BRS 2-part dosing

Any advice would really help...
Aquarium is a 72g w/20g sump. SWC 160 cone skimmer and a mixed reef but mainly SPS and a clam(tripled in size over the last year and half)

I'm switching from using kalk in my top off(float valve drip). Mainly because I don't want to mix anymore, doesn't seem to be keeping up with CA/ALK demands and once and a while my float valve will clog up. Plus I manually dose 2 littles fishes A and B daily. Getting tired of doing both plus a weekly water change(10g).

So, I'll be using the BRS 2-part solution and will be dosing via a dosing pump and just using fresh RO/DI for top off. I'm not sure when to dose CA and ALK. I know that the ALK will raise the PH. So should I dose CA during the day and ALK during the night or just spread the doses out throughout the day and night? Foe example: dose both every hour(CA first half of hour and ALK second half of hour).

 

Hi Dr Reefenstein

either of the 2 methods you suggest will be fine

if you have dosing pumps, then staggering the dose over as much time as practical will help with stability

if you are manually dosing, then dosing the Alk part at night when Ph is at its lowest is also a sound practice

you will want to dose into an area of relative high flow, especially with the alk part
the reason is that precipitation is more likely to occur at a higher Ph
thus if you are adding a Alkalinity supplement that increases Ph, in a low flow area, the localised higher Ph could cause some of the supplement you are adding to fall out of solution

in addition to dosing into an area of high flow
if you are auto dosing, stagger the calcium and alkalinity parts, by at least a few minutes, in order to ensure that the part added, has been distributed throughout the system prior to adding second part

if dosing into an area of high flow, 5 minute intervals between ca and alk additions would be fine IME and anything longer than that, would further reduce the potential for localized precipitation

Steve

 

Thank you Steve. This helps.. I will be using a dosing pump(3 head unit). I plan on dosing into the sump, where the return pump is. I figure the return pump can just suck it up and disperse it throughout the system.

 

welcome Dr. Reefenstein

dosing into the return section does work for many people
just bear in mind about the potential for localized precipitation, due to the higher PH in that area due to the dosing

if you notice build up of white calcium deposits on the pump and tank walls etc
that would be an indicator that you need to consider changing dosing location to an area of higher flow

many people who have experienced this issue, have then changed to dosing directly into the DT with close proximity to a wavemaker or power head , for this very issue

Steve