Question on 2 Parts Dosing

[pvh]

I'm been dosing two parts for a while now and I've noticed I always had to dose more of CA than ALK. About 30ml more of CA to get it to where I want it. I thought that if you mix everything right you should dose equal amount of both CA and ALK?

 

[naturebatslast]

IME, that's the 2 part quandry. I had the same issue and founds it pretty frustrating, too much testing. Stopped using it and switched back to kalk.

 

[RayD]

Peter you definitely need a CA reactor setup.

 

[pvh]

Peter you definitely need a CA reactor setup.

EHHHH...I don't have a sump and plus with my luck I dial it in wrong.

I like to keep it simple and enjoy taking care of my tank.

 

[pvh]

IME, that's the 2 part quandry. I had the same issue and founds it pretty frustrating, too much testing. Stopped using it and switched back to kalk.

Good to know I'm not the only one.

Anyone else experience this?

 

[Miller]

Good to know I'm not the only one.

Anyone else experience this?

I suffered from this for a while, I attribute two adjustments that IMO fixed the issue of having to dose way more CA part then the ALK part.

First was adjusting my CA levels in the water I used to do my water changes with. Weekly I was doing 10% water changes that had a CA level of 360ppm when I was trying to maintain a tank level of 440ppm.

Second was keeping my Mag level up in the tank, I had gotten lazy for awhile and let my Mag get to 1000-1100ppm. I have then kept my Mag up around 1400ppm.

Between these two changes my dosing of Two Part leveled out to where I am now dosing the same amount of CA and ALK part each day. Those were the only changes I made to my system and IME it worked perfectly. I don't know if you already do these two things Peter....if not I would suggest giving it a try.

 

[stingythingy45]

"Second was keeping my Mag level up in the tank, I had gotten lazy for awhile and let my Mag get to 1000-1100ppm. I have then kept my Mag up around 1400ppm."

+1

On this advice.

 

[pvh]

I actually do the "3" parts dose which had Mag in it as well.

Barry, but if you do water changes wouldn't your ALK along with CA and Mag go down as well? In my case it seems that only my CA require more dosing. Unless I have a higher ALK and Mag in my water change than CA. However this higher dosing of CA is daily and not only happen after water changes.

 

[afboundguy]

Peter I'll take some corals off your hand to lower you Calc demand...

 

[JohnK]

a lot of salts are low in Ca but fine in alk and mg. If you don't correct your water change water, that could be the problem.

 

[Miller]

I actually do the "3" parts dose which had Mag in it as well.

Barry, but if you do water changes wouldn't your ALK along with CA and Mag go down as well? In my case it seems that only my CA require more dosing. Unless I have a higher ALK and Mag in my water change than CA. However this higher dosing of CA is daily and not only happen after water changes.

I have to adjust Mag in my water change water as well, the Alk is fine though.