Bolus dosing

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Never used the calculator but to humor you guys. I am dosing about a ml per gallon a day to achieve 8.2 KH.. And for Randy's consumption: when I describe coral growth as "better", an example would be a 4 inch sps colony gaining 50% in mass in 2 months and because I have significant flow, most of my corals are prone to grow in girth as much as length. Have at it folks.

Not sure what anyone could or would challenge about that. It is not actually a comparison to any other method in that tank . Its just a statement of your experience with it by itself.

 

[Oldreefer44]

The comparison is that it was a switch from about 18 months of AFR dosing. The reason for the switch was that AFR was giving me too much CA (around 475) and high Mg at about 1350. So it was just timing that I was ready to go to a three part at the same time Paletta was on Reef Bum extolling the benefits of Bolus. Just to add to the mix is the fact that I started ammonia dosing about two weeks prior to the switch and am using a Captiv8 pre made mix of trace elements, similar to the Moonshiners methodology, based on the last ICP results. So would be impossible to assign the improvement to Bolus alone. Also, yes there is about a half an inch of "undissolved matter" in the bottom of the dosing container.

 

[Garf]

Also, yes there is about a half an inch of "undissolved matter" in the bottom of the dosing container.

Thanks. I only stick 80 grammes a litre in my (Randy recipe #2) DIY two part and that seems like quite enough of an effort to get it to fully dissolve, without heating.

 

[Garf]

@Randy Holmes-Farley
My post above got me thinking about the likelihood that folks are actually getting 100 grammes sodium bicarbonate in 1 litre to stay dissolved.
Googling suggests that @ 20 C the solubility of sodium bicarb is 80 g/L. Whilst at 25 C the solubility goes upto 96 g/L. I see that generally the use of Luke warm water is suggested to aid solubility. Let's say that people warm the water and get 100g/L to dissolve fully. This solution is then allowed to cool, presumably lowering the solubility allowing it to settle in the container. So would not the ambient temperature around the container (specifically the solution temperature) have a rather large impact on the amount dissolved per Litre? If the container was stored at 20 C, the maximum dissolved could only ever be 80 g/L (20% less than assumed). Thanks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

@Randy Holmes-Farley
My post above got me thinking about the likelihood that folks are actually getting 100 grammes sodium bicarbonate in 1 litre to stay dissolved.
Googling suggests that @ 20 C the solubility of sodium bicarb is 80 g/L. Whilst at 25 C the solubility goes upto 96 g/L. I see that generally the use of Luke warm water is suggested to aid solubility. Let's say that people warm the water and get 100g/L to dissolve fully. This solution is then allowed to cool, presumably lowering the solubility allowing it to settle in the container. So would not the ambient temperature around the container (specifically the solution temperature) have a rather large impact on the amount dissolved per Litre? If the container was stored at 20 C, the maximum dissolved could only ever be 80 g/L (20% less than assumed). Thanks.

Yes, the ambient temp will matter. Folks using some two parts do see precipitation if the product gets especially cool.

Depending on what is in the trace mix, it may allow a supersaturated solution to remain without rapid precipitation, just as calcium carbonate is supersaturated in seawater.

 

[Garf]

Yes, the ambient temp will matter. Folks using some two parts do see precipitation if the product gets especially cool.

Depending on what is in the trace mix, it may allow a supersaturated solution to remain without rapid precipitation, just as calcium carbonate is supersaturated in seawater.

Thanks. Seems a "quick Google" wasn't sufficient. I'll stick a pic up of a chart which appears more accurate, if folk have other information to share, I'm all ears;