Today on BRSTV we are going to cover the complete installation of a two part dosing system.
Hi, Im ryan host of brs tv where each week we cover a new topic related to reefing.
This week we are going to go over the complete installation of a two part dosing system.
We will give a very brief overview of why we dose these elements, discuss proper mixing
of two part solutions, how to figure out your tanks consumption, common pieces of equipment
related to two part and finally answer a few common questions.
There is a pretty long list of reasons why we want to maintain calcium and alkalinity
but the primary one is corals and coralline algae use these elements to produce their
skeletal structure and grow.
Second one is maintaining a stable water chemistry and environment for all of the creatures in
the tank.
Wide variations in alkalinity and pH make it difficult for a tank to really thrive.
If you haven't been maintaining calcium and alkalinity properly before, using a system
like this will absolutely result in a major improvement in coral and coralline algae growth,
stable water chemistry will certainly result in health improvements for everything in the
tank which will also be responsible for additional growth and reduce losses.
Mixing the solutions is probably the easiest component.
With the calcium solution just fill the jug two thirds full with filtered water.
Using a standard household measuring cup measure out two and a half cups of calcium chloride
and pour into the jug using the included funnel.
Then shake the jug until the solution is completely dissolved.
The solution should dissolve crystal clear.
Then fill the rest of the jug up within a couple inches off the top.
Label the jug calcium and this portion is done.
The alkalinity portion is a bit different.
While it is possible to dissolve the alkalinity portion directly in the jug it is much easier
to do it in an open top container where you can stir it while adding the salt.
I am going to use this empty container because it is also a gallon size but you could use
a clean bowl or bucket.
Start by filling your jug 4/5's the way full with ro/di or distilled water and then pour
into your open top container.
Measure out 2 cups of sodium carbonate also known as soda ash.
Using a spoon start stirring the water slowly and pour in the alkalinity portion.
All of the material should dissolve completely.
Taking this extra step will help prevent the clumps of soda ash that can form at the bottom
if you pour the soda ash directly into the jug.
If you skipped this step and did get some of these clumps just float the jug in some
hot water and shake vigorously a few times throughout the day.
Once dissolved use the funnel included in the total package to pour the solution back
into the jug and label alkalinity.
Next top the bottle off and give it a good shake.
Time to mix the magnesium solution.
Start with eight cups of RO/DI or distilled water, three cups of magnesium sulfate and
five cups of magnesium chloride.
There is a good deal of salt in there you are trying to dissolve so there may be some
crystals left in the bottom which should dissolve over the next couple days if left in a warm
location.
You can avoid this by mixing it separately like the alkalinity.
Once again, top it off and give it a good shake.
Label magnesium and we're done.
Ok so all the solutions are mixed, we let them sit for a few hours to dissolve completely
and now it is time to discuss how to dose the solutions to maintain proper calcium and
alkalinity.
There are two steps to this.
First we are going to assume your levels are already lower than you want them to be.
Most reefers keep their calcium at 420 parts per million.
Alkalinity between seven and ten dKH , we suggest 9 dKH as a good number and what most
of us here at BRS maintain.
Magnesium is most often maintained at 1350 parts per million.
To raise the tanks levels we are going to use the reef calculator which is probably
the easiest tool you have ever used.
To show you how this all works we are going to pretend we are just starting dosing this
tank which has around 70 gallons of water and a depleted calcium level of 390, a dKH
of 6 and magnesium level of 1200.
We will start by entering the tanks water volume which is 70 gallons in this case.
To get the water volume I took the tank size plus sump minus rock and sand.
I might be off a bit with my guess of 70 but it is very likely I am within 10% of the correct
number.
Don't agonize over getting your guess perfect because your test kit probably isn't accurate
enough to see the difference anyways.
For instance if I was trying to raise the levels 30 parts per million and I was off
by 10% and really added 33 parts per million it is very unlikely a hobby grade test kit
would be able to display the difference.
Once I have the volume entered and the current calcium level which is 390, my desired level
of 420, and what I am are dosing with which in this case is 2 part calcium solution and
hit calculate.
The calculator tells me I need 214 ml of calcium solution as well as some mixing and dosing
notes on the side.
One of the more important dosing notes is a recommendation that I don't change the calcium
level more than 50 ppm in a single day.
In this case I am going from 390 to 420 which is only 30ppm so I can add it all in a single
dose.
It also mentions that I add it slowly to a high flow area of the tank.
My personal preference is to pour it directly into a high flow powerhead which will disperse
the solution quickly and avoid small pockets where the calcium is temporarily really high.
The calculator is really accurate so I can come back an hour later, test and see that
the levels are indeed 420 now.
It is an incredibly satisfying experience when something that was fairly confusing before
is reduced to something as simple as this.
The alkalinity and magnesium components are basically the same thing, enter my current
levels, where I want them to be and it will tell me exactly how much I need.
When you are doing this make sure to pay close attention to the alkalinity dosing notes.
The alkalinity component will raise the pH temporarily so we want to add it slower and
preferably not more than 1.4 dKH a day.
In this case I am going from six to nine so I'm going to split the dose in half and dose
over the course of a couple days.
In this case I would split up the recommended one hundred and fifty millileters into four
38 milliliter doses.Keep in mind that the corals have consumed some of the alkalinity
in the last couple days so it isn't uncommon to have to make another small adjustment at
the end.
It's also critical that the alkalinity solution is added to slowly to a high flow area of
the tank.
The alkalinity solution will with raise the pH.
While the effect on this entire tank is pretty subtle.
say from 8.1 to 8.2.
The effect on the localized area where you added the solution is obviously much higher.
For best dispersion I find adding it near a high flow powerhead, pouring it directly
into the overflow or dripping it slowly anywhere into the tank to be some of the best options.
Ok we got the levels where you want them, how do we keep them there?
This is where the two part daily dosing comes in.
Process is pretty simple.
More or less my corals and coralline algae have consumed some amount of calcium and alkalinity
in the last day since I got my levels right.
We are going to replace that small amount of missing calcium and alkalinity with the
two part jugs we mixed up earlier.
To figure out how much our tank is consuming we started with the recommended dose found
in the instructions.
Since it is pretty common for most of reefers to assume more is better these are designed
to be a starting point and on the lighter side.
So for instance on a tank like this one I would consider to be medium to high demand
tank demand since it has a somewhat dense mix of LPS and SPS . The tank has around 70
gallons of water in it so we will start by dosing 20 milliliters of calcium and alkalinity
and then we'll test in a few days.
Turns out the levels dropped a bit so we upped the dose to thirty to forty and then after
a couple of more adjustments I found 60ml a day to be the correct dose where the levels
are stable.
I'll test again in a week to make sure we got it right.
I would like to note that it is much better to start low and work higher rather than start
high and work down because adding too much can cause issues like precipitation which
makes it harder to hone in on the right dose.
So it really is that easy add a small amount each day for a few days and test.
It is pretty rare for it to take more than 3-5 adjustments to hone in on the correct
amount.
Ok so onto what my daily dosing program will look like.
More or less I'm just going to add the same amount off calcium and alkalinity every day.
Same things apply here.
Make sure to add it slowly to a high flow area of the tank.
Most people will do this at the same time as the feed the tank so isn't that much of
a chore.
The two part total package comes with a couple dispensing pumps which can be used to dispense
the solution into these easy to use measuring cups.
Just pump out what you need each day and pour into separate areas of the tank.
Make sure to use different cups or rinse between uses to prevent the two solutions from mixing
in the cup.
The last step in all this is dosing the magnesium.
Magnesium isn't consumed at the same rapid rate at which calcium and alkalinity is consumed.
However just as important because it is the presence of the magnesium which allows us
to maintain high levels of calcium and alkalinity in the first place.
Magnesium levels are also naturally much higher than the other two elements.
Basically this means while you could dose magnesium every day as well, it isn't needed
and most people don't dose magnesium daily.
All I need to do now with the magnesium is once I have completely emptied both gallons
of calcium and alkalinity with daily dosing, is pour in 20 ounces or two and a half cups
of magnesium solution.
You can do this all in one dose to a high flow area of the tank or in multiple smaller
doses if you like but this isn't required.
I won't have to dose magnesium again until I completely empty another pair of calcium
and alkalinity jugs.
Ok I have been doing this a long time now with a wide variety of tanks and I'd like
to make my life a bit easier with some related equipment.
Best way is by adding a couple of dosing pumps which add the correct amounts automatically
every day.
The most popular solution for this is these small dosing pumps.
You will need two of them, one for each solution.
Most people control them with an inexpensive outlet timer or a timed outlet on their aquarium
controller like the Apex or ReefKeeper.
Basically this pump doses at a known flow rate which in this case is 1.1 milliliters
so getting it to dose this tanks requirement of 60 milliliters I just need to set the timer
to turn the pump on for 54 minutes a day.
I could also opt to make smaller multiple doses throughout the day by having the timer
turn on six times for nine minutes each.
I can also elect to do things dose the calcium during the day and alkalinity at night.
There are also fancier dosers like this one from Bubble magus which asks you the amount
you want to dose and as well as the ability to split the doses up automatically.
For example selecting 100 millileters with one dose means it would dose 100 milliliters
all at once while 100 millileters with 10 doses means it would dose 10 milliliters ten
times a day split evenly over a 24 hour period.
This one from Vertex does similar things but with more adjustability using the sweet touch
screen.
They included the ability to dose by day of the week, name each pump head, more flexible
tools to adjust the volume of fluid dosed.
Japanese pump heads, and high quality motors including a stepper option for extreme accuracy.
There is also easy to use calibration option which is pretty sweet.
Honestly this touch screen makes it super easy to understand and operate, I think even
the most technologically inept of us could figure this out on their own without even
looking at the directions.
Because Vertex is Vertex they also make really attractive containers for the three solutions
just in case you decided a jug isn't attractive enough for your system.
Honestly while this may seem silly to some of us, a lot of reefers have just as much
pride in their equipment room or sump area as they do the tank itself so this is a solid
option when form has to match function.
For function alone we also stock these nice space saving jugs which make it a lot easier
to fit the jugs inside your cabinet of even behind it.
Bubble magus sells this nice screw on holder for the dosing lines so you can control the
area the solution enters the tank and make sure the dosing lines never get bumped outside
of the tank which could damage your stand, carpet or floor.
If you are looking for something a bit more polished and flexible vertex makes this nice
magnetic line holder.
Ok to wrap this all up we do have a couple tips based on common questions we get.
First off why is it called two part when there is clearly three parts> Basically all the
calcium and alkalinity dosing solutions are referred to as two part even if they have
a separate magnesium portion.
The products that have three parts are typically doing it because three part products allow
you include elements which match natural seawater ratios better.
The true two parts skip one or more of these elements so they can mix the calcium and magnesium
solutions together.
That brings us to another popular question, can you mix the two parts together and dose
just one solution?
The answer is no, soon as you mixed them they would instantly precipitate out and the solution
would be useless.
They do have to be kept separate.
Next the system is designed so you can use equal amounts of calcium and alkalinity solution
to make things easy.
However there are a variety of reasons why a small amount of people might find they need
to use slightly more or less of one solution than another.
Don't feel like the one to one ratio absolutely has to be followed if your tank uses slightly
more alkalinity than calcium solution just go with the flow.
It is also pretty common for most people to drastically reduce their testing after they
get the tang of the system which is pretty normal.
If I was only going to test one element it would be alkalinity because it will drop much
faster than calcium.
So it is fairly common for experienced reefers to test alkalinity during normal maintenance
cycles such as every other week when you do water changes and calcium one a month or so.
Once you have a stable two part system going it would be pretty unusual for alkalinity
to be spot on and calcium drift significantly.
There is also a pretty sweet option for testing alkalinity which literally takes less than
60 seconds.
With the Hanna Checker all you need to do is add 10 millileters of tank water.
calibrate, add 1 millileter of reagent , invert five times, replace the sample and hit the
button.
A few seconds later it tells you your alkalinity.
Lastly it is completely normal for the alkalinity portion to cloud the water a bit when you
add it, particularly when you pour it in by hand.
The tank should clear up pretty quickly.
And you may find that your magnesium levels are dropping even though you are adding the
20 oz of solution on time.
This is almost always because the salt mix you are using has low magnesium levels which
is most of them so every time you do a water change you are really reducing the levels.
So that wraps up today's episode, if you have any questions or want to share your experience
with two part with everyone do so in the comments area below.
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Thank you for watching BRSTV.