2 Part Question

[Anonymous]

I have switched to ESV 2 part and when I add part 1 ALK it goes cloudy and turns powdery like it is precipitating.

My parameters are:

Alk 7.4 dKH
pH 8.0-8.1
Mag 1510
Ca 450
Temp 79*F

I do not under stand why my Alk is out of whack. The parameters are stable since I started using it.

 

[Len]

The alk portion of bionic does this in my tank too.

 

[Len]

It does dissolve very quickly after it forms the precipitate, right? What's happening is MgCO3 forms because of the localized rise in pH, but it'll go back into solution quickly after the pH normalizes.

 

[Anonymous]

They problem with ANY type of alkalinity supplement whether its bionic, or randy's 2 part is they're designed to be very saturated, so you get more "stuff" per drop of water. So the problem when you dose it is you get these areas of super saturation that form in your tank, I'm not a chemist so I can't say for sure what exactly it might be the pH, might be because you're adding a saturated mixture into a fluid which already does have quite a bit of that mixture so you get precipitation. Typically they say add to a high flow area of the tank just for this reason to spread it out as quickly as possible. If that's uncomfortable for you (i.e. that high flow region would blow it right onto a coral, I would say drip it slower into the tank with airline tube or something, that should help with the cloudiness.

 

[Anonymous]

To solve this problem, I dilute 5 ml of the alk solution with 5 gal of RO/DI, and drip it to the high flow area of the sump over the course of 20 hours or so.

Seriously, this is not easily avoided, so as Len said, as long as you dump it over hi-flow area, and can see that the snow disappeared relatively quickly, there is nothing to worry about.

 

[Anonymous]

I am dumping the alk in the high flow area of the sump and the powder dilutes quickly. I was worried that something was off. I am at ease now that I hear that it is normal. Thanks to all!