B-Ionic 2 part calcium/buffer

[105man]

Does anyone have a constant routine of dosing their tanks with B-Ionic on a regular basis without varying it according to calcium tests?

Ive done some calcium tests and find them difficult to interpret. Id rather just try to establish a safe routine, if there is one, of maybe once a week, or twice a week, or with water changes, etc.

I only have soft corals, some cleaner shrimp, algae critters, fish, in a live rock, live sand tank.

 

[Joey French]

First things first. Stop testing for calcium. Start testing for alk. Use this little guy-

http://www.kademani.com/reefchem.htm

to figure out your necessary dosage, then over the course of a few days, figure out how much you use on average and that's how much you dose per day. Simple. Once you figure out how much goes into the tank, for alk, then you can figure out how to fix your ca level, because they go hand in hand. Here's an article that explains it thoroughly...

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

Get the alk in line, then use the balanced b-ionic additives to keep ca/ alk balanced.

Good Luck, Joey

 

[Len]

I don't measure Ca anymore (always on the low 300ppm side) and I use B-ionic about every other day to supplement my Ca reator and Kalkwasser reactor. I think what you're asking is if people dose without keeping track of Ca or Alk, and I don't check my Ca levels anymore. Do note, however, that my tank is about a decade old so things are more stable then most newer tanks.

 

[Joey French]

I just realized that you have a softy tank. You will probably be able to get away with not much dosing at all.
Joey

 

[LauraH]

I dose daily along with Kalkwasser, but then I have alot of growing stonies. I can pretty much determine how much I need to dose if I keep things the same, but if I make any additions, or other changes that might affect coral growth, then I will test to see if I need to adjust my dosage.

You probably won't have to dose that much with your current community, but if you start adding stonies, things will likely change and you may then want to retest and adjust accordingly.

 

[105man]

Thanks, sounds like all good advice.

Looking for the first abrupt color change from pink to violet, using the Hagen calcium test, my tank seems to have 400.

I had been adding B-Ionic almost every day for the past 2-3 months.

I think what I will do now is add it maybe twice a week....how does that sound?

Live rock, live sand, fish, cleaner shrimp, algae critters, mushrooms and polyps.

 

[Micah00]

I think with what you have in your tank 400 would be just fine.

 

[LauraH]

You can try going to twice a week, but if your calcium readings drop, you may want to go back to what you are currently doing. If your alkalinity is in line as well, then it seems to be working.