Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

Hey Josh, I'm all over that Dow flake, but I'm pretty busy with work. I'll have to get it this Saturday. I won't forget!

Those tank parameters sound pretty good now.

Thanks Josh for the CaCl2! I made up all 3 solutions. I added 125 mL (1/2 cup) of the CaCl2 solution per the article, then an hour later 125 mL of the Na2CO3 solution. My alk increase from 2.2 to 2.6 meq/mL and the Ca increased from 370 to 390 ppm.

According to the article, a 0.5 meq/mL increase in alk will increase pH between 0.15 and 0.35 points. I think I got my new additive!

I'll keep adding this daily for a while. I suspect the initial increase will drop as the tank equalizes. Hopefully I can get mine back to optimum (425 ppm Ca and 3.5 meq/mL).

By the way for those who don't know, I have about 100 gallons of total water on my system (65g reef, 29g fish only, 1/2 full 29g sump all conected together through sump).

I'm doing 500ml (per part) additions daily now. My alk is back down to ~2.5meg/L and my calc is at about 365ppm. I think the two-part is showing promise, I just need to get my levels up. I did a 10% water change today, that helped the ca levels some.

OK, I'm showing progress, but only by dosing TWICE each night to get my levels up. I haven't done another chemical overdose, all the corals are happy as they can be... I'm now at 3.0 meg/L and 410ppm Ca. I'm dosing 500ml of each part, and doing that twice each night... each time I do two doses in a night, it bumps the levels up... 500ml per part is the maintenence level for my tank... 500ml is about two cups.

I need to move to a Ca reactor... the two part is cheap, but the daily testing and additions are getting old.

If you are not dripping this additive then you are hitting the tank with a slug of chem and as it hits your main tank it is hitting your corals or fish with water which is way off and could shock them..

That's true to an extent, however, I'm dumping 2 cups of additave into the far end of a sump with 40 gallons of moving water, so I'm not sure it will even be noticed

When I used to add turbo cal to the sump you would see this white cloud of cal come out the return....that white cloud has to be a different temp and ph...just a thought....the think with a reactor is it drips ...same goes with top off water...makes the tank more stable.

Oh, don't worry, I'm going with a reactor as soon as I get cash built up when I get back... probably in a month ro so... I'm just doing the two-part until I have the reactor setup. Did you ever find that regulator and needle valve?

The two-part isn't a good solution just because you have to add it daily. I'm leaving on a cruise next week, so my levels will be bottomed out again by the time I get back sucks.

I was not going there...just saying you might want to set up a drip for the two part in stead of slugging.

josh, you love doing stuff the hard way huh?, just dose with manufactured stuff made for your aquarium, you never know what all in in all that crap

actually, the home-made two-part works great, however I've stopped dosing it, because putting 500ml x 2 nightly was getting OLD QUICK. I'm saving for a reactor. The homemade solution works just as well as the B-ionic, so you guys need to stop wasting money by pruchasing the store-bought stuff. I have a mostly-full bag of DowFlake if anyone wants any.

I agree with Josh... love the homemade 2-part... just made a new batch tonight.... I'll take some more Dow Flake from you man! I'm almost out.