Cali Kid Corals

Maximum 2-Part Dosing

I have the Litermeter III with one additional external dosing pump. It's worked well so far, but it is pricey and only comes with one pump, so if you want to dose both Alk and Ca you will have to buy an additional external dosing pump. The Litermeter can utilize up to 3 dosing pumps so if you also wanted to dose Mg, you could do that as well. I opted to save some money and dose the Mg myself since it's replacement isn't needed as frequently.
 
I am very tempted to just turn my FW ATO into saturated (clear, not suspended) kalk. Just need to calculate the dosage amount to make sure my daily evap replacement won't dump in too much kalk. From what I was told, you'll slowly creap up on alk vs Ca, but that should be easy to correct with periodic Ca dosing.
 
Just FYI for those who dose DIY two part - the calcium chloride produced by DOW chemicals (since 2007 IIRC) may have really high levels of bromine that could accumulate and cause issues over time, esp if you use ozone. Most of the stuff that's readily available like DOW flakes, peladow, or hardness plus are all probably repackaged products from DOW, so probably should be used with caution
 
[quote author=vapormd link=topic=4603.msg56184#msg56184 date=1221885309]
Just FYI for those who dose DIY two part - the calcium chloride produced by DOW chemicals (since 2007 IIRC) may have really high levels of bromine that could accumulate and cause issues over time, esp if you use ozone. Most of the stuff that's readily available like DOW flakes, peladow, or hardness plus are all probably repackaged products from DOW, so probably should be used with caution
[/quote]

Hmm. That doesn't sound good. Do you have any links or references where I can learn more about the issue?
 
Hardness Plus is made by dow (no probably :))
http://www.lesliesmsds.com/Document/21/82/7a6b21b8-8fb3-444d-805d-b5f5030f1c83.pdf

Thanks for the heads up.

This begs the question: are there really any other bulk suppliers of CaCl2? Do marine companies source through Dow?
 
I got all my info from RC - a search for bromide and dow should turn up enough threads to read for a few days :D

The jist of most the threads I looked thru (mostly the ones where Randy Holmes-Farley posted) - dowflake and all the repackaged stuff should be fine for occasional boosts in calcium, but dosing a two part solution over time would lead to the accumulation of bromide, esp since the concentrations were jumping from 100ppm in the old dow products (NSW = 65 PPM IIRC) to something like 6000-8000 ppm


Tony - there are other sources apparently for appropriately pure CaCl, but I'm guessing most chemical companies prob won't sell to an individual or in the quantities we're looking for. FWIW, I get my stuff from bulk reef supply
 
An guess as to how much water changing would mitigate an accumulation at those ratios? Of course they would still increase over the course of time regardless, just curious.
 
It can easily be solved, but you would need 5 pieces of info
1) dose rate
2) Br per dose
3) WC rate
4) WC amount
5) Br in WC

If you have excel, I can whip up a spreedsheet for you to get the answer empirically (the simple math solution. there is an exact analytical way to solve it but I like "general" solutions that most anyone can understand)
 
[quote author=vapormd link=topic=4603.msg56189#msg56189 date=1221887239]
I got all my info from RC - a search for bromide and dow should turn up enough threads to read for a few days :D

The jist of most the threads I looked thru (mostly the ones where Randy Holmes-Farley posted) - dowflake and all the repackaged stuff should be fine for occasional boosts in calcium, but dosing a two part solution over time would lead to the accumulation of bromide, esp since the concentrations were jumping from 100ppm in the old dow products (NSW = 65 PPM IIRC) to something like 6000-8000 ppm


Tony - there are other sources apparently for appropriately pure CaCl, but I'm guessing most chemical companies prob won't sell to an individual or in the quantities we're looking for. FWIW, I get my stuff from bulk reef supply
[/quote]
You get all your info from RC???...so we shouldn't listen what your saying :p Chemisty forum on RC yes, others, hell no ;)

You sure can source from chemical supply houses but it's more expensive to buy it then actual MO brands. Much more expensive.

Careful how you represent a trade marked name. Two-Part is a trademarked name, be sure to put DIY in front of it if that is what your talking about. I got into hot wter by not using IMO or IME when talking about a product and saw myself facing a lawsuit like 6 years ago. Not only that but the forum, the host and my employer all got the same threat. The company then went on to call alll the Bay Area LFS trying to trash my name (back fired for him).

Read this: http://petsforum.com/psw/ for an example of what can happen.....oh how lovely our society is sometimes :(

Two-Part (ESV) is not DOW sourced and does not have elevated bromide levels.
 
[quote author=sfsuphysics link=topic=4603.msg56126#msg56126 date=1221849556]
Here's my DIY version
http://www.aptinstruments.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AI&Product_Code=SP100VO&Category_Code=SP100

add a wall wart for DC power, a POT to control the voltage (basically your knob to adjust) and you're set. Also you could hook it up to a timer as well so it only doses for a set period
[/quote][quote author=tuberider link=topic=4603.msg56134#msg56134 date=1221851007]
I bought "Drew's eco-doser" all set-up for $80, it's worked for a while now with no problems, I don't see it on the bulkreefsupply.com website right now though....
[/quote]

Same thing Jeremy. Drew's is just a APT OEM :)
 
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=a1b2447e3385e22826ac8751f0ca347f&threadid=1275153
 
[quote author=tuberider link=topic=4603.msg56134#msg56134 date=1221851007]
I bought "Drew's eco-doser" all set-up for $80, it's worked for a while now with no problems, I don't see it on the bulkreefsupply.com website right now though....
[/quote]

Mike, thanks for the link and tuberider, Gresham, I was thinking the same thing... that APT pump looks an AWFUL LOT like Drew's doser. At first when I saw Drew's Doser I thought that "Wow, someone made a pump!" But it's not adjustable.

Still, for $80, that saves you the trouble of putting together a project box and power supply, etc...

I think I'll try the APT pump as well, I've been using a medical "Enteral Feeding Pump" which has worked fine for 3 years, except when the tubing breaks and I have to clean up the mess. Also, it has limited pressure performance, since it's not trule a peristaltic pump. I mean it doesn't pinch the tubing, it kind of stretches it over rollers so that the tubing pinches itself closed. Probably great for it's intended purpose (hey, you don't want to force feed patients!) but not the greatest for our applications. I was using it on my kalwasser mixer/top off.

Vince
 
Vince, thinks to ask for, make sure you get the 3mm tubing, it's way faster than the 1.6mm tubing, the hose barbs supplied also won't fit standard "aquarium tubing" which IIRC is 3/16" ID, where as the 3mm = 1/8" Shoot him an email afterwards and see if you can't get 3/16".. I got 1/4" which I thought was the right size, unfortunately its too large, but I just swung by lowes and got some 1/4" tubing it is all.

Larry is an easy guy to work with.
 
Hmmm, this pump might be better for DIY
http://www.aptinstruments.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=AI&Product_Code=SP100VOHD

It's the same as the one Mike pointed out, except that it's rated Heavy Duty. If you read the spec sheets on the various motors, the AC motors are rated for continuous duty, but are fixed flow. The one Mike pointed out is DC and variable flow, but the spec sheet says "These brushtype motors are rated for intermittent duty, for continuous duty, look at our brushless motors".

The heavy duty versions say the same, EXCEPT it says "These brush type motors are rated for continuous duty, for long-term contnious duty...blah blah". Also, it's duty cycle is "continuous" rather than "intermittent". No idea what the MTBF is.

So for the extra 10 bucks, might as well get one that is rated for continous duty so you can adjust the speed exactly.

Or...do what the Drew Doser does and just use a fixed (AC) motor and put it on a timer...

V
 
[quote author=sfsuphysics link=topic=4603.msg65897#msg65897 date=1227555080]
Vince, thinks to ask for, make sure you get the 3mm tubing, it's way faster than the 1.6mm tubing, the hose barbs supplied also won't fit standard "aquarium tubing" which IIRC is 3/16" ID, where as the 3mm = 1/8" Shoot him an email afterwards and see if you can't get 3/16".. I got 1/4" which I thought was the right size, unfortunately its too large, but I just swung by lowes and got some 1/4" tubing it is all.

Larry is an easy guy to work with.

[/quote]

Thanks for the tip Mike! This sounds like an interesting project!

V
 
Yeah, I knew about that continuous duty stuff, not sure exactly what it means to the letter though, I took it to mean don't run it for a really long time. I took the data off the bottom at 13 mL per min as the flow rate so after 30 minutes of work, it's about 4/10th a liter of fluid which is about 1.7 cups for me that's plenty.

But yeah I run it off a timer anyways, no way I want to run this all day long it make a noise which... well it would bug me. If you can go the Drew's Doser way, go for it. Do a test to figure out how many minutes it'll take to get what level you desire, and plug it into your digital timer (or controller, I wouldn't use one of those mechanical timers since you'd like accuracy down to the minute).
 
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