Diy calcium chloride (A Little Help)

[Frogger]

Do you really want to add that stuff to your tank?

How much calcium chloride do you need? Bulk Calcium chloride from Aquarium shops is cheap. When compared to the other costs for keeping a reef tank your bulk calcium and alkalinity requirements are small. There are better places to save your pennies.

That Calcium Chloride will makes a good ice melt that won't fry your lawn.

[Razor Ramon]

Yea I like that Frogger, only problem now it’s mixed and has the red mud it will plug my sprayer for my sidewalk melt.
It’s not going in my tank. It’s going back to the chemical sales.
Im sure I’m not the only one to use bulk products or am I ?
Thanks again for the support.

[CHEAPREEF]

I used to use this Calcium Chloride before I switched to ATI Essentials. IT's the brand Randy actual advises in his article, actually it's more pure. 20KG for $25, mixes clear and works perfectly fine. I got it form the Homehardware in the Grove.

https://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/i...231?Ntt=flakes

[Razor Ramon]

Yea yea tanks (tanks)
What is the difference you have seen in Your experiences switching to The name brand product.
Same or something better?

[Frogger]

The purer the cacl the better. We add a lot of calcium and the question is what else are you adding to your tank besides the calcium. Whatever else is in the salt will eventually start to add up.

Randy recommended the Dow Flake back in the late 90's/ early 2000's. At that time there wasn't any other option for cheap calcium chloride.

Now with the advent of Bulk Reef Supply and others there is a reasonably priced option in bulk cacl. The cacl we get from our fish stores is likely food grade or better. I would suspect the Aquaforest product is a higher quality then the bulk cacl becuase they likely use the same cacl as in their salt mixes. I do not believe the Dow product is food grade (I may be wrong), but it is not held to as hi a standard because it is used primarily for ice melting and brine solutions.

[Razor Ramon]

Thanks again to the info/help this site is great .
I do try to keep up on current stuff and read a lot mostly
New 2015 to current threads on reefing.
Most coral info is way out of date some cases 100s of years old.
Randy at reef to reef is up to date and has some great people for resources .
The recent testing of Main Stream products did raise some interest to me .
Your right totally we need to know what we are putting in Our tanks .
Even the best of the best in aquarium grade products as far as salt and additives
Seem to lack the quality control that we all are paying for.
That been said we wonder why our high $$$ corals some times transforms
From some crazy $$$ bla bla into bla bla ugly duckling .
If we all were all Main Stream then all our wet friends would be the same
.... some time you just got to think out of the box a little . That’s why there will
always be that RR guy out there making every one drool.
Thanks again
Still would like to hear more from the DIY game hear success and failure.
I’m racking this one up as needed to be tested . Not in my reef in a lab because the tec sheet for the product doesn’t jive with the visual.

[CHEAPREEF]

Originally Posted by Razor Ramon

Yea yea tanks (tanks)
What is the difference you have seen in Your experiences switching to The name brand product.
Same or something better?

I switched to a completely different type of product, ATI Essentials is a 3 componant system that doses all trace elements as well as Alk, Ca and Mag. I switched to this as it is like the trion method so no water changes and more stable tank. I still do monthly sump cleanout etc, so it's a small 5-7% WC once a month.
I never saw anything but great results from the dow flake, it's exactly what you get in the bulk reef stuff.
If you look at Randy's new high PH boost recipe it's now using sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda. That should get the na sayers talking.

[Frogger]

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Originally Posted by CHEAPREEF

I switched to a completely different type of product, ATI Essentials is a 3 componant system that doses all trace elements as well as Alk, Ca and Mag. I switched to this as it is like the trion method so no water changes and more stable tank. I still do monthly sump cleanout etc, so it's a small 5-7% WC once a month.
I never saw anything but great results from the dow flake, it's exactly what you get in the bulk reef stuff.
If you look at Randy's new high PH boost recipe it's now using sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda. That should get the na sayers talking.

Us na sayers are only concerned about adding a road salt to our aquariums unchecked. I am sure that Aquaforest would beg to differ on their supplier of cacl. Even Ray from Reef Supplies is always looking for purer suppliers of their calcium and alkalinity components. Dow chemicals makes many different grades of their products all the way up to research grades in bulk. The only thing that changes is the purity of the chemicals.

Sodium hydroxide in its purest form is still only Na, and OH ions. There are reefers that add bleach (NaClO) and Hydrogen peroxide to their tanks successfully. As long as you know what and why you are adding these ions to your tank you can be successful.

The ATI Esentials is basically the Balling method (Randy Holmes Recipe) with extra trace elements. Your choice to not do water changes is only a choice not something the system on its own encourages or benefits from.

The Triton method is basically the Balling Method with a large sump/refugium with reverse daylight algae scrubber with multiple types of different algaes and beneficial organisms. It uses detailed regular testing to determine the exact amount of trace elements to add. It also adds a fertilizer with its 4 part calcium alkalinity component. The Triton System still requires water changes when the values get out of wack.

[CHEAPREEF]

Originally Posted by Frogger

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The ATI Esentials is basically the Balling method (Randy Holmes Recipe) with extra trace elements. Your choice to not do water changes is only a choice not something the system on its own encourages or benefits from.

I talked with the US ATI rep quite a bit before switching over, If you read up on it you'll see they recommend no Water Changes and ICP test every 3 months.

But your right to each there own, lots of people haven't done water changes in years without doseing anything but 2 part or a calcium reactor.