2 part dosers: What's your schedule?

[Michael43]

I have been dosing Ca and Alk manually always. Doing about 30ml of each a day all at once, the alk in the morning the Ca at night. I recently finally added an apex and bought a DOS with DDR so I'm going to start dosing this way. Everything seems to be goin gok with the "all at once" dose but I'm thinking things could be better if I spread it out throughout the day now that I can. I've read it both ways. Some who do 1 ml every 5-10 min for a few hours. Others who do more at once. I'd love to hear everyones thoughts on how they do it

 

[G8trBait16]

I am following as well, bc I was wondering the same thing, since I am switching to the Aquaforest Component 1+, 2+, 3+, from just kalk in my ATO. Thank you Michael for this thread!

 

[CodyRVA]

Spread evenly throughout the day should yield the best stability; which is one of the key benefits of a doser. I have a bubble magus, I dose ALK, CA, and MG each 6 times a day. Depends on the abilities of your doser in regards to the ml per hour vs doses per day.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I have an old-school ReefKeeper 2 that only allows three set times per channel, so I dose both during the night at three different times each, separating alk and calc doses by 30 minutes.

 

[Downbeach]

I used digital timers which allowed me to dose 24 times a day, so I dosed one element on the hour and the other on the half hour throughout the day. When I added a third timer for kalk, I rescheduled at 20 minute intervals for each.

 

[maroun.c]

Currently dosing 350 ml per day and going up... Makes sense to spread those throughout the day to avoid a cyclic drop followed by a 0.7 sudden increase in Alk ( my daily consumption).
Also it's best to spread the dose so less volume is dosed each time as the more solution dosed in one go the higher risk of precipitation as the area where ur downgrade becomes more saturated. I also allow 5 min between Ca and alk

 

[nc208082]

As others have mentioned Stability is key and what you want to aim for, the more spread out the less chance of a spike. I use aquaforest and use their balling so I am dosing 3 components. I space them out to be 1 hour apart and 8 doses per day so once every 3 hrs for each.

 

[Zero Nitrates]

Calcium and alkalinity 4 times a day and magnesium once a day

 

[Michael43]

Thanks for all the input guys. On my 100g system I'm dosing about 25-30ml of each but all my dos are frags so they aren't consuming too much yet.

 

[Bronc]

Does it make sense to dose during the day when your corals are using the most Alk, Calc, Mg? I'm thinking that would yield the most stability - starting my dosing when the lights come on.

 

[masssnapz]

I dose calcium and alk 6 times a day with at least 1 hour offset of each other

 

[CodyRVA]

I dose calcium and alk 6 times a day with at least 1 hour offset of each other

+1, I dose 24/7 ALK, CA, and MG at alternating times.

 

[AdamNC]

I dose once an hour on the hour for Alk and once an hour on the half hour for Ca all day long. So essentially I dose every hour 24 times a day.

 

[saltyhog]

I dose once an hour on the hour for Alk and once an hour on the half hour for Ca all day long. So essentially I dose every hour 24 times a day.

This is how I dose as well. I read something a while back that alkalinity and calcium consumption don't necessarily decline during the night.

 

[d2mini]

I have my GHL programmed to dose 12x per day, 1/2 hour apart for each element.