Calcium-Alk Recipe

[rabid frog]

I found a interesting read on alk/calc. dosing and recipies.

This recipe seems simple enough and I am gonig to try and dose my tank with this. I will post results weekly to see how the alk and calcium increase in my tank.

Here is the link to the recipies with a break down of what each does.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

[skyfireblaze]

I just about bought a bag of Peladow when I was up in Utah over Christmas break. I've been wanting to try it out for some time now, but have been waiting to get my tank moved.

Alex mentioned at the last reef meeting that he was going to look into ordering the dow and mag flake. I don't think he's done it yet. I don't think either of the Dowflake or Magflake can be found locally. Did you get some?

[rabid frog]

Im going to look today. interested in some?

[rabid frog]

I found a simiular product at Home Depot today. Called Road Runner Ice Melt.

Sodium Chloride, Calcium Chloride, Magnesium Chloride, Potassium Chloride.

I put a post into the Chemical Gurus's forum., so we'll see I suppose.

[rabid frog]

ok just got the word, doesnt sound like it will work.

[fishmanblue]

get the prestone driveway heat in the 9 lb jug at walmart for like 6 bucks. Get arm @ hammer baking soda at any discount fod store ALDI for like 3 dollars. also at wallyworld get the epsom salt in the bag in the health and beauty dept. for $5.00. Let the kids drink 3 gals of milk for the jugs to mix it in . EASY AND CHEAP I would like to thanks to Randy Holmes Farley for this recipe.

[rabid frog]

ok , kool thnks.

but how does the recipe go? cups per gal, and what is the epson salt for and which mix does it go in?

[GreenUku]

Here's a place that sells two-part mixes:

www.twopartsolution.com

They have the Dow Flake, Mag Flake, etc, or you can buy pre-measured packages with Ca, Alk, and Mg if you're less of a reef chemist. They aklso have instructions.

Looks like they basically set up a business to sell to people who read Randy Holmes-Farley's article.

[skyfireblaze]

Yeah, it's done by the same guy that does MJmods.com.

[asfullax]

Hey all,

I am putting in the order for DOWFlake and MAGFlake today. Just a word of caution, MANY of the de-icer products sold here in NM are Calcium Chloride with added trace additions of iodine, Phosphate and Ammonia because of our severe climate changes. There are only a few products that have been proven to work well, and unfortunately, they are all sold on the east coast.

Another item to be aware of, Wall Mart has been known to sell "grade B" chemical agents that normally fail construction grading even they have the same name, manufactures class this as "consumer" grade. The preferred grade is 77+% calcium chloride. Higher grades CAN be used, but its pointless unless regular grades are not available. With 77-80%, you will use about 1oz per day. with higher grades, you need to dilute it more (about 20%) otherwise you will be measuring as low as .25oz/day

The Prestone driveway heat should be fine though since it is anhydrous calcium chloride, so there are very few impurities.

For my presentation, I will be using Magflake and Dowflake since there is more "specific" information on these items and I have been using them personally for about a year now. I will be putting in an order for 32 cups of Dowflake and 32 cups of Magflake. This should be enough for ~ 10 gallons of calcium and ~6 gallons of Mag. Of course, the alkalinity part is just baking soda, so thats ~$3/gallon.

More to come. If you want to get in on this (I have 3 people total so far) PM me today and I will bump up the order. As an idea of the price:

Shipping ~$20
1 order of Mag: ~$10
1 order of Calc: ~$10

Shipping will be split down the middle so at 3, its now $6.
You get the idea.

Alex Fullam

[skyfireblaze]

1-year later ...

Alex, are you still using the 2-part solution? I'm thinking of ordering some supplies from bulkreefsupply. Any feedback on how it's going (or how it went )

Thanks!

Anyone else out there using RHF's 2-part recipe?

[Scooter12ga]

Used them for a while...recipe 1 pushed the PH too high for me and I kept killing stuff.

Recipe 2 seemed better and coraline grew out of control...to the point where I couldn't keep up with the Ca and Alk demands anymore.

I scraped all my coraline and let it die...lately I have been lazy and I honestly haven't dosed anything in a month or more. I've been careful to keep up with water changes to keep things in check.

Honestly, in the last few months without dosing, everything has been continuing to grow just fine. LPS is still growing like wildfire, SPS is slow and steady as usual for my tank, and coraline is growing steadily.

So for now I'm just going to keep slacking and letting everything be happy rather than effing with the chemistry every day.

[skyfireblaze]

Thanks Mike.

How often do you test your water?

[Scooter12ga]

When I was dosing I would usually only test around water change time to make sure the new water matched and to tweak levels over the next few days, then I would just follow my 'prescription' until the next water change. I was dosing 2ml/gal of each part of Recipe 2. I dosed Ca and Alk on alternating days, skipping Sunday. So my schedule looked like:

M: 130ml Alk
T: 130ml Ca
W: 130ml Alk
R: 130ml Ca
F: 130ml Alk
S: 130ml Ca
Su: ----

Lately I haven't been testing anything and I haven't been dosing anything. I'm due for a water change so I'll test before and after and post numbers in the next few days.