Mixing Kent Superbuffer DKH in larger quantities.

[14biocubeGuy]

I have a quick question and if someone could help me i would appreciate it. I just purchased a dosing pump off of the hardware forum. My plan is to dose AK for my tank. I have Kent Marine Superbuffer-DKH, A glass Ball jar that holds 1500ML and my dosing pump is 1ml. I need to know the ratio of Superbuffer-DKH to Water, that i can add to 1500ML so i don't batch mix to much. Is there a math equation that could help me out?! thanks!

[14biocubeGuy]

OK. i saw this link. http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/327564-kinda-confused-on-auto-dosing/

 

This is what i need to figure out. I need it for a 14g bio cube and mixing Kent super buffer (dry) into roughly 1000ml jar. and how long to run pump

[Mariaface]

It's calcium hydroxide, right? Reefkeeping has a nice article on Kalkwasser. So you know, it's going to add both calcium and alk to the tank. If your calcium is fine as is, or you don't need to dose as much of it as alkalinity, look into a separate carbonate/bicarbonate (depending on your pH needs) supplement.

[14biocubeGuy]

SO MANY QUESTIONS STILL! HAHAHA

 

Ok. So my calcium is at about 470. Which is good. The only problem is, I don't have a PH test. I recently purchased Red Sea Algea test and Master Test kit (Ca, Alk, Mg). In the past (before i had red sea i had API test kit to test ak) I added 1/4-1/2 Tsp. of Super buffer and it would raise the tank up 1Dkh.

 

1. Should I start testing for ph. If so what test kit

2. How much Kent super buffer do i add to 1000 ML of RODI water?

3. How much should I run my 1ml auto dose pump for a 14g bio cube?

 

Im kind of lost. I feel like i purchased this auto doser thinking it was easy, and i got in way over my head.

[Mariaface]

SO MANY QUESTIONS STILL! HAHAHA

 

Ok. So my calcium is at about 470. Which is good. The only problem is, I don't have a PH test. I recently purchased Red Sea Algea test and Master Test kit (Ca, Alk, Mg). In the past (before i had red sea i had API test kit to test ak) I added 1/4-1/2 Tsp. of Super buffer and it would raise the tank up 1Dkh.

 

1. Should I start testing for ph. If so what test kit

2. How much Kent super buffer do i add to 1000 ML of RODI water?

3. How much should I run my 1ml auto dose pump for a 14g bio cube?

 

Im kind of lost. I feel like i purchased this auto doser thinking it was easy, and i got in way over my head.

 

I wouldn't bother starting to test for pH unless you're adding a lot of supplement at once, which can bring pH up enough to irritate inhabitants. You don't want to try to bring dKH up by more than 1 per day.

 

Half a teaspoon per liter is the saturation point for it, so that much.

 

Figure out how much of the powder your tank needs in a day (use net volume!), which will depend on how much alk/calcium go down in a day (again, they may do so at different rates so I suppose, as long as magnesium's high enough to keep them in check, try to account for the one that gets depleted faster). (that amount of powder)/(.5tsp) = (some volume)/(1000mL). Find the volume of dosing fluis your tank requires in a day, and the number of mL dictates however many units of time your pump measures by. Minutes? Seconds?

 

If possible, split those times up during the day. If you have a controller or digital timer, it should be easy to program a handful of different times. If I needed 10mL in a day, for example, I'd probably set the timer to go off for a minute (second?) at a time, ten times throughout the night. I'd choose night because of the pH buffering effect.

 

Measure alk and cal (and mag) periodically to make sure your dosing regime is working. If it's dosing too much, bring down the time. If too little, bring up the time.

 

You MAY find that calcium hydroxide can't really keep up with your aquarium's needs at some point. If you're losing 1dKH a day and it takes .5tsp to bring the tank up that much, that's your entire liter of dosing fluid right there. The point of the automatic dosing pump is that you can set it and forget it for a while, right? At that point, you may want to replace the calcium hydroxide with soda ash (if you're doing this to raise alkalinity and pH, that'll raise alk without affecting calcium). And you may also want to automate calcium, which would mean a second dosing pump. And then bam, you're doing 2 part.

[14biocubeGuy]

Well. i measured my tanks AK today. It was at 7.7dkh. I will see what it is tomorrow and give the results along with Ca. and Mag. I will also make a new batch of solution to your specs. Thank you so much btw!

[Mariaface]

Well. i measured my tanks AK today. It was at 7.7dkh. I will see what it is tomorrow and give the results along with Ca. and Mag. I will also make a new batch of solution to your specs. Thank you so much btw!

 

Good luck!

[14biocubeGuy]

OK. The Test results

CA 450-460

MG 1420

Alk 7.6-8.1 (Red Sea's Alk Test is a little confusing. It said it should turn orange but when i do it, it goes from light orange to dark orange. any experience with this?)

 

The total drop of Alk in my tank wasn't much. Im mixing up the new solution and gonna see if I can get this dosing right.

[14biocubeGuy]

I wouldn't bother starting to test for pH unless you're adding a lot of supplement at once, which can bring pH up enough to irritate inhabitants. You don't want to try to bring dKH up by more than 1 per day.

 

Half a teaspoon per liter is the saturation point for it, so that much.

 

Figure out how much of the powder your tank needs in a day (use net volume!), which will depend on how much alk/calcium go down in a day (again, they may do so at different rates so I suppose, as long as magnesium's high enough to keep them in check, try to account for the one that gets depleted faster). (that amount of powder)/(.5tsp) = (some volume)/(1000mL). Find the volume of dosing fluis your tank requires in a day, and the number of mL dictates however many units of time your pump measures by. Minutes? Seconds?

 

If possible, split those times up during the day. If you have a controller or digital timer, it should be easy to program a handful of different times. If I needed 10mL in a day, for example, I'd probably set the timer to go off for a minute (second?) at a time, ten times throughout the night. I'd choose night because of the pH buffering effect.

 

Measure alk and cal (and mag) periodically to make sure your dosing regime is working. If it's dosing too much, bring down the time. If too little, bring up the time.

 

You MAY find that calcium hydroxide can't really keep up with your aquarium's needs at some point. If you're losing 1dKH a day and it takes .5tsp to bring the tank up that much, that's your entire liter of dosing fluid right there. The point of the automatic dosing pump is that you can set it and forget it for a while, right? At that point, you may want to replace the calcium hydroxide with soda ash (if you're doing this to raise alkalinity and pH, that'll raise alk without affecting calcium). And you may also want to automate calcium, which would mean a second dosing pump. And then bam, you're doing 2 part.

Ok. So i made the new solution. Since i could only get 1 cup of Kent Superbuffer-dkh, i put that in 1500ML of RODI water. The problem I'm running into now is that there is concentrate at the bottom of the jar. Will this hurt anything?!

[14biocubeGuy]

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-top-off-doser-50-ml-per-minute.html

This is what i have

[jedimasterben]

Kent Superbuffer is not meant to be used to raise alkalinity, it does it more as a byproduct. It contains a lot of borate, which helps to raise up pH, but adding in a lot of borate isn't always a good thing. I would look into alternative products that actually have directions on making stock solutions

[Mariaface]

Woah. Okay.

 

First thing's first: I'm pretty sure the color difference during the test is supposed to be more than that. You should contact them and ask, because your reagents may have something funky going on. Or maybe your alk is secretly super high, though I doubt it with such high calcium.

 

Second: I'm surprised you don't have the entire cup at the bottom of the jar. Maybe it's formulated so it dissolves further, but 1500mL would be 'saturated' at 3tsp. Any more added should just settle down at the bottom of the jar as a solid.

 

Third: That's an ATO doser, and it will pump 50mL of fluid into your tank in a single minute. That's 0.09(repeating) teaspoons. You'll basically be replacing evaporated water and also adding this product. Which, again, is going to add a lot more than just alk to the tank. Is there a reason why you chose this product for raising alkalinity instead of sodium carbonate/bicarbonate?

[markalot]

I think you're making this harder than it needs to be.

 

The first thing I would do is use the cap of the KH solution and figure out how much you need daily to keep your KH stable. Once you know this, say it's a half a cap, pour a half a cap into a measuring vial to see how much it is and then set the doser to dole out that amount per day, preferably split into multiple times a day.

 

What I used to do in my 40 gallon was mix Seachem Reef Builder into my topoff water and then get my topoff setup on a dosing pump to keep the water stable. I would monitor KH and mix more or less ReefBuilder into the topoff to keep KH stable and hand dose Calcium when needed.

 

Rock solid stability is only really required when you want to keep SPS. Otherwise just make sure KH does not swing more the 1 KH per day and if you end up dropping to low DO NOT OVER CORRECT but instead slowly raise it back up. Most tank issues are caused by the reef keeper over reacting and doing something too fast.

 

Kent Superbuffer is not meant to be used to raise alkalinity, it does it more as a byproduct. It contains a lot of borate, which helps to raise up pH, but adding in a lot of borate isn't always a good thing. I would look into alternative products that actually have directions on making stock solutions

 

Woah, I thought this was just a KH solution.

 

Get the hell away from this stuff NOW. Get a quality two part solution and go with that IMO.

[14biocubeGuy]

Welp. I just came back to the tank after testing it and within a few hours acans were starting to bleach.. I just did a 50% water change and am going to test in a few minutes with the API test. results to come.

 

I am ditching the kent super buffer. Getting reef builder off amazon

API test results say its at 6dkh after my water change. I don't think I'm going to add anything to it until sunday, give it time to even out everything. opinions?!

Woah. Okay.

 

First thing's first: I'm pretty sure the color difference during the test is supposed to be more than that. You should contact them and ask, because your reagents may have something funky going on. Or maybe your alk is secretly super high, though I doubt it with such high calcium.

 

Second: I'm surprised you don't have the entire cup at the bottom of the jar. Maybe it's formulated so it dissolves further, but 1500mL would be 'saturated' at 3tsp. Any more added should just settle down at the bottom of the jar as a solid.

 

Third: That's an ATO doser, and it will pump 50mL of fluid into your tank in a single minute. That's 0.09(repeating) teaspoons. You'll basically be replacing evaporated water and also adding this product. Which, again, is going to add a lot more than just alk to the tank. Is there a reason why you chose this product for raising alkalinity instead of sodium carbonate/bicarbonate?

This was purchased at my local FS. They don't have much of a selection or knowledge IMO. I have been finding out information on my own by reading these forums. Im just going to stick to buying things online and leaving it up to the forums to gain knowledge.

[14biocubeGuy]

I think you're making this harder than it needs to be.

 

The first thing I would do is use the cap of the KH solution and figure out how much you need daily to keep your KH stable. Once you know this, say it's a half a cap, pour a half a cap into a measuring vial to see how much it is and then set the doser to dole out that amount per day, preferably split into multiple times a day.

 

What I used to do in my 40 gallon was mix Seachem Reef Builder into my topoff water and then get my topoff setup on a dosing pump to keep the water stable. I would monitor KH and mix more or less ReefBuilder into the topoff to keep KH stable and hand dose Calcium when needed.

 

Rock solid stability is only really required when you want to keep SPS. Otherwise just make sure KH does not swing more the 1 KH per day and if you end up dropping to low DO NOT OVER CORRECT but instead slowly raise it back up. Most tank issues are caused by the reef keeper over reacting and doing something too fast.

 

 

 

Woah, I thought this was just a KH solution.

 

Get the hell away from this stuff NOW. Get a quality two part solution and go with that IMO.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-2-part-calcium-alkalinity-starter-package-pre-portioned-1.html

 

Will this work to start with?

[markalot]

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-2-part-calcium-alkalinity-starter-package-pre-portioned-1.html

 

Will this work to start with?

 

Yep. A lot of people use that and it works great. I still stick with Two Little Fishies C-Balance, I buy in concentrated gallon containers and add RO/DI to make a gallon of each mixture. I have a 150 gallon tank now and I use Kalk dosed with topoff every 5 minutes for 20 seconds plus 90ml of each part a day dosed hourly with a doser. Hopefully you will use a LOT less 2 part.

 

Acans are probably starting to bleach due to either too much light or lack of food. Hand feed them once a day for a while and see how they respond. Mine always eat mashed up pellet food.

 

Get some Salifert test kits for KH and calcium. I use Salifert tests but with the Red Sea glass jars and jar holders. A great combo that makes the Salifert kits even easier to use.

[14biocubeGuy]

I feed the acans twice a week. It bleached unusually fast so I'm guessing this problem has to do with putting too much buffer in the water. Im going to buy an ATO and start with the 2-part and just go from there. Ill store the auto doser for later.

[Mariaface]

The auto-doser could be fine for dosing pure RO/DI as top-off water, if you can figure out a timing that equals your evaporation needs. Or of course, you can get the ATO (a lot of them come with their own pumps, but you can potentially get one without a pump if the 50mL doser is enough for your needs).

[14biocubeGuy]

Well since I'm to scared to mess with the Auto-doser, i got the AUTOAQUA SMART ATO - AUTO TOP OFF SYSTEM. Since i have limited space in my aquarium, i will put it in chamber 3 and let it top off from there. Should i run the RODI water only or should i use the 2 part from bulk reef supply?

[Mariaface]

For ATO, run RO/DI water only. 2 Part works a lot better when you can more precisely measure it in a tank as small as yours. Just follow the instructions and premix the 1-gallon buckets, and they should last you a good long while (your tank probably isn't even 14 gallons of water total, and you'll be dosing for net volume). My Nuvo 16 has a net volume of maybe 14 gallons or so, and only has a couple of ricordea and three LPS frags (they're definitely not colony size yet) along with some zoanthids. It uses maybe 4mL of the BRS Alk solution in a day, and at that rate (unlikely, since the frag-buying bug is trying to get to me again and these corals are growing) the gallon would last me 945 days.

 

Try and measure alk every morning and slowly bring it up to the level you want (don't raise it by more than 1dKH a day, of course). Once you've reached that point (and you may get there in a day or two), start testing so that you're aware of how much alk your tank goes through in one day. You'll find that you're correcting for the same amount daily, and so long as that number is stable you can move on to testing once a week so you can adjust your dosing if necessary. If you add new corals and stock more densely, your alk/calcium/magnesium usage will be higher, so keep that in mind during your weekly tests.

[14biocubeGuy]

You have been a HUGE help. I work 24 on 48 off, so on Sunday i will measure my AK again. and dose it will the something other than superbuffer. What do you dose for AK? I will need to order something in the next day because it is rather low (7dkh) but because of the corals bleaching, I want everything to relax a couple of days and just test. I did a huge water change today and that lowered the AK considerably.

[Mariaface]

Your water change lowered the alk? What does your saltwater mix to?

 

Look up sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate and how they're used in the aquarium. Should be pretty easy to get in bulk, just make sure you don't order anything with soap/scents. You can check by mixing a small amount into a cup/vial of water and shaking: if you get bubbles, that's very bad.

[Mstefa1]

Your water change lowered the alk? What does your saltwater mix to?

 

Look up sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate and how they're used in the aquarium. Should be pretty easy to get in bulk, just make sure you don't order anything with soap/scents. You can check by mixing a small amount into a cup/vial of water and shaking: if you get bubbles, that's very bad.

 

I was thinking the same thing! Water changes always raise my Alk so it's something to consider when dosing.

[MikeTR]

Whyyyyyyy ooooo whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy do we even promote anything other than baking soda or "baked" baking soda for alkalinity supplement? I mean if you wanna raise the carbonate level in the tank, I can't think of a better method to do so than adding pure bicarbonate or sodium carbonate... and there's already a recipe for it. 2 1/4 cups / gallon of RO/DI.

If I just dose straight baking soda, it's about 3 tsp to raise 1dkh in about 130g of volume.

[14biocubeGuy]

Well, part of the problem was that I couldn't decipher the test results. I was using Red Sea foundation Test kit and i didn't know what shade of orange was which. After calling them, they told me that I should take my eyes off of it and look at it again and say to myself.. Thats orange. So I used my API test kit and compared it to the "Thats orange" test from the Red Sea kit and it is around 9dkh which is perfect for my set up.

 

As i continue my journey with this Reef aquarium, i am finding out more and more about how to maintain and make make this biocube even better. I just need someone to give me the FACTS.

 

Honestly, i don't know the difference between sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate. I will look it up tomorrow at the fire station and see what i come up with. Mind you, I'm working with a Biocube 14. Not 130g volume tank.

Your water change lowered the alk? What does your saltwater mix to?

 

Look up sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate and how they're used in the aquarium. Should be pretty easy to get in bulk, just make sure you don't order anything with soap/scents. You can check by mixing a small amount into a cup/vial of water and shaking: if you get bubbles, that's very bad.

Ill test my saltwater sunday when i get off shift. I purchase 5g buckets of it at my local FS