Doseing

Hi,
Simple question, can i and do others on here, dose their top up water with a calcium buffer and a alk buffer at the same time before adding to the tank, reason being is i take ages one day doseing to get my alk to 8 and calcium around 420, only to find they are back down very low again the next , but by adding my top up water every day treated maybe this will keep it stable?

Cheers

 

Stingray

simplest way to do what your suggesting is Via a dosing pump
many people on here use that system
your 3 main elements - Calcium, Magnesium and Carbonate ( alk) are mixed in bottles
and are drip fed into the system using a simple timing device - so x amount of drops from each bottle are fed into the system on a routine bases

The initial outlay on such a system is reasonable, and couple with weekly testing, monitoring parameters , so that you can adjust up or down the amount of each element released , means you have a semi automated system of maintaining the systems levels

Steve

 

Thank's, is this similar to a ato?

 

go to bulkreefsupply. com

they have a section called bsr tv which shows a great video of two part dosing hope this helps. I use it on my tank and it keeps my levels perfect.

 

The answer to your question is; you are not supposed to. I used to do exactly that. I had the 2 part from Kent and would add both to my top off water (daily). One day, out of curiosity, I read the back of the bottles more thoroughly and it stated right in the instructions that they must be added separately. I couldn't believe I missed it! Anyway, after getting fed up with all the daily dosing and not wanting the concern of one day the auto top off failing, I was talking with a girl at my LFS and she told me she went to the Sea-Lab no. 28 cubes and they kept her tank at 480-500 ppm plus there are trace elements in them. Since I have gone to the cubes, Cal stays at 450-500 ppm and I use 1 teaspoon or so of Reef Builder to maintain Alk at 8-10 DKH. It works for me and there is no more constant dosing. Now, I do use Sea-Lab no. 14 as they suggest to go along with the cubes. The 14 is a fine powder and helps maintain PH to 8.3, and it does. I use the 14 twice a week.

 

Best and simp-lest thing you can add to your Make up water is a bit of aragamight powder has everything in it you need

 

Was un-aware of this product but have just read up on it from their site and it may do exactly as the Sea-Lab #28 & #14 do along with the Reef Builder only in a single product. Very seldom do trio products work well but if you have had success I might give it a try in the future. Thanks for info.

 

Kalkwasser is a balanced calcium/alkalinity supplement that will work in topoff water.
Details here:
What Your Grandmother Never Told You About Lime by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

I add my alk supplement (superbuffer dkH) to my top off bucket and test/ dose calcium regularly. This has worked for me for a while, however lately I been considering kalk drip.

The thing that concerns me with kalk dripping is the dangers of potential overdose, however, if dripped in is not as likely.

 

how often do you have to add blocks? once a week, twice a month?