Jonnywhoop Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Tried to edit my original post but some weird HTML thing happened. I will post up my chemistry levels over the next 5 days. 20Gallon Long, DIY LED, AQ110 Fuge, Aquamaxx Hob XC skimmer. 4 SPS frags, Few LPS, few shrooms, anemone with gold striped maroon, 2 clams. Original Test Results: ALK: 7.896 CA: 430 MAG: 1215 Desired Test Results: ALK: 9-10 CA: 430 MAG: 1600 (battle bryopsis, then drop to 1400 consistently) DAY 1: After my original tests, I dosed 1/2TSP of baking soda and increased my mag dosing to 100ml a day to achieve desired levels per instructions of MikeTR(Thanks!) First time seeing polyps on one of my acros! ALK: 9.072 CA: 435 MAG: 1350 UPDATE DAY 2: ALK: 8.86 CA: 450 MAG: 1350 1455 Little confused as to why my mag stayed completely the same... I dropped my dosage to 80mL for today and it did not increase at all?? ALK went down a bit more, so I just upped my dosage to 15mL to try and balance it out. Might do another 1/4 tsp of baking soda to raise it so I can dial it in around the 9-10 mark.. I put my mag dosage back to 100mL for tomorrow. Retested and it came out to 1455. Back off my Mag dosing to 10ML to see if I can hold this number. Link to comment
MikeTR Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 looks like you are dosing enough to meet your demand.. now you need to manually add more to bump the levels up where you want to be. Seriously.. if you just dosed 1/2 tsp of baking soda, you'll hit your target level. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 looks like you are dosing enough to meet your demand.. now you need to manually add more to bump the levels up where you want to be. Seriously.. if you just dosed 1/2 tsp of baking soda, you'll hit your target level. By manually adding more, you mean increase the mL I am putting into my tank? How often should I put baking soda into my tank? I am going to read up on that right now! Thanks for the advice. Link to comment
MikeTR Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 just the one time dose.. should increase your dkh from 7.8 to 9 Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 Would you recommend baking it or unbaked? Reef Chemistry Calc: 0.5 Tsp (awesome guess to your first response) Should I disolve in 1gallon of RO/DI? How slowly should I add it? should I do it over a course of a few days? I assume that my mag will fall in line with the raised ALK? Link to comment
MikeTR Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Unless your pH is ridin at 7.8 I wouldn't bother baking it. I'd just dissolve it in a couple cups of RODI and dump it in. You'll need to manually adjust the mag also. 200ML will raise your mag by 100ppm. I would dose 100ml/day until you hit your target. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 Ok, I am about to dump some arm and hammer into some RODI right now, and dump the full thing into my tank. and seriously? 100ml?!? that seems like a LOT. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 Alright. Doser set to 20 Doses x 5ml = 100mL for tomorrow. Seems a little extreme.. Mixing the baking soda with RO/DI right now. Link to comment
MikeTR Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 It only seems like a lot.. 100ml is only gonna bump ya by 50ppm... so you'll need to let it ride like that for about 5 days for a total of.. gulp.. 500ml Alright. Doser set to 20 Doses x 5ml = 100mL for tomorrow. Seems a little extreme.. Mixing the baking soda with RO/DI right now. pour kinda slow in a high flow area.. right into a powerhead is ideal Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 Seems like thats my whole brand new 32oz ESV mag I just got 3 days ago I assume I need to order a new bottle soon? Also, after these 5 days, once I get to my ideal levels, can I drop it back down to 10ml a day? Since it seems to hold my numbers there quite steadily? I appreciate all the help Mike, especially with the speedy responses. Of course, if my tank turns to shiet, I wonder who I am going to blame. Link to comment
sangheili Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Only thing I can think of is... Make sure your doser is actually delivering the amount you specify. Measure it. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 ^ thanks for the advice. I calibrated it myself. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 8, 2014 Author Share Posted December 8, 2014 WOW just tested my water and its at 9.8 dKh!! just like that O_O Link to comment
MikeTR Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 WOW just tested my water and its at 9.8 dKh!! just like that O_O Good.. now test every day for the next 5 days and see what it does. Don't touch the doser. Just by looking at the levels, we increased alkalinity by effectively 2 using 1/2 tsp of arm & hammer brand baking soda. I'd back that off to 1/4tsp per day only when you need to readjust levels. It will move dKH up by 1. I can also tell that you have right about 15g of water in your 20g tank just by this same calculation. Seems like thats my whole brand new 32oz ESV mag I just got 3 days ago I assume I need to order a new bottle soon? Also, after these 5 days, once I get to my ideal levels, can I drop it back down to 10ml a day? Since it seems to hold my numbers there quite steadily? I appreciate all the help Mike, especially with the speedy responses. Of course, if my tank turns to shiet, I wonder who I am going to blame. Yeah.. seems like that's at least half the bottle. We can take a different approach. Get some plain ole epsom salts.. CVS brand. Notice right under the 100% natural minerals black label that it says "magnesium sulphate". Shhhhhhh it's the same shit as ESV.. only CVS (well almost) . You'll need to measure out 56 grams and you can safely dose this once per day till you hit your target 1500-1600. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 ^ Good advice for the epsom salt. I actually just ordered some Kent M Tech last night. A whole gallon for $23 shipped. I will be using it to battle some bryopsis I have. But when that does run out, I will be sure to DIY my dosings.. Will update in a bit about my test results for day 1. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 just tried tried to updated my original post and it got all screwed up. I posted up my recent test results. About how often will I need to readjust my ALK by doing the 1/4 TSP of baking soda? I understand to test often, but a rough estimate like once a month for example would be nice. THANKS! Link to comment
MikeTR Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 just tried tried to updated my original post and it got all screwed up. I posted up my recent test results. About how often will I need to readjust my ALK by doing the 1/4 TSP of baking soda? I understand to test often, but a rough estimate like once a month for example would be nice. THANKS! Well if you get your dosing worked out you shouldn't have to do much to readjust it. That mag is comin up just a bit too fast.. back off to 80ml. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 Well if you get your dosing worked out you shouldn't have to do much to readjust it. That mag is comin up just a bit too fast.. back off to 80ml. done. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 So my mag stayed exactly the same today... did not increase at all! Might do another test in a little bit... I would assume it would go up atleast a little bit... Link to comment
MikeTR Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 yeah it should have moved.. unless you didn't readjust the doser right Link to comment
best3175 Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 My understanding is the Bryopsis doesn't respond to magnesium but rather to Kent TechM. Apparently there is something else in there that effects the Bryopsis. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 yeah it should have moved.. unless you didn't readjust the doser right No, I definitely did. I heard it firing away the whole day today too. you cant miss it when it drops 5ML at a time My understanding is the Bryopsis doesn't respond to magnesium but rather to Kent TechM. Apparently there is something else in there that effects the Bryopsis. Yeah I ordered a whole gallon of Kent Tech M already. I still want to get my levels up there though. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 Ran another MAG test just now. Came out to 1455. I have a feeling I didnt mix the reagents thoroughly before starting the test. I am using Salifert by the way. Since I am already at target level, (since I dont have the tech M yet), should I dial my MAG back down to 10ML since it held 1215 for two days in a row with that dosage? Link to comment
farkwar Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 You could mix up and dose a 5% water change each day and spend less time working at what you're doing. Seems a lot of work for wrong results. Link to comment
Jonnywhoop Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 Its actually not that much work at all. The most time consuming part is testing the water. As for adjusting the doser its just using the touch screen pad to dial it all in. In fact its really painless. I would imagine doing daily water changes would be more work. Link to comment
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