ESV I.V. Dosing Methods

Hi all -

I wanted share my experiences lately with dosing. I am using ESV two-part calcium/alkalinity and have had great results. However, I seem to throw my water out of balance when I do water changes and find myself taking a long time to get the balance back with dosing. (Anyone else have this problem?)

I usually dose in the morning prior to going to work. This is not ideal as I am often running late and find myself making quick calculations, over-dosing, etc..

What I would like to do, is get a simple Kent IV doser, test my water, then use the 3reef additive calculator to determine how many mL I need to get to 400+ calcium, and then pour that amount into the IV, set the drip and check it when done.

Questions...
Is the I.V. method a good cheap way that is better than using cups?
I wish to raise the calcium first, so I will dose the calcium additive. Afterward should I do something similar with the alk additive? Or is there a better way?

The balance was easy to find when I was working from home, but now that I have to commute to work, things are swinging. Any help would be appreciated.


matt

 

I would find a salt that has params below what you run in your tank, or raise your params above what you have in your salt. That way if it goes out of whack after a water change you can dose one big dose right after you do your water change to get them back in line and then continue dripping your daily/weekly/etc amount.

For calcium I wouldn't worry about dripping it honestly AFAIK there is no detriment to dumping it all in at once, just don't boost it more than 50ppm per day IMO.

For alk, dripping is usually a better option because it can mess with your pH. Most additives raise your pH so a lot of people do it after the lights are out to stabilize the pH after the pH starts to drop when the lights go out. Otherwise the morning is fine for this too before the lights come on. Also if your alk additive raises pH if you add too much at once it can create a localized pH spike in the area where you add it which can increase the amount of precipitation that happens until the additive is adequately distributed through the system and the pH stabilizes through the system (this may not be as much of an issue in some tanks).

 

Alot of people pre treat thier salt mixtures so that the levels are the same as the systems. Might wanna do that too

 

Aye. I will probably do something like that. Thanks

Yeah I actually did that with a batch a couple times ago. May do it again. Kind of annoyed I have too.

Thanks all...

 

A simple IV home made drip is all I was using until recently and it worked perfectly
500ml plastic bottle X 3 all with different coloured tops (white = alk buffer, Blue for Ca and a gold leaf patterned one for Mag)

hole drilled in top - air line used as syphone, knott in airline that you release to start syphon ( Advantage calcium is not an unpleasant taste by the way) then pull knott tight so no flow - and gradually release to allow 1 drip or so per second - it could take 4 or 5 hours to release 500ml of water if you did it properly

Baugherb had a medical contoller valve on his air line which is a rotary wheel that you slide up or down to either reduce or increase restriction - with those things its even easier to fine tune the rate of release

prior to doing that DIY I was using the jug and gradual pour in method and did experience ALK burn on the tips of 1 Monti digi (it healed)
after using the drip - never had another episode of that

as per screwtape - I dosed Calc or Mag during daylight
but due to Alk buffer effects on PH - I dosed that at night starting 1 hour or more after lights out

its low tech - but its effective IMHE

Steve

 

Thanks Steve. The Kent does have the medical control valve. I'll order it tonight. My ambition here is to go by numbers and not my foggy math skills in the AM as I run out the door. There is nothing wrong with low tech! And it is another gravity fed part of my tank. A theme is starting to form.

matt

 

Including me. It's the primary reason I find expensive salt to be a waste of money. It's cheaper to use BRS to bring the SW mix up to par than it is to buy expensive salt mix (that needs dosed anyway).

If you're dosing and your water params are good (0 nitrate/phosphate) why bother with the WC in the first place? Just keep your levels good.

The primary reasons of WC (as we all know) are dilution and supplementation... You're not doing it for the supplementation since you're dosing so... are you diluting something?

I'm sure you know but I only WC a couple times a year... Hopefully you've seen my tank threads - this isn't beginner stuff

 

K+ I did not know this. Huh, I'm still learning. LOL.. JK, but question on the lighting. What about people like myself that have a refuge with lighting that turns on when the main DT turns off?? Is it not a factor since the refuge light is no way near the brightness of the DT?? My refuge light is a 6500K daylight fluorescent bulb, It's 50W, but uses something like 11W or 15W. It put out almost no heat, I hope that is good.

 

I've used it for years for dosing Kalkwasser and as an auto top off. I just figured out how much mixed kalk I needed per day and added that to the fresh water I needed per day. I have the 2.5 gallon size and could get 3 days out of it before needing to be replenished. Low tech, but once you have the drip rate dialed in it's set it and forget it (and just keeping it filled with whatever you are dosing).

 

I've never run a refugium, but what I would do is just measure your pH right before your DT light goes out, that's generally the highest pH point of the day. Then measure it an hour or two after the DT goes out, and then measure it just before the DT comes on in the morning.

Tank pH is extremely variable from tank to tank, house to house etc. It can be affected just by having a bunch of people in the same room breathing a lot for an hour or two. You'll have to get a feel for how much your pH fluctuates over the course of the day and decide if you have a low pH period that could use some boosting and then maybe dose during that timeframe, if you can.

Also you may not really see a change in pH based on test kits, all the test kits I've used have been next to worthless for trying to determine this sort of thing, they give you a general ballpark at best IME. I'd look at using a controller or electronic pH probe/tester to check.

I have no idea whether your refugium bulb is adequate, I'm not a refugium guy. The pH swings over the course of the day are largely due to the amount of photosynthesis taking place in the tank as it uses up the CO2 in the water which raises pH. So if your bulb can cause a significant amount of photosynthesis in your refugium then you might not have much of a pH swing but like I said, it's highly variable.