Myka's Guide to Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, pH, and Salinity

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by 'Ol Nobodaddy

two little fishies the best? really you think so? which ones have you put against it that it came out on top?

I tend to agree. You should mention that ALL such name brand additives may be had for far cheaper if purchased as bulk chemicals since, for example, all calcium additives are basically Calcium Chloride, and all magnesium additives are Magnesium Chloride or Magnesium Sulfate (or a combination thereof) etc etc.

Any discussion of key tank parameters is incomplete without mention of Randy Holmes-Farley and his numerous very insightful and very useful articles on the subject.

[Pan]

Originally Posted by fkshiu

I tend to agree. You should mention that ALL such name brand additives may be had for far cheaper if purchased as bulk chemicals since, for example, all calcium additives are basically Calcium Chloride, and all magnesium additives are Magnesium Chloride or Magnesium Sulfate (or a combination thereof) etc etc.

Any discussion of key tank parameters is incomplete without mention of Randy Holmes-Farley and his numerous very insightful and very useful articles on the subject.

Yep, Randy's articles are all in my chem folders seachem, kent etc are just charging a premium for what one could do on a saturday night...come on who has mixed chemicals into baggies on a saturday night

I think two part is a better idea than reactors...at least for me reactors have become old hat...

[fiorano]

thanks so much for all this info myka

[Myka]

I am glad my piece was mostly well accepted. Kind of a touchy subject since people have so many different opinions on this one. Thanks for the reviews, and those who show appreciation.

Originally Posted by fkshiu

I tend to agree. You should mention that ALL such name brand additives may be had for far cheaper if purchased as bulk chemicals since, for example, all calcium additives are basically Calcium Chloride, and all magnesium additives are Magnesium Chloride or Magnesium Sulfate (or a combination thereof) etc etc.

Any discussion of key tank parameters is incomplete without mention of Randy Holmes-Farley and his numerous very insightful and very useful articles on the subject.

Personally, I am not a fan of bulk chemicals for reef keeping, and I regret to say that I can't even explain why very well. I have found over the years that "most" tanks that use bulk chemicals instead of aquarium designed products seem to lack a bit of pizazz. I am sure you could find 500 photos that would prove otherwise, and I would be hard to disagree. However, in my experience I find aquarium designed products outperform bulk chemicals, and I don't know why.

I suppose mentioning Randy Homes-Farley would be a great "for continued reading on the subject, refer to...". This article was written for those who want something simple, and straight forward where Randy's articles are usually quite in depth, and are anything but basic. I will add this though, thanks!

Originally Posted by 'Ol Nobodaddy

two little fishies the best? really you think so? which ones have you put against it that it came out on top?

I really like the C-Balance product. Without listing the different "raw chemical" two-part solutions as I believe that most all aquarium designed two-parts are far superior to most all bulk chemical two-parts I would place TLF C-Balance over Kent Tech-CB, ESV B-Ionic, Salifert All-In-One, and AquaC Complete. I quite like the KNOP products, but they don't really have a two-part.

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by Myka

Personally, I am not a fan of bulk chemicals for reef keeping, and I regret to say that I can't even explain why very well. I have found over the years that "most" tanks that use bulk chemicals instead of aquarium designed products seem to lack a bit of pizazz. I am sure you could find 500 photos that would prove otherwise, and I would be hard to disagree. However, in my experience I find aquarium designed products outperform bulk chemicals, and I don't know why.

I really like the C-Balance product. Without listing the different "raw chemical" two-part solutions as I believe that most all aquarium designed two-parts are far superior to most all bulk chemical two-parts I would place TLF C-Balance over Kent Tech-CB, ESV B-Ionic, Salifert All-In-One, and AquaC Complete. I quite like the KNOP products, but they don't really have a two-part.

Fair enough. I believe it's called the power of "branding"

[Doug]

FWIW & likely coincidental, the best tank I have had, ran for years in the late 90,s on C-Balance. 70g softy tank, took 30m of each per day.

And I have used both the homemade and ESV, {the latter I thought was pretty good}.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by fkshiu

Fair enough. I believe it's called the power of "branding"

Oh probably!!!

Originally Posted by Doug

FWIW & likely coincidental, the best tank I have had, ran for years in the late 90,s on C-Balance. 70g softy tank, took 30m of each per day.

And I have used both the homemade and ESV, {the latter I thought was pretty good}.

Honestly, I think every two-part I have ever used was "pretty good", I just found that I came to prefer C-Balance over the rest.