[924wal]

Hi out there
I'm starting a personal thread to document dosing from a beginners point of view as im new to it
also a water parameters testing type thing plus recipe sharing idk
I'm sure it's all been done before
Little back ground
Eguip
90 gal 75 gal 120 gal plumbed up
To each other I consider water volume to be about 200 gal
Reef octopus regal 300 ext skimmer
Apex
Jb 4 dosing pump
For testing
I will be using
Hannah 713 for phosphates
Red sea test for ca kh and mg nitrates and nitrites
PH from my apex
Salinity from an old school floating hydrometer

So far
For ingredients I have
Arm and hammer baking soda
Heaven hill vodka 80 proof
Vinegar
From brs I have
Brs kalkwasser
Mag sulfate
Mag chloride

Man this seems like taking it to a whole other level

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[924wal]

Snap pics are upside down lol

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[924wal]

I took Jb 4 out of the box
Checked the calibration an all 4 heads factory settings were spot on.
Went and got me 4 water containers from the dollar store
Hit rid aid and picked up a fith of rock gut vodka lol
And I'm ready to dive in to the whole Chem aspect of the hobby

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[924wal]

Recipes first revision lol
I plan to dose vodka mixed with water to feed bacteria
Kalk daily main
Magnesium supplement
Baking soda well done or rare for alk
Depending on needs
To be determined by testing over the next 30 days




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[924wal]

I bought me a dry erase chalk board to keep track even

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[924wal]

Setting it up next time label all the tube lol

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[924wal]

Recipes first revision lol
I plan to dose vodka mixed with water to feed bacteria
Kalk daily main
Magnesium supplement
Baking soda well done or rare for alk
Depending on needs
To be determined by testing over the next 30 days

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Quick note I got a little mag mix and a little vodka mix in the tank priming the hoses
Bad pat (that's me)pH dropped from 8.1 to 7.85

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[drs2140]

My best advice for dosing anything is go SLOW and be patient. Dialing my tank in with 2 part took some time and a few headaches. Test Alk often. I still test a few times a week. If my Alk is stable I know calcium and magnesium are within reasonable levels. I have never vodka dosed but it seems a lot of people do so successfully. Remember that you will need to bring your elements to desired level before using kalk. How do you plan to dose the kalkwasser?
I've been lucky but for some reason water changes is all I need to keep magnesium stable while calcium and alkalinity need 30ml daily with only +\- 30 gallons of water volume.

Anyways, just be patient and test-then add supplement-test again.

 

[924wal]

Looks like it's going to be a light mix on sodium bicarbonate it's a 1lb box cooked arm and hammer to one gallon of water

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[cmaxwell39]

Looks like it's going to be a light mix on sodium bicarbonate it's a 1lb box cooked arm and hammer to one gallon of water

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If you are just starting out, I would try to stick with a known recipe for your mixes. This will make getting advise and dialing in your dosing amounts using one of the reef calculators out there a whole lot easier rather than trying to dial in to whatever quantity happens to be in your mix.

Also, I have dosed vodka before, but never mixed it with water to dilute it. I would just drill a hole in the cap of the bottle and insert the tube from my dosing pump right into the bottle. Make sure you read up on this before attempting because while it can be very effective, overdosing can have negative and even detrimental effects on the tank.

As has already been mentioned, take it slow and you will be fine. What corals do you have in the tank and what are your current water parameters?

 

[924wal]

It was a premature dosing lol I swear that never happens

don't repeat don't un plug them after priming the lines lol
That's not what I wanted to do
Took the lines right out and In to a jug till I have the set up figured out
I diluted the vodka because I couldn't dose .25 ml perday the jb4 won't go under 1ml
So at bottle to a gallon of ro it should be diluted down to 1ml of my solution equaling .250ml a little less
On baking soda l lb box equals little less than 2 cups inn randys recipe called for just over 2 cups I only have 1 box

It affected the skimmer too i had to add a .25 turn on the gate valve

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[924wal]

I'm done for today
Home made dosing containers came out ok
2.5 gal each I made a little elbow fitting to keep the air line suspended a inch off the bottom
Water testing in the morning clear head and all

Recap
1 be more careful today's pH swing is bad it rose back up by mid night but bad patrick wonder if 7.8 1to 8.05 is a hard swing
Be more careful lol what I thought was a 5th of vodka was a half gallon that could have been catastrophic
Needless to say it's now mixed at a bottle to 2 gallons of water or .250 ml vodka per ml the starting dose for vodka
By the time you mix 8 cups of product for mag to one gallon of water it displaces
CHILLER I MUST GET A CHILLER !!
While baking the arm and hammer with the windows shut the tank got hot not good
LAST NOTE OF THE DAY MIKE COME GET SOME BUBBLE TIPS LOL


The Jabaeo db4 thoughts
Why is there not a am pm setting for the kalkwasser I set it to 2 1 ml doses a day 0 product on the first 12 and 1 ml on the second 12
Will that dose at mid night time will tell
All in all it was a easy install
The little led is bright as hell on the front
I covered it in layers of duct tape to tone it down till I find a sharpie or nail polish


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[weimers75]

Just be careful! As a newbie that's a lot of dosing and a lot to keep track of. In reality, most of it is probably overkill and you CAN overdo it. My tank was almost exclusively sps, mostly acros and montis. I never dosed half of what you're looking at. Stability is key, my pH was low, but because it was always low the tank thrived. The only dosing I did was kalkwasser (I actually used lime) with my top off. Easy peasy

 

[924wal]

Good morning all
Thanks for reading and advice
Replies ect....
I'm up and ready to test

I am starting the dose rates pretty small when I do start

In the past since I filled the first barrel for this set up in in 2012 I have not used any supplements other than a little kalk and having crushed coral and crushed oyster shells in the bottom of my ato and water changes
But a couple triton tests came back pretty funky
Low mag
Low alk
High calcium (lol)
High phosphates
Positive for copper

I upgraded my skimmer
Cut back on fish foods
Added a reactor set
Upgraded my ro system
And this is where I am today




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[924wal]

First test to open the hanna checker
Phosphates code hi 713
Got this on brs
First thought is looks really easy
Came in a nice kit
At 49.99 plus shipping
BUT ONLY CAME WITH 6 REAGENTS KINDA LAME AT 50.00
But I ordered more they were cheap just wish it had been in the bold print when I bought it
I would have had a couple sent with it the directions look well laid out let's do this

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[924wal]

.22 that was easy now I just have to figure out what that means real world
Hahaha

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[924wal]

Ha noticed in the milk jug I left all the dosing output lines in there's a milk of magnesia thing going on kinda looks like milk
Just goes to show how careful I have to be with this
Must be a Chem reaction since there isn't water in the bucket

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[924wal]

Ok testing with the red sea kit was a little harder did each test couple times
My numbers came back just as triton said
Wacked
Phos .22 ppm
Dkh 6.4
CA 800 pom
Mag 900
Wtf this whole water volume is almost new

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[924wal]

Dosing calculator say
Mag 6451ml
Alk 220 ml
Vodka 1 ml
Kalk 0 ml lol
Could the ca be trapped or some thing

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[924wal]

So I'm upping the mag and alk
To 25 ml spread out through the day test again tomorrow night

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