2 part dosing help

[kien]

To make your life easier try mixing with a hand blender. That's what I use and it mixes alk very quickly with no precipitate at all. Any precipitation that may occur gets chopped up and mixed

I wouldn't dose that if you have lots of precipitate because your concentration is way off in that solution (lower than what you're expecting it to be). You can still salvage it though. Mix it with a hand blender!

[bkelly]

Thanks guys, i got my chems from Oceanic in bulk and am dosing manually about 10 ml of each /day based on the recommedations of my tank size and stocking so far my Ca was good after one week but the KH was low (dropped from 8-6) so that be due to the lower conc in solution because of not enough mixing , i guess it would be wrong to shake it up before dosing and immediately add to the tank- ill try more aggressive mixing to get it to fully dissolve. did i read the 2 part notes correctly that you want to add both parts in equal volume , as long as they are fully dissolved, dont try to add more of the KH vs Ca.

[George]

Originally Posted by bkelly

did i read the 2 part notes correctly that you want to add both parts in equal volume , as long as they are fully dissolved, dont try to add more of the KH vs Ca.

You don't have to add equal amount of part 1 and part 2 every time. If you want to raise one parameter, you can add more of that part, spreading over a couple days if it's a big increment.
You can use the following calculator to calculate the amount you need to raise the level of a particular parameter.
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html

[bkelly]

How much Sodium Bicarbonate do you guys mix in a 1 gallon jug - ive got the Randy Holmes 2 part paper saying 2 1/4 cups in 1 gallon for recipe #1 and then a direction sheet from Ocean Aquatics saying 1 1/8 cups per gallon. I did as Randy said but can not get it to dissolve so i wonder if im over saturated. What amounts do you guys add for Alkalinity?

[bkelly]

think i figured it out, the recipe # 1 is for sodium ash and you add 2 cups the recipe #2 is for NaCO3 and you add 1 1/8 cups,, i must have over added because i got sodium bicarbonate but mixed as for sodium ash. thats why it didnt fully dissolve.