pH, Calcium Alkalinity and Magnesium.

Just to make it clear.... you do not want to dose both supplements at the same time... you may want to dose both daily (at different times) to keep things stable.... but depending on the consumption and how much a tank needs.... doing it every two or three days may be fine.

 

what happens if you dose at the same time? I think many people with peristaltic pumps are constantly dosing.

 

You might not give the chemicals time to disperse and you can cause them to precipitate. You want to wait a least an hour in between dosing Alk and Ca.

Dosing pump don't have to run all day... depends on how much you are dosing. I dose Alk at 6 minute intervals at night for ten intervals every hour. But ALk is different because it effects PH... so you don't want to swing PH with big doses.

I just dose my Ca once a day. I don't dose so much that it really matters. Asked some gurus but they said which the amounts I'm at it's no big deal.

With the BRS 2 pt. I use I only dose Mg every two months. Mg works as a type of buffer to be able to keep higher Alk/Ca concentrations. It does not get directly consumed at a great rate.

 

Based on this, it seems like if I start dosing two-parts equally I will be left with elevated calcium levels, since I dose ALK more than calcium. But that second article made it seem like two-parts were the way to go in keeping things stable and equal in the long run

 

I guess the question is why is your system using alk so much.. lets make this even more frustrating. lol

 

My sentiments exactly!!

 

instead of your current dosing or 2 part deal.. have you used kalkwasser on your system?

I believe kalk will raise your alk more and just slight raise/maintain calcium levels. might be worth a shot.

 

no...haven't used it yet. been dosing individually to get everything in the target range.

 

it says in 1st article for low-medium calcium demand tanks, kalk is good. sounds like your tank. you can dose via drip.. maybe make a drip device out of airtubing and 1 gallon jug. that will definity help keep your alk up.

 

My 30 long used a 5 gallon reservoir with kalk/freshwater hooked up to a kent marine float switch (ato) in my sump. That was one easy tank to maintain. I hardly dosed anything. When I have troubles since, I always think of that setup. I just cleaned the float periodically and topped off kalk.