What is B-Ionic anyway and how do I use it
- Thread starter gopher
- Start date
It's a two part additive for maintaining the level of both alkalinty and calcium in your tank.
The two parts have to be dosed separately, preferably a few hours appart, to prevent them interacting with each other.
Seachem has a similar product that comes as two powders. There are others too.
You're right that they are added very often, not uncommonly daily.
How much you have to add depends on the calcium and alkalinty demand of your tank. The more things that soak these up then the more you have to add.
In a lightly stocked new tank you probably won't have to add much at all.
It's very important that you always add both parts of the product. If you don't then the water chemistry will slowly get out of sync and you'll have major problems correcting for this (short of changing a huge amount of water).
You'll need to test the level of alkalinty and calcium in your tank with a good quality test-kit to determine how much of this product you need to add. A good brand of test-kit is Salifert.
Once you're practiced at this you'll notice that you really only need to test alkalinty or calcium as the two are related. I choose to only regularly measure alkalinity and only very rarely measure calcium.
There are alternative approaches, which include:
1. Dripping Kalk - this is cheap but a bit of a hassle if you're new to doing it. Probably not a good way to start off.
2. Using a calcium reactor - the ultimate in ease but has a very high start-up cost (many hundreds of dollars).
If you search the history of this forum you'll turn up lots of info on this sort of thing.
To a large extent the size of your tank will ultimately determine what method you use. For example, on a large heavily stocked tank using Bionic would cost serious amounts of money.
On a small tank Bionic can be cost effective long-term. However, there's other things to consider too e.g. the likely growth rate of coraline algae under the various methods.
The two parts have to be dosed separately, preferably a few hours appart, to prevent them interacting with each other.
Seachem has a similar product that comes as two powders. There are others too.
You're right that they are added very often, not uncommonly daily.
How much you have to add depends on the calcium and alkalinty demand of your tank. The more things that soak these up then the more you have to add.
In a lightly stocked new tank you probably won't have to add much at all.
It's very important that you always add both parts of the product. If you don't then the water chemistry will slowly get out of sync and you'll have major problems correcting for this (short of changing a huge amount of water).
You'll need to test the level of alkalinty and calcium in your tank with a good quality test-kit to determine how much of this product you need to add. A good brand of test-kit is Salifert.
Once you're practiced at this you'll notice that you really only need to test alkalinty or calcium as the two are related. I choose to only regularly measure alkalinity and only very rarely measure calcium.
There are alternative approaches, which include:
1. Dripping Kalk - this is cheap but a bit of a hassle if you're new to doing it. Probably not a good way to start off.
2. Using a calcium reactor - the ultimate in ease but has a very high start-up cost (many hundreds of dollars).
If you search the history of this forum you'll turn up lots of info on this sort of thing.
To a large extent the size of your tank will ultimately determine what method you use. For example, on a large heavily stocked tank using Bionic would cost serious amounts of money.
On a small tank Bionic can be cost effective long-term. However, there's other things to consider too e.g. the likely growth rate of coraline algae under the various methods.
I dose B-ionic daily. I also just follow the directions on the bottle. It is a little expensive but not compared to....say lighting! Shouldn't cost you that much to use.
I just pour the first part into the intake of a powerhead so it is mixed thoroughly in the water. (if not it gets cloudy and leaves "snow flakes") Then I dose my 10 gallon cuttings tank, then go back and dose part two. I have never had any problems and my algae is growing pretty fast. I have never waited between dosings.
I just pour the first part into the intake of a powerhead so it is mixed thoroughly in the water. (if not it gets cloudy and leaves "snow flakes") Then I dose my 10 gallon cuttings tank, then go back and dose part two. I have never had any problems and my algae is growing pretty fast. I have never waited between dosings.
Without having the bottles handy, I recall they suggest to wait "...a couple of minutes" between adding component #1 and #2. I have followed these directions steadfastly without any noticeable negative effects.
GOLDENTEAPOT, you mention that you should wait "hours" between adding the two. Would you mind giving us your opinion as to what "interactions" one could expect without waiting this long? Or, are you just being on the safe side?
As to the original question, IMO, add as per directions until your alk/calc levels are where you want them (testing daily). If after a week of adding the initial suggested dose does not get the levels there, increase the amt. added by 10% for another week. Keep doing this till you get comfortable with how much you need to add to maintain your levels of alk/calc.
Good luck!
McReef
GOLDENTEAPOT, you mention that you should wait "hours" between adding the two. Would you mind giving us your opinion as to what "interactions" one could expect without waiting this long? Or, are you just being on the safe side?
As to the original question, IMO, add as per directions until your alk/calc levels are where you want them (testing daily). If after a week of adding the initial suggested dose does not get the levels there, increase the amt. added by 10% for another week. Keep doing this till you get comfortable with how much you need to add to maintain your levels of alk/calc.
Good luck!
McReef
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