2 part dosing help

[bkelly]

I am starting to dose my 22 gallon with 2 part and had trouble totally dissolving the NaCO3. I Followed recipe #1 and heated the DIRO water while stirring but still couldnt get it all to dissolve. So do I dose with precipitate left settled on the bottom? Its not a lot of undissolved , but doesnt that change my KH concentration in solution for dosing.
Any help is appreciated.

[daniella3d]

Mine took a while to completely dissolve. continue to shake it and it will eventually all dissolve but if there is a sligth deposite at the bottom is no problem.

What 2 parts did you use? I use the bulk reef supply kit and evenrything dissolved after a few hours, and for sure it was all dissolved after one day.

I don't think it will have an effect on your dosing either. use their calculator and go slowly with dosing. I do mine each day manualy. Also when I dose for KH I drop it in the skimmer in the air bubble because otherwise it is making the water cloudy when it hit the water.

Originally Posted by bkelly

I am starting to dose my 22 gallon with 2 part and had trouble totally dissolving the NaCO3. I Followed recipe #1 and heated the DIRO water while stirring but still couldnt get it all to dissolve. So do I dose with precipitate left settled on the bottom? Its not a lot of undissolved , but doesnt that change my KH concentration in solution for dosing.
Any help is appreciated.

[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.