How may ml of 2part are you dosing daily?

[Lazys Coral House]

How many ML of 2 part are you dosing daily?

Just curious what folks 2 part consumption is daily. Mine seems like a lot for what I have but maybe it isn't. Dosing 607ML per day. A gallon of Ca and Alk last me 6 days. Anyone else dosing that much or more.

Share a pic of your tank if you wouldn't mind as well so we can get a sense for coral vs demand.

 

[redfishbluefish]

You must have a 4 to 5 hundred gallon tank that is heavy SPS. What size tank and what's in there. Also, who's two part are you using because they are all different as far as concentration.

 

[redfishbluefish]

To answer your question, I have a 90 gallon mixed reef and dose between 45 to 50 mls per day of Randy's two part (Recipe 1)(same concentration as BRS's two part).

 

[Lazys Coral House]

Thanks RedfishBlueFish. I have a 125g display that is connected to a 150g Sump/Frag Tank combination. Using BRS 2 part at a concentration of 2 cups per gallon of Soda Ash and 2.5 cups per gallon of Calcium. It does seem like a lot. I see some other very heavily stocked SPS tanks and wonder what they must be using. It must be an absolute enormous amount.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I've never seen that consumption on that size tank.


How do the corals look?
What salt are you using?
What test kits are you using to measure alk and calc?

 

[Lazys Coral House]

Corals look good. I am using Reef Crystals Salt and test Alk and Calcium with Sailfert Test Kits.

 

[currentking]

I have a 90g and dose 30ml a day. My friend has a 110 full of SPS colonies and doses 80ml a day.

 

[ReeferBee]

Enough to where it was wise to buy a calcium reactor, and I never looked back

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Corals look good. I am using Reef Crystals Salt and test Alk and Calcium with Sailfert Test Kits.

What alkalinity are you maintaining?

Do you see excessive precipitation on pumps and heaters?

For some reason, some tanks consume an excessive amount and we've never really figured out why. Perhaps precipitation in the sand that goes largely unnoticed.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The best way to compare consumption between tanks is by comparing the alkalinity demand, either by a measured drop, or from the amount needed to keep it steady. Folks often loose up to 4 dKH per day or more in a heavy SPS tank.

 

[redfishbluefish]

What is your target ALK and CALC? I just did a rough calculation and you are consuming approximately 7 dKH of ALK per day (if you use DT only) and 3.1 dKH if you include total volume. That just seems high to me....very high.

One more question while I was typing....do you have a whole bunch of clams in your system?...clams are carbonate sponges.


I'd suggest taking a water sample to your LFS or fellow reefer to have them test your water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I agree 7 dKH per day is quite high.

 

[hart24601]

I had a 10 inch derasa and a 6 inch maxima and when those two were really growing they used around 150ml BRS 2part per day. When they died because I didn't QT a new clam my 65g system dropped to around 30ml/day.

 

[Zippy]

I have a 120 sps dominant tank with addl 55ml for filtration. Besides Sps I have halimeda macro, consuming 170 ml each of brs 2 part. No noticeable precip on heaters. Keeping alk at 7.0-7.4.

 

[Lazys Coral House]

What alkalinity are you maintaining?

Do you see excessive precipitation on pumps and heaters?

For some reason, some tanks consume an excessive amount and we've never really figured out why. Perhaps precipitation in the sand that goes largely unnoticed.

I don't have hard sand. I do get some precipitation on heaters. Nothing major but it does occur.

What is your target ALK and CALC? I just did a rough calculation and you are consuming approximately 7 dKH of ALK per day (if you use DT only) and 3.1 dKH if you include total volume. That just seems high to me....very high.

One more question while I was typing....do you have a whole bunch of clams in your system?...clams are carbonate sponges.


I'd suggest taking a water sample to your LFS or fellow reefer to have them test your water.

I don't have any clams in the system. I am fairly confident the Alk reading although I did buy Triton test. It is just to cold to send in mail right now. lol

I have a 120 sps dominant tank with addl 55ml for filtration. Besides Sps I have halimeda macro, consuming 170 ml each of brs 2 part. No noticeable precip on heaters. Keeping alk at 7.0-7.4.

170 is highest reported so far. WOuld you mind sharing a picture of your tank? It will help me corelate consumption to coral mass.

Here is a picture of the 125g so you can get a sense for corals in system. I also have a connected 150g frag tank that has about 1/3 of what is shown in the display if I had to guess.

 

[Zippy]

I had mistype, that was an additional 55gal for sum refugium. Here is a tank ****

 

[Zippy]

I do not have your colony size as this upgrade is 11 months old. If you look close you will see I have sps on magnets on the side, glued to overflow etc.

 

[tgp4274]

I dose about 2ml akl a day and no cal just yet...

 

[rockskimmerflow]

Wow lazylivin! That is quite an impressive set of colonies you maintain there. When I saw 7 dkh consumption per day I was thinking oh man the precipitation must be unreal, but now I'm not so sure. You might actually be using somewhere close to that if your connected frag system exhibits equally prodigious growth. Whatever you are doing it doesn't seem to be hurting your success with the corals.

Assuming your dosing is automated, if you had a heater go out on you or a circuit blow on something like the lighting the loss of coral skeletal growth could really be a catastrophe. Even with precipitation working to your advantage at that point your dosing system would still probably nuke your tank within two days or so.

 

[Lazys Coral House]

How many ML of 2 part are you dosing daily?

I run the alk at 9.5 and have run by accident the alk container dry. It does drop pretty quick but not 7dkh. Because that has happened a couple times I switched to 5 gallon dosing containers which last 30 days at present. I also have pretty tight PH alarm. Dosing is done by Apex. It runs 23 minutes every hour using BRS dosing pumps that dose at a rate of 1.1ml per minute.

Zippy you have beautiful tank, very nice job. I suspect based on what you have your dosing is going to double over the next 12 months. How come you run your alk so low? Do you ever have small unexplained RTN events at the base of some acros?

Could more folks show pics of tank and your daily dosing amount?