Dowflake Calcium Chloride

[fish]

For those of you brave enough to use it, I saw it (for the first time) at the Home Hardware in Perth.

[cn]

For those of you brave enough to use it, I saw it (for the first time) at the Home Hardware in Perth.

I've used it for years with good result.....

[HappyGuppy]

Care to elaborate upon how you use it?

[HOB]

Care to elaborate upon how you use it?

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

[dbl_dbl]

Ah, how wonderful, a RHF article to help me sleep later tonight

[HappyGuppy]

That was the exact page I used as the recipe for my three part dosing in the past.  I used that for a while and it was working well for me at the time.  I had since come to realize that water changes with fresh salt was overall better for my tanks.  I was kinda hoping that maybe you used it kinda like kalc for fresh topups somehow, and was wondering how you might have done that.  Oh well.  +1 for your post informing everyone where to get it cheap.  There are other sources for it too, like damprid at Homedepot & walmart & others stores too.  Also, pickle crisp, at walmart, is pure (edible) Calcium chloride too, but for the quantity probably the most expensive option.

EDIT-to-add: should also mention that the reason why I now prefer WC with fresh salt is less testing & corrects other imbalances too.  However that said I understand this works well for many people, as it has for me in the past.

[percula99]

I have been using Briner's Choice calcium chloride (an alternative to Dow Flake) since November '08 and I have still to see any ill effect from using it. People have been using the Dowflake since 2006 with no ill effects reported by anyone on Reef Central. It is 83-87% pure. I went with the Briners Choice because it is 94-97% pure. It is in pellet form as opposed to the Dowflake which is a flake. It is only more pure because it contains less water. I have found using it I use approximately 20% less Briners Choice than I did Dowflake. I contacted Randy Holmes-Farley personally, the chemistry section guru on RC. He said he had not tested it personally, but since people have been using it for three years (at that time) with no reports of tank disaster that it should be OK to use. I bought the Briners Choice at Blended Specialty Chemicals at 1456 Cyrville Road. A 50 pound bag was $60. Compare that to any calcium additive you will buy at any LFS. You be the judge.