whats product is recommended for dosing alkalinity

[My2heartboys]

That may have been your dosing scheme That does not mean it is the epsom salt at all. It is just magnesium sulfate and sulfate in seawater is like 900 ppm. As far a non-aqauirum poducts that is what is in most of those LFS bottles to sup Magesium sulfate, epsom salt, or Magnesium chlroide. Many of those so called aqaurium products are junk or just rip-offs.

Boomer, when I told this experience to one of our LFS (one that has helped us out of many a bind), she rolled her eyes and repeated her admonishment on not using non aquarium products. I know that we have local reefers that do use things like ice melt (or something like it) for calcium supplementation, and other things. Perhaps it is because I still consider myself a beginner, but for me I choose the safe route.

Anne

 

[Boomer]

Anne, aquarium store bought products do not guarantee any "safe route". That is a myth LFS owners, I have seen LFS owners tell you not to use Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, it is not a good thing to do, not "safe", use this it is better. You get it assayed and it is baking soda but a lower purity grade than Arm and Hammer or it is Arm & and Hammer, in a bottle.... relabled, 10x the price.

ice melt

What makes you think that ice melt is not the same thing that is in Kent Turbo Calcium. If you ask any of these people what is in their bottle they will not tell you," secret", yup, cause they do not what you to know, for example, it is just maybe everyday ice melt or plan baking soda.

Have you read any of our articles on RC by Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley, Ph.D., in chemistry from Harvard University, who tests and assays many products and brings out the truth.

 

[My2heartboys]

Anne, aquarium store bought products do not guarantee any "safe route". That is a myth LFS owners, I have seen LFS owners tell you not to use Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, it is not a good thing to do, not "safe", use this it is better. You get it assayed and it is baking soda but a lower purity grade than Arm and Hammer or it is Arm & and Hammer, in a bottle.... relabled, 10x the price.

ice melt

What makes you think that ice melt is not the same thing that is in Kent Turbo Calcium. If you ask any of these people what is in their bottle they will not tell you," secret", yup, cause they do not what you to know, for example, it is just maybe everyday ice melt or plan baking soda.

Have you read any of our articles on RC by Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley, Ph.D., in chemistry from Harvard University, who tests and assays many products and brings out the truth.

I have tried to read some of his articles and just wind up with a headache due to their complexity. Now before you go crazy on me, keep in mind that up until almost a year ago, the most complex measurement I had to do was to figure out how many scoops of formula to a bottle. I had pretty much let my brain rot out a little since I had left school. That is one of the reasons that I do like doing this so much---it begins to exercise something that hadn't been exercised for a long time. On top of that, chemistry was always a weak subject for me. You would be horrified at how I dose our tank supplements (Salifert by the way). I squeeze in what I think looks good and then stop. Invariably all my levels but strontium, iron, and iodine come out fine. As for the three I mentioned-----I am invariably low on which is OK, I guess since iron and iodine can quickly become toxic. (Salifert tests by the way except for the iron which is seachem)

Give me a little bit of time and I will attempt to tackle one of his papers again. Shoot, might even get brave enough to try his supplementation recommendations.

Anne

 

[Boomer]

I have tried to read some of his articles and just wind up with a headache due to their complexity.

:lol: I will never disagree with that. Some of them have me spinning

OK, more time

iron and iodine strontium

No need to ever add iodine. Normal water changes and the iodine in food is enough. Iron is good if you have macro's or a good refugium with algae. Sr. we are not sure about this nobody is. One of the theories is that Sr and Ca are very close in size and the Sr just ends up replacing a Ca as a substitute in corals. Meaning if there was no Sr. corals would grow the same. I don't buy that and think Sr does have a function.

Anne have you seem the reefers best friend ? Make sure you check out all the buttons there is even one for calculation tank water vol. At times people think this is great until they want to know well, how much of this for 1 gal to raise this x amount. Yah, I know my tank is 100 gal and is what I'm suppose to plug in but I want just 1 gal, so it dos not help me. Lets pretend you want to know how much baking soda to add to 1 gal of water to get the Alk fro 1 meq / l to 2 meq / l. Forget tank size and just type in 1 gal. You can plug in ""fiction" #'s and find out many things. Like, I have no clue what a tsps of washing soda weighs compared to a tsps of baking soda.


http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

 

[Boomer]

Error in above post sulfate 900 ppm, should be 2710 ppm

 

[My2heartboys]

I have tried to read some of his articles and just wind up with a headache due to their complexity.

:lol: I will never disagree with that. Some of them have me spinning

OK, more time

iron and iodine strontium

No need to ever add iodine. Normal water changes and the iodine in food is enough. Iron is good if you have macro's or a good refugium with algae. Sr. we are not sure about this nobody is. One of the theories is that Sr and Ca are very close in size and the Sr just ends up replacing a Ca as a substitute in corals. Meaning if there was no Sr. corals would grow the same. I don't buy that and think Sr does have a function.

Anne have you seem the reefers best friend ? Make sure you check out all the buttons there is even one for calculation tank water vol. At times people think this is great until they want to know well, how much of this for 1 gal to raise this x amount. Yah, I know my tank is 100 gal and is what I'm suppose to plug in but I want just 1 gal, so it dos not help me. Lets pretend you want to know how much baking soda to add to 1 gal of water to get the Alk fro 1 meq / l to 2 meq / l. Forget tank size and just type in 1 gal. You can plug in ""fiction" #'s and find out many things. Like, I have no clue what a tsps of washing soda weighs compared to a tsps of baking soda.


http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html

I think I have busted that iodine myth. I use IO and I know it tends to run low in certain elements and through water changes and testing I know that iodine is one of them. I have the tests written down. I know that this is true for the salt that I use----may not be true for another salt brand.

Anne

 

[Boomer]

You have not busted any myth You missed the point You do not need to add iodine at all, no matter what your kit says. That meaning you are wasting your time and money by measuring or buying iodine kits, sups. Many have run reef tanks for years with IO and never add or test for iodine. Then there is the issue of the kit itself, some not very reliable. And you need to look at speciation of iodine in seawater and all iodine kits are not the same, so you get mislead. The issue of iodine mostly revolves around crustaceans ands molt cycles. They get their iodine form food, not the water column.

Iodine in NSW is 0.05 ppm and most independent tests of salt mixes, to include IO, show Iodine way above NSW. Look at this bar graph of a number of salt mixes, tank levels compared to NSW = 1.00, showing the range of Iodine. The graph all the way to the right, last one, has an "I" at the bottom that is iodine. Look at where all measurements fall and done by a professional analytical lab

 

[Boomer]

Forgot this