best way to use dosing pump

I dosed simultaneously for years. I dripped it in 24/7, just in two separate areas.

 

alright makes sense... i have two questions:
1. did you get a buildup of white powder on your rocks or in your sump?
2. did the saturated levels from a 24/7 drip lead to faster growth?

 

No build up of white powder.

I honestly didn't notice a better growth. But this was a few years ago.... and I was less observant then.

 

There are numerous ways to automatically dose using pumps with controllers. Why people think in this day and age we can't "go on vacation" is beyond me.



There really is no benefit to dosing Ca over time. Once a day is fine and causes no problems.

Depending on how much ALK you dose, you may very well need to do that over time. One daily dose can easily spike your PH. I dosed in 3 minute intervals every hour for 10 hours. I could have probably dosed more at a interval, but the point was that I dosed over night after lights out to keep PH up and avoid the nightly dip. Worked well. dosed Alk all night and then a couple hours later dosed Ca once.

 

+1 on Powerman for me

I used a Alk Buffer (Seachems Reef builder) that would increase PH ( Not all Alk buffers will increase PH, hence others are fine dosing during daylight ) and as such dosed at night for the same reasons

Calcium and Mag having no noticable effect on PH, where dosed during the day

Steve

 

Makes a lot of sense... i dont have a large change in pH according to my controller between night and day. on average it goes from about 8.23 to about 8.11 between the two.

I still dose Alk at night so i might see a little more stability at this time now as it is spaced out over the whole night as compared to just one shot.

 

It will depend on what product you select to dose Alk
some products will not affect PH
and some would increase PH (baked baking soda for example plus many off the shelf supplements - Kent, Seachem for examples)
Others may even reduce PH ( non baked baking soda for example)

if it would not effect or in fact lower the PH, then dosing during the day may be the correct direction for you

Dingo - check your chosen product with the 3 reef calculator and hopefully if its there, it will tell you what effect it has on PH

3reef.com - Forums for coral reef aquariums, salt water fish, corals, inverts, protein skimmers, aquarium lighting and more - Calculators
Steve

 

Dosing several times a day by "hand" (which was what I thought he was doing) would make vacation very hard.

If you make your tank routine too hard it leaves a lot of room for sitters to make a mistake.

 

I can agree with that. Big tanks out sps dominate need some sort of automation. Reactors or pumps on controllers.

 

Best way would be to put Rum in one, coke in the other and make the hoses long enough to reach wherever you're sitting

I have mine dosing on the hour, 24 hours a day. One would dose alk at 1pm for example, and the cal would dose at 1:05pm, both in a high flow area in the sump. I can't see any precipitate, so i'm guessing 5 minutes is enough to get the first one all mixed in by the time the second one doses. Still have the 3rd pump unused since I don't know what to dose with it. I was thinking of dissolving PH buffer in RO and dosing that, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea.

- Mag.