and calcium reactor/kalk stir when I go over 600 gallons (Just dreaming right now)

http://www.saltysupply.com/ESV-Bionic-2-Part-Calcium-Buffer-System-2-Gallon-C-p/ESV1115.htm?gclid=CKXmzd6_n7YCFQdU4AodPSEArA

Now does anyone know how long this would last in a 120 gallon tank with high calcium consumption?

sirreal63
03/28/2013, 07:45 AM
We plan on traveling a lot in the very near future so I took my CaRx offline and went to dripping saturated kalk with a peristaltic pump. It has kept my alk and calcium in check and only doses what I evap. With your 2.5 gallon a day evap it may be more than enough dosing to keep the tank happy. The nice thing about it is there are no float valves to fail and I can control the kalk dosage to a degree. I mix up kalk in a separate container and add the clear solution to a 7 gallon container, no precipitate gets into the tank and there is nothing to stick on and dump too much into the tank. It just drips 24/7 and keeps everything easy.