My homebrew 2 part that I am dosing (1 Viewer)

[merkurmaniac]

For my little 34 gallon system, I have been dosing Kent Nano A & B for the last year or two. I bought some on clearance at Petco, then I bought about a years supply for cheap on eBay. I have been going thru it and figured that it was about time to get off that stuff and start making my own.

I read the bottle of Kent Nano and found that it had calcium, magnesium, potassium, strontium, and iron in it. I wrote a nice spreadsheet that did all the unit conversions and ratios to allow me to reproduce the same stuff, but on a much larger scale. I am making it in 1.25litre batches now that fit into old coke zero bottles. I like the shape of the bottles, and the size is nice for refilling my dosing pump reservoirs. I couldn't really find info on how powerful the alkaliinity part was, as far as concentration.

So, I raided my wife's cooking supplies and got her baking powder. I baked it in the toaster oven to drive off some component, I forget which. Then I took Randy Holmes Farley's ratio and made up some. I also have several big bottles of reef BUFFER that I am unsure of how to use. I added 200 mg of baking powder and 50 mg of buffer to each batch. It looks like you can use both in combination.

I also got a hold of a 20 lb bag of 100% pure magnesium-chloride-hexahydrate. I am using it to finally get my magnesium to where it needs to be. Seems it has always been chronically low in my system. Something must be consuming a lot of it, or there is none in my salt ??? The calculator said that I would need several bottles of kent Tech M. I went the solid route. I'll monitor my levels. I'll have a ton of it left over, I am sure. I don't really plan to dose mg continuously.

So, my question is, what's the best approach for determining the proper concentration of the ALK portion ? My pump will dose CA and ALK at the exact same ratio. So, I figure that I'll adjust the flowrate of both components by either increasing the total flow or diluting the one that begins to be excessive, since the baking powder is on the verge of precipitating if I try to boost the concentration any more. I figure that I have to get my magnesium sorted out first before I can truly trust my CA and dKH numbers.

Its been kind of fun.

 

[fishboyt]

You need to be using magnesium sulfate (Epsom Salt) as well: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-07/rhf/index.php

"The easiest way to use these supplements is to first make a solution in freshwater. Any of the three different recipes may be chosen, but the second and third are most useful for most aquarists.1.
Using Epsom salts only, dissolve 8 cups Epsom salts in one gallon of water, and use that to supplement magnesium in amounts determined by using this linked online calculator, with the entry "Randy's Recipes 1 and 2 Versions A and B," and ignore for this purpose what those designations mean. This recipe is the least preferred of the three, but can be acceptable if used for small amounts of supplementation, or if combined with at least 30% water changes per month. It is also a more reasonable choice if calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) are used in large amounts to supplement calcium and alkalinity.

2. Using MAG flake only, dissolve 8 cups magnesium chloride hexahydrate in one gallon of water, and use that to supplement magnesium in amounts determined using this linked online calculator, with the entry "Randy's Recipes 1 and 2 Versions A and B," and ignore for this purpose what those designations mean. This recipe is adequate, but not quite as balanced as #3 below. This choice is not a good way to go if calcium is supplemented by calcium chloride, because together they will force chloride excessively high.

3. Using both Epsom salts and MAG flake, dissolve 7¼ cups MAG flake and ¾ cup Epsom salts in one gallon of water, and use that to supplement magnesium in amounts determined using this linked online calculator, with the entry "Randy's Recipes 1 and 2 Versions A and B," and ignore for this purpose what those designations mean. This recipe is preferred, but its advantage over recipe #2 is minimal in most cases.
Note that combining the two materials in solution can result in some precipitation of calcium sulfate (calcium and sulfate are impurities in the MAG flake and the Epsom salts, respectively. To assure yourself that the two materials have fully dissolved, dissolve each separately in some freshwater before combining them. Some calcium sulfate precipitation is acceptable, and it is okay to let the solids get into the aquarium, assuming you can dose in a way that prevents them from landing on delicate organisms.

Note also that this recipe (#3) is different from that given in my DIY two-part recipe, because in that case more magnesium sulfate is necessary to offset the rise in chloride that is provided by both the calcium chloride and the magnesium chloride."

 

[soymilk]

Remember it's baking soda that you need to use, not baking powder. I think baking powder won't affect the tank too much.

 

[merkurmaniac]

Sorry, yeah I used baking soda, baking podwer.