How do you guys dose two part?

Discussion in 'Water Chemistry' started by GuitarMan89, Apr 26, 2010.

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  1. steve wright

    steve wright Super Moderator

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    this is 1 part LOL

    Steve
     
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  3. Night-Rida

    Night-Rida Finback Whale

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    nice looks like my 1liter gatorade bottle.. little kalk juice anyone?
     
  4. GuitarMan89

    GuitarMan89 Giant Squid

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    That's not a bad idea Steve, I may try it. I also don't think it's my salinity, I usually keep it at 1.026 or even a little higher sometimes when I let it go.
     
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  5. Peredhil

    Peredhil Giant Squid

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    That's excellent info.



    GM - your Mg does look low to me. 1350 wouldn't work for me. I could never keep my alk/ca stable until I kept my Mg over 1400. As soon as it goes under that, my alk/ca go nuts.

    So what I do is raise Mg to 1500 and test probably every 6 weeks... which is usually how long it takes my Mg to drop below 1400. At this point, I dose 100ppm.

    I'd say bump that up... especially since you're rockin on the high side of SG
     
  6. GuitarMan89

    GuitarMan89 Giant Squid

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    I'll bump my Mg up to about 1400ppm then and see what that does. I've started dosing Alk in the morning and Ca at night, so I will test in a few days to see where the parameters are at, then go from there.
     
  7. Peredhil

    Peredhil Giant Squid

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    You might be aware of this... Alk dosing raises pH. In general, so do your lights.

    Generally recommended to dose Alk after lights out and Ca during the day (or whenever really, just not close to when Alk is dosed)
     
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  9. GuitarMan89

    GuitarMan89 Giant Squid

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    That is true, but with a refugium run on reverse daylight schedule, my ph doesn't change too much. The algae absorbs the CO2 and releases O2. I just got into a habit of dosing my Alk in the morning b/c before when I didn't have a refugium, my ph was lowest in the morning.
     
  10. Reef2Keep

    Reef2Keep Purple Spiny Lobster

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    very helpful:) I'm about ready to start 2-part dosing after being all over the place with manually individual dosing.
     
  11. Screwtape

    Screwtape Tonozukai Fairy Wrasse

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    One trick is to dilute the alk portion (say by doubling the amount of water) and then dose twice as much. Part of the problem with precipitation (the cloudiness you see when you pour it into the tank) is due to the pH being raised significantly in the area where the 2 part is dosed. Precipitation increases the higher the pH is.
    By diluting it you will get much less of a temporary localized pH spike which might help with precipitation. That's something I read someone was doing and they claimed it helped them stabilize things, it also allows you to spread the dosing out more if you have it on a dosing pump since you're dosing a greater volume of liquid. This may help stabilize pH over the course of the night if you can setup automation to do that.
    I don't know if it will help but it's something to consider and keep in your book of tricks in case it does help some day.

    I also think boosting Mg is a good idea, especially since test kits and test processes are not necessarily foolproof/accurate. I'm unaware of any detrimental effects to having Mg this high. I keep mine about 1500 just to be sure. :)
     
  12. Dingo

    Dingo Giant Squid

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    sorry to bring up this old thread everyone but I wanted to see how this turned out back in april and since its been two months, I am curious to see how this turned out for you guitarman...?