B-ionic & Vacation?

[Leviathan]

Hi everyone,

I am going to be leaving on vacation a week from tue and will be gone for 7 days.

I have a 90 gallon BB SPS system, that I dose 5ml of b-ionic into every morning, and was wondering what I should do during my time away.


I guess the first question is, would simply not dosing at all during my away time produce any serious negative effects?

I live out in the country and there is not one person close enough to me that I would trust putting anything into my take other than pre-packaged food ( which I plan on dividing up before I go )

I had an idea, but not sure if it would be a good one. I have a 45gallon tank in the other room that feeds my autotopoff. Could I dose the FW in this tank so that it is slowly being intorduced into the main display as the system tops off? I know there is no way to guage the dose in this way, but if I dose the 45 gallons of FW accordingly, at the very least I would not be over dosing the display.

Can you even put b-ionic into FW in this type of situation and expect the same results?

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Chris

[Tomzpc]

Do you really dose only 5ml? Are you also dosing kalk or using a calcium reactor? My 90 is soft corals and LPS and I does 40 ml of each daily. If you only have to dose such a small amount then I think you'll be fine for a week.

[Leviathan]

Originally posted by Tomzpc
Do you really dose only 5ml? Are you also dosing kalk or using a calcium reactor? My 90 is soft corals and LPS and I does 40 ml of each daily. If you only have to dose such a small amount then I think you'll be fine for a week.

Yes its only 5ml,
There are only several small frags in there at the moment so this small amount keep my levels where I want them at the moment, since I have no reactor.

[Tomzpc]

Originally posted by Leviathan
Yes its only 5ml,
There are only several small frags in there at the moment so this small amount keep my levels where I want them at the moment, since I have no reactor.

Personally, I think that you'll be fine. If it were me, I'd slowly increase the dosage so as to slightly increase your calcium and alkalinity, allowing for more of a safe buffer/dropoff while you are away.

[impur]

Wow, i dose 30ml in my 29gal. When i had my 10gal nano, i added 5ml of bionic to the topoff water which was a 1 gal jar. This worked flawlessly for a year or so until i upgraded. I do not see a problem doing it this way. I would find out how much alk and calcium your tank is using up and dose it this way permanently. I hate dosing daily.

[revance]

I would use Kalk in your top off water while you are gone.

[Leviathan]

Thanks for all the comments everyone.

[impur]

Another option is to get a 2 channel dosing pump. Try reefdosingpump.com i think is the page. They are a sponsor here. This way you can dose your 5ml all at once or over time during the day. Just another option. I'm currently using a dosing pump i got for 30 bucks to dose kalk slowly all day. I'm hoping it will help keep alk stable while providing costant calcium.

[dzhuo]

Originally posted by impur
Wow, i dose 30ml in my 29gal. When i had my 10gal nano, i added 5ml of bionic to the topoff water which was a 1 gal jar. This worked flawlessly for a year or so until i upgraded. I do not see a problem doing it this way. I would find out how much alk and calcium your tank is using up and dose it this way permanently. I hate dosing daily.

really? when you have a 10G, you add 5ml of part A and part B to a 1G jar and it worked for a year keeping your cal and alk stable? i ask because i have asked similar question before and the only person who responded to my question said this can NOT be done because a 1G jar is too small a volumn to add B-Ionic. currently, my tank parameters are fine except my alk is a little low, 2.7meg/L, i tried to increase it to about 3.3meg/L but i have not been able to do so despite adding 7ml of part A each day for 3 straight days. i have give up. my tank is a 10G. i really hope there is a way to maintain alk in a small tank. currently, i am dripping kalk but it won't increase my alk, only maintain it.

[impur]

Sorry, i only added the alk part, part 1 of B-Ionic. I didn't specify that. Using Oceanic salt keeps my calcium steady at 440ppm. Alk always dropped. This was a very effective way for me. I did it that way for about 10 months, and then upgraded the tank. In those 10 months it worked flawlessly, but i can't comment on long term. I don't see why it could not be a permanent solution though.

[dzhuo]

it only maintain your alk correct? never raise it right?

[impur]

Right, unless i added more of course.

[skireef]

I agree with Tom. With just a small daily addition, 1 week won't matter. Remember, on vacation, you want to keep it as simple as possible and do not introduce any changes within 2 weeks prior to leaving.

[Leviathan]

Ok,
For the sake of argument, can this be done.
I may have someone who can dose the system while I am out. Does anyone see a problem with mixing the equal amounts of parts 1&2 into a pouch ( 1 pouch per day of 5ml part 1 & 2 mixed together ), that someone would be able to pour directly into the system.

Or would it be better to just make a seperate pouch for each part?

My concern is mixing them out of the system, something tells me they are in seperate bottles for a reason. However I am not exactly sure what that reason is.

[Tomzpc]

Nope..no mixing.

[skireef]

Definately no mixing you will just get some worthless inert calcium carbonate. Don't worry, your water top off is THE most important issue for vacation. Even the fish can be left alone with no food for a week although I use those auto feeders.

[Sceadu]

Not steal the thread but I too ad both A & B to my system 10ml per day to a 46 and the coarls and fish seam ok but my ph is steadly on the rise. Fuge lights are on only when the mains are on from 8:30-9:30. 5% water change weekly w IO. PH at 7:am today was at 8.23 and now its at 8.43. Any reason why?

[Diehl]

WOW Leviathan I can't belive only 5ml I have a 90gal. with a few clams and frags and I dose 60ml of each everyday and my levels stay at CA:450 and DKH:9.5 with salifert kits

[skireef]

Sceadu, you probably have strong alkalinity levels.....do you measure them? ....or the ph meter needs to be recalibrated. Any way, I am happy when I get those readings, usually my dkh is above 10 and ca above 400...with those ph readings and swings.