What do you do to help maintaining Calcium and Alkalinity?

[Curtis Scott]

I would love to see what other members here are doing.

 

Any additional advice on why you think your method works well or why you choose a certain method over another would be very helpful.

Edited December 4, 2013 by Curtis Scott

[sachabballi reef]

brs 2 part with dosers...easy to use, easy to dial in and economical. 

[smallreef]

Hhhrrrmmmm I haven't started testing those parameters yet...though I will...and if needed will dose with pumps...cuz I'm lazy and forget routine stuff....

[epleeds]

Profilux dosing CAL-ALK-MAG. dosing smaller amounts spread out of 20 times a day. Keeps things rock solid.

[Origami]

Kalk + calcium reactor.

[surf&turf]

Dose manually morning and night. 

[gmerek2]

Kalk is a great easy cheap way to start. It does both Alk and calcium.But make sure you test to see where you are at.

[Piper]

I'm doing two part b-ionic and magnesium dosing by hand daily but am switching over to the BRS products when these run out. I don't seem to do well with automation and I don't like testing much, so I tend to get buddies or helpers to do an alk an calcium test every week or two. Did the last one today. Dead on perfect. Problem with only dosing daily is I get a good pH bump from the carbonate until it buffers, so I'm going to try doing four parts, calcium, some carbonate, bicarbonate and magnesium.

[sachabballi reef]

I'm doing two part b-ionic and magnesium dosing by hand daily but am switching over to the BRS products when these run out. I don't seem to do well with automation and I don't like testing much, so I tend to get buddies or helpers to do an alk an calcium test every week or two. Did the last one today. Dead on perfect. Problem with only dosing daily is I get a good pH bump from the carbonate until it buffers, so I'm going to try doing four parts, calcium, some carbonate, bicarbonate and magnesium.

 

well the nice thing about automation is, as Epleeds mentioned earlier, is that you can space out the dosing through out the 24 hour period for rock steady stability. I do mine on opposite schedules...Alk drips for a few minutes every hour for the first part of the 24 hour period and when it stops calc starts drippijng every hour for the remaining time...so they are never dosed at the same time but are consistently dripped and not all just dumped in at once... I only test once every two weeks or so....unless my eye catches something I deem a reason to test sooner...

[Piper]

well the nice thing about automation is, as Epleeds mentioned earlier, is that you can space out the dosing through out the 24 hour period for rock steady stability. I do mine on opposite schedules...Alk drips for a few minutes every hour for the first part of the 24 hour period and when it stops calc starts drippijng every hour for the remaining time...so they are never dosed at the same time but are consistently dripped and not all just dumped in at once... I only test once every two weeks or so....unless my eye catches something I deem a reason to test sooner...

 

I'm willing to give it a go again, but I'm not very good at setting the stuff up and the wham bam attempts I've paid for in the past have resulted in near disasters. Pretty much lost interest in trying to automate for the time being. I work from home so really I could be doing this three or four times a day instead of one as I do with vitamins or feeding. Need some smaller jugs. I'm dosing from 5gal jugs for the moment. A little cumbersome. 

[sachabballi reef]

I'm willing to give it a go again, but I'm not very good at setting the stuff up and the wham bam attempts I've paid for in the past have resulted in near disasters. Pretty much lost interest in trying to automate for the time being. I work from home so really I could be doing this three or four times a day instead of one as I do with vitamins or feeding. Need some smaller jugs. I'm dosing from 5gal jugs for the moment. A little cumbersome. 

i am in leesburg...let me know if I can ever be of any help to you...

[hlem]

Kalk + weekly/biweekly WC

[Piper]

i am in leesburg...let me know if I can ever be of any help to you...

Thanks much

[mr.x-ray]

I have been running a Kalk ATO but had to start manually dosing ALK and Calc. more and more in the last 2 months. I asked Santa for the BRS 2 part complete set up. Planning on a on an hour and half hour dose cycle. ie. alk at 2:00 and calc. at 2:30 for what ever the time length break down needs to be.

[matt]

Brs two part via brs dosers here

[ridetheducati]

I dose one calcium reactor per day.

[epleeds]

I'm willing to give it a go again, but I'm not very good at setting the stuff up and the wham bam attempts I've paid for in the past have resulted in near disasters. Pretty much lost interest in trying to automate for the time being. I work from home so really I could be doing this three or four times a day instead of one as I do with vitamins or feeding. Need some smaller jugs. I'm dosing from 5gal jugs for the moment. A little cumbersome. 

The reason I went with the profilux is that its an all in one unit.  All you have to do is set the dosing amount and how many times you want it to dose per day and it does everything else.  Yes, its more expensive then the BRS dosers, but its worth every penny.  As for dosing containers, depending on how big your tank is, AVAST and other companies many very nice dosing barrels, but I use these from BRS.  They are 1 gallon, thin jugs that work great. 

 

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/space-saver-jug-thin-4-liter-1-05-gallon.html

 

Like Jen has said, I only test my levels every two weeks or every month.  I use ESV Bionic so its very easy to mix and dose.  If you decide to go with this unit, and you need help, just PM me and I can talk you through the set up, but it really takes only about 5 minutes.

[Piper]

 

Like Jen has said, I only test my levels every two weeks or every month.  I use ESV Bionic so its very easy to mix and dose.  If you decide to go with this unit, and you need help, just PM me and I can talk you through the set up, but it really takes only about 5 minutes.

 

Thanks. I do appreciate it. I've actually learned more about alk, something that perplexed me for lack of appropriate interest up to now, since switching from a reactor to two part than I had in the years prior. It's a science test with real time results daily as I watch my pH probe adjust in real time. With this kind of moral support, I probably will try to automate again at some point. For the moment, I'm learning and that's probably a good thing. 

[lnevo]

Brs two part via brs dosers here

x2 I use my ReefAngel to control and log their activity and I wrote a function to calibrate the pumps and dose by volume. It's been working great and params are spot on!

[bqq100]

Just finished setting up my DIY dosing pump to dose kalk.  Kalk is dosed separately from my ATO in order to have better control over the amount dosed.

[wade]

Ca reactor supported by dosing of 2 part, only when necessary.  Generally not necessary with water changes (30g out of ~200g) every 2-4 weeks.

[Orion]

Kalkwasser should be added to the poll.

 

I dose Kalk only through the ATO / APEX.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Orion

[sen5241b]

I guess nobody else is using my method. I add cal and mag to the make-up water pushing the cal so high it is on the verge of precipitation then I do a 50% water change out. My cal stays good for at least month.

[rocko918]

Kalk + calcium reactor.

 Tried and true method.

 

+1

[zygote2k]

2 part medical dosers for me and the 4 tanks that I dose 3 part. I like simplicity and convenience over the more expensive dosers and definitely favor dosing via pumps of whatever kind over hand dosing. Hand dosing is bad because it's everyones' good intention to do it every day but they usually forget and issues arise from fluctuations.