Ocean's Blend

[jay24k]

I'm running a bit low on the calcium portion of it. Does anyone know where I can pick this up around here at a decent price? I'd like to do the gallon mix but not buy the alk portion. I mainly use calcium and baking soda for alk.

[YodaHart]

Here's a list of the local stores that carry it:

http://www.oceansblend.com/contact.html

[MORAY]

The calcium is available on its own and I know 7 seas and Sea in the City stock it regularly. I guess 7 seas is closest to Leesburg isn't it? I think the calcium side of the 2-part is the bulk of the cost of it though, as that's where the most expensive elements are. Since you are running a 180 now, ask them about getting it in 5 gallon buckets. I know the 2-part comes in 5 gallon buckets, but is not commonly stocked. I think the calcium is available that way too.

Since you've been reading the Reef Chemistry papers you probably understand the importance of adding Alk and Calcium in balance.

[jay24k]

Yea. I was going to mix up baking soda batches to be equal in parts. I want to test it first to make sure I get the right amount per mixture.

[Damn Yankee]

Since your using baking soda as your ALK I've read somewhere that you can use Borax as the Calcium.

[jay24k]

Yea I was reading and I didn't know Borax but I was going to get some calcium from either the pool store or Ace Hardware and then do Randy's recipe. I'm still looking for a local place for magnesium hex also as I've read Epson salt has too much sulfate.

Anyone here done this? I figured out how much magnesium it will take to raise my 180 up and wow it takes alot. Granted I haven't tested yet but it's going to take quite a bit. I'm still torn on the magnesium part. Calcium and Alk seem easy enough but don't want to screw up the Magnesium part.

[Navymedic]

theres a thread were they use Mg as a 3rd part. and use it once a week/as needed :) I'll see if I can find it, I'm interested in making my own stuff too ;)

[MORAY]

I've used Epson salt and Ocean's Blend for Magnesium. I wonder about the sulfate part too and it takes a lot of it to drive magnesium. Ocean's Blend Magnesium works much better but it will still take a lot of that to raise it on a big tank. Epson salt is only around 8-9.8% magnessium. I've talked with Russell quite a bit about magnesium and he is not only using a vey high grade chemical for magnesium, but it's also a high percentage magnesium. So, ounce for ounce it has more magnesium than Epson salts mixed and it doesn't have sulfate. So, the bottom line is magnesium is an expensive element for us. Epson salt is cheaper but it takes a lot more so I don't think it's a lot cheaper in the long run.

Since you don't have any inhabitants you can should be able to raise it faster and once it's up it's fairly easy to maintain until you have a lot of coralline and sps. I can see coralline bloom when everything is right. However, putting magnesium in a tank with a lot of sps and coralline is like putting a gallon of milk in the refrigerator with 5 teenagers. Here today, gone tomorrow. Actually, it's much easier to maintain it once it's up. Some corals really show amazing growth when it's up there though.

However, when I test IO for magnesium it is at 1050 so my water changes were taking my magnesium down. Now, I'm working on making my water changes have a higher magnesium by supplementing them.

[MORAY]

Oh Jay, if you are going to try and do the Alk portion yourself you really should test often so it doesn't get out of balance. It's not worth losing inhabitants over.

[jay24k]

Yea there is a recipe here and I'm going to dose equal parts of calcium and alk once my calcium runs out. It appears to be easy. There is a guy on here I talked to who gets the magnesium that is a good grade that Randy talked about. If I get any more information, I'll let you know.

My foremost concern is keeping everything stable and not having any major swings. With my 44, it was easy with 2 part although I'm having issues keeping calcium up past 350. I hope with the 180, Kalk(pickling lime) will keep it close and I can dose 2 part in smaller amounts.

Since I have nothing in the tank I'm trying to bring the levels where they need to be before I go to California. I'm going to try to find the calcium chemical tommorrow and raise that and then when I get my Mag test Wednesday, I'll see where my Magnesium is.

[jay24k]

I usually test every 2 weeks once my levels are consistent. When I move everything over, I'll be testing every 4 days to see how things are progressing.

[MORAY]

I was just looking for nigari when I saw your post. I'm going to get some and see how it works for curiosity's sake. I’ll let you know.

Ocean’s Blend can keep calcium at 450 but you need to dose higher if it’s not above 350. My calcium stays at 425-450 using nothing other than OB. When I first started using it in 2001-2002 I had to dose pretty heavy for a while to get my calcium up but then it shot up and I had to dial back down and fine tune it. That was on my 55.

I understand the cost concern with 2-part and I experimented with kalk about 1 ½ ago and I ended up with a mess. Remember, I sent you that link for the MsWages. I had problems getting it to work well and I was just too worried about crashing my tank during the transition although many have used kalk with great success. There are some horror stories though. I went back to Ocean’s Blend and have stuck with it since. It works great and it’s simple. It alone kept my magnesium high enough for a long time but I wasn’t doing water changes as often and I think IO used to have higher magnesium than I’m getting now.

My point in saying to test often is it may take a while for an element to drop but they seem to have momentum at that point. If you are playing around with formulas you could end up with your tank way out of whack.

[jay24k]

Well I did that calculator that people recommend. To raise my calcium, I needed to add something like 200ml of calcium. Well, those things aren't always right so I did half, tested and half the next day. I tested again and still the same. So I'll have to see if I can get it up and then continue to maintain it. Husbandry on my 44 took a slight dive when I was working on the 180. It's still doing very good but water changes are now every 3 weeks which I think pulled my calcium down.

[MORAY]

That calculator doesn't work very well at all. It's not even close from what I can see. There must be some variables he doesn't consider.

[jay24k]

Yea I agree. That's why I kind of do only half. I did find a place online where I can buy calcium chloride and another person who is going to sell my the magnesium for cheap too.

[MORAY]

The calculator is low on everything from what I can see. The better magnesium chemicals are kind of dangerous to mess with and it's not as simple as it seems initially either. Keep in mind that OB has other elements in proportion so if you start making your own you may need to look at that. Gets really time consuming. Interesting though. I might be telling you something you already know, but you should read the MSDS sheets on those chemicals before you do anything with them.

Are you getting nigari for magnesium, or magnesium chloride? I didn't find what % magnesium nigari is but i did see it's a combo of magnesium sulfate and chloride.

[jay24k]

The magnesium I'm getting is the same as the one Randy and them purchased and have been using. Dead Sea Company is the maker of it. I looked at the Nigari however it seemed more expensive and in smaller quantities.

[Mr Neutron]

There are alot of things DIY in this hobby but when it comes to mixing chemical cocktails I leave that to the pros.

[jay24k]

Well the way I see it is I'd like to try. Calcium Reactors are still completely greek to me. I understand what they do but never seen one in action. I'd still like to learn about building one.

I love being able to build everything or making my own and if it is something that seems beyond me, then no biggie. I figure the magnesium is going to cost me 10 bucks. I will first test it in a 20 gallon batch of salt water and see how it goes.

It would be nice if our area had several people who did batches that we could all buy from and pay them in frags. Would be nice and I would do it. So until then, I'll try it and see. :)

[MORAY]

Jay, I found what you are talking about, and I did find nigari in a 50lb bag for around the same price. Both of those seem pretty safe but there is lab grade magnesium chloride availbe that is a health hazard if not handled correctly and it's pretty pricey too. But nigari is made in a wide variety of ways that vary its magnesium content. Like anything, there is more than meets the eye initially.

The time that gets sucked up into these things often makes it not worth while for me. Of course, if one crashes one's tank with this then all the savings are out the window.