Dosing - Concentrating your Suppliments

[TimT]

Hi Catherine,

Hope this helps.

I used to use a Ca reactor but found it was too time consuming twiddling with it all the time so I switched to Balling Lite method.

I do my dosing as follows:
Mix the Bicarb, CaCl and Mg/CL+MgSO4 at near saturation levels in their own 5 gallon buckets. ie 1260grams Sodium Bicarb, Aluminum Free into 15L of RO water. This lasts on average 10 days. So 126 grams of bicarb per day.

I use a Profi doser.

I test my parameters every 3 days with Lamotte and Salifert test kits.


I have found that Magnesium is a weird bird. Sometimes the demand can go through the roof and stay that way for a month or more. Other times there is NO demand at all for months on end. I consistently use Reef Crystals or Instant Ocean salt mix and use a full 160 gallon bucket or 3 x 50 gallon bags for a water change. I don't think it's the salt mix doing it but something in the system.

I sell the same chems that I use in my 800 gallon system which has been running continuously for 11 years.

Cheers,
Tim