What exactly do they do?

I forgot about Chinese New Year - which starts next week
the visit to aquarium centre today was dissapointing, many vendors had started holidays already and pickings where slim

so no Purple Up or Argamight yet, or Sea Lab blocks

but I did get something



so In addition to the Aragamilk on test
I have Kalkwasser Pure, Brightwells A and B and Seachem Fusion 2 part

so that should keep me busy for 8 weeks, and after that hopefully more products will return to the shops

Steve

 

It will at least give you time to find some where that dies carry them if they dont...I dunno how many LFS you have in your area though. Either way I'm setting up stuff today so hopefully I'll be able to post in a couple weeks

 

For those who are interested in what he's talking about, check out this thread. http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-aquarium-articles-how-tos/reef-keeping-hobby-china-62535.html

 

today was day 13 and I terminated the 1st test on Aragamilk today
as I am doing a water change this evening and wanted to use that water in the tank for the next product

13 days- dosing exactly as per above description

findings

SG - constant due to manual top offs - still reading 1.026
Mag - 1440 - no difference from original test

then it gets interesting

Calcium -
was concerned at 1 stage that I would empty contents of syringe in this test , 0.02 left in syringe at point of colour change - thus 490 ppm Calcium
an increase of 50ppm Calcium over 13 days

DKH
0.22 mils of solution left after colour change and this gives me a DKH level of 12.5
repeated test as this seemed incredibly high
second test a bit better , but still gave me a DKH of 12.2
thus even accepting second lower test result
it means an increase in DKH of 3.6 from original 8.6


conclusion
this product increases both Alkalinity and Calcium, but not in a balanced ratio ( an increase of 50ppm Cacium, would have been balanced with an increase of 2.5 DKH and not 3.6 )
within 2 weeks in a tank of zero demand, the DKH has peaked above the generally accepted range for reef tanks (7 - 11)

so using this product without testing in a new set up
could lead newcomers to the hobby over shooting generally accepted parameters on Ca and DKH

Steve

 

Question: Could the disproportionate ratio of Ca to Alk be related to the mg level and did you test for that?

Also what product is next?


Thanks Steve for testing and recording the results, oh also did you at any time test pH?

TIA

 

woo hoo data! :biggrinbo

 

Thank you Cheryl - yes Mag was tested and recorded
got 1440 on both before and after tests
did not test PH to be honest - do have a Red Sea Test kit
will add that to the parameter to test for next product

next product will be Seachems Fusion and that will start tomorrow
tank has been emptied and rinsed
old saltwater from main tank will be poured in this evening
test will commence tomorrow

thanks m2434
shame about that precipitation potential (Thanks Curtis) , otherwise I could add 2 weeks worth of dosing in 1 day and get through these so much quicker


Steve

 

keep up the good work steve, man it would just be so much simpler if they provide this info on the bottles.

 

Great thread, Steve. This should be interesting to see the results of each product.

I used to use Argamight and noticed a big difference in the amount of coraline on my rocks...calcium must have gone waaayy upp! Unfortunately I didn't have a calc test(and also thankfully - not sure I would want to see how high the calcium got. lol.) as it was when I had my FOWLR.

 

Thank you sostoudt, appreciated
the Aragamilk bottle tells you what it is, and how to use it = very poor IMO
The Seachem product I will use next, does at least tell you
A) what each mil of fluid will do in X amount of gallons
B) Target parameter levels

so Seachem with the Fusion product are at least trying to educate newcomers to the hobby
same for the Brightwell product I have
and the same for the Kalkwasser product
all of these do , indicate acceptable parameters

Purple Up - which I will get and test hopefully very soon
is another product that tells you to add, but does not tell you what those additions will do in a given volume of water.

Thank you Seano
I will be testing Aragamight in the future also
and then you will know what it may have done in your FOWLR