CeeTee Posted June 11, 2003 Share Posted June 11, 2003 I've been dosing 20ml of B-ionic since last friday following my weekly water change. My numbers have not budged since then. My cal is 375 and my Alk is at an all time low. Adding 20ml of B-ionic has been like adding tap water to my 20 gal tank. Does anyone know of an alternative to b-ionic that works other than a Kalkwasser drip? Link to comment
jdsabin1 Posted June 11, 2003 Share Posted June 11, 2003 Yup, I had the exact same problem. Use SeaChem's Reef Complete and you'll get an increase in your calcium. Once you get it where you want it, then use B-Ionic to maintain your levels. HTH! Link to comment
Acoustic Posted June 11, 2003 Share Posted June 11, 2003 NO! BIONIC IS THE BEST! I will stand by it forever. I think that thier dosing instructions are wrong. When I needed to raise my levels I had to add 5 ml a day for a week until it was fine. Now to keep them stable I have to add 2.5 ml a day. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted June 11, 2003 Share Posted June 11, 2003 two things you might want to check are your magnesium levels should be around a 3:1 ratio to calcium and buffer levels (alk). if the part #1 solution isn't dissolving right away (like snow vs. smoke) then i'd switch the majority of the calcium dosing to kalk or cacl. if it is dissolving quickly then i'd do as acou suggests, and bump up the dosage. hth Link to comment
Raise Posted June 11, 2003 Share Posted June 11, 2003 I love the stuff. Would you like to sell yours? I have a friend in need. Link to comment
PEZZ Posted June 11, 2003 Share Posted June 11, 2003 I've been using reef advantage calcium from seachem for about 5 months works pretty good for me. Link to comment
CeeTee Posted June 12, 2003 Author Share Posted June 12, 2003 My LFS recommended Tropic Marin Bio-Calcium to me so i'll give it a try tonight. Hope it works cause B-ionic didn't budge my numbers at all and I was dosing 20ml per day! Kalkwasser worked but that drip bucket looks like crap in my living room. I think the B-ionic people fill the #2 bottle with tap water! LoL Link to comment
Masoch Posted June 12, 2003 Share Posted June 12, 2003 I've been wondering about my calcium level as well since I got my first stonies a month ago. I haven't had to raise it (consistently over 400), but ... here's what I found after some reading: kalkwasser and 2 part solutions maintain alk and calcium, but don't really boost it. To boost it, you need something like Turbo Calcium (Bio-C's probably the same thing). Once you're at the level you want, then you go to kalk or B-Ionic. You might want to look into kalk + an auto top-off system. In the long run, it's way, way cheaper than B-Ionic and does pretty much the same thing. Link to comment
skeletor Posted June 12, 2003 Share Posted June 12, 2003 B-Ionic is great for maintaining levels, you might need something extra to shift them tho... I use turbo calcium to move Ca and seachem marine buffer to move alk... If you're having trouble shifting Ca then check your Mg as low Mg will make raising Ca almost impossible.... I used to add B-Ionic but I switched to kalk, yeah the drip thing is one ghetto ugly device but I will shortly have my DIY kalk reactor feeding the tank through a dosing pump. dosing pumps can be got for under $75 and a reactor can be made for $20-$30. Auto top-off and dosing, plus an overnight pH of 8.0, all in one device. -skeletor- Link to comment
Joxer the Mighty Posted June 12, 2003 Share Posted June 12, 2003 Try changing your dosing levels. I've had great luck with B-ionic. I have so much coraline growing that it's become a bit of a pain! The sides of my tank are almost completely covered, and I have to scrape the front on a regular basis in order to keep it under control. Link to comment
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