Alkalinity drops 0.7 dKH in 10 hours

[Literallyhydro]

I have a 125 gallon mixed reef with a 33 gallon sump. I use a Hanna checker to test my Alkalinity. This morning at around 8:30 the Alk was reading 8.7 dKH, and today at about 6:30 PM it reads 8.0.

Is this too large of a swing for Acros? Do I need to start dosing twice a day instead of once? Invest in dosing pumps? What would you recommend as the best course of action?

Calcium typically drops about 15-20 PPM within 24 hours as well.

Edit: I also forgot to mention, my means of replenishing Calcium and Alkalinity right now is strictly 2 part, but I'm open to other options.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

That is a pretty large swing to be handling in a single dose. Too much for acros. You could split it up into two doses, but a dosing pump is a much better option for adding throughout the day and they can be had fairly cheap depending on features, etc.

 

[tgionet]

Your consumption is higher than I'd feel comfortable dosing manually. I'd invest in either a reactor or dosing pumps.

 

[Literallyhydro]

That is a pretty large swing to be handling in a single dose. Too much for acros. You could split it up into two doses, but a dosing pump is a much better option for adding throughout the day and they can be had fairly cheap depending on features, etc.

Do you have any recommendations for a relatively inexpensive doser with four heads? Since it seems like the wise choice to go with dosing pumps, I would want to cover CA, Alk, Mag, and Nopox.

If the cheaper dosing pumps aren't going to be reliable, I'm willing to save towards a better doser.


Edit: forgot to mention, I do have an Apex on the system, but the DOS just seems like a very expensive option that doesn't have enough heads on it for my use.

While I like the programmability, to me it just doesn't seem reasonable for my application. I ultimately just need something I can dial in and check up on occasionally, and adjust the dosage as the acro frags grow into colonies.

 

[EmdeReef]

Jebao or ATI dosers are affordable. I don’t know that your swing is too much as many tanks do well with ~1dkh daily swing. Perhaps you could break down your dosing twice a day and see what happens

 

[Literallyhydro]

Jebao or ATI dosers are affordable. I don’t know that your swing is too much as many tanks do well with ~1dkh daily swing. Perhaps you could break down your dosing twice a day and see what happens

I've seen the Jebao dosing pumps floating around the internet and one of my LFS. It just seemed difficult to believe that something so cheap could potentially work so well.

I'm definitely interested as it would lighten the load on daily maintenance on the tank, if it works.

Until I actually get a doser I'm going to try to split the dose up to two or three times a day. Shortly before I leave for work, as soon as I get home, and maybe even one before lights out.

Besides, all that extra maintenance is going to motivate me to invest in equipment instead of more livestock! [emoji1]

 

[EmdeReef]

They do work. ATI is pretty much the same as jebao at twice the cost. If you get a jebao on amazon you can always return if you get a unit that’s wildly off your initial calibration.

 

[EmdeReef]

I will say that I test my GHL doser, which is probnaly 4-5x the cost of jebao, at least once a quarter.

 

[Literallyhydro]

They do work. ATI is pretty much the same as jebao at twice the cost. If you get a jebao on amazon you can always return if you get a unit that’s wildly off your initial calibration.

The general consensus so far dictates that the next course of action I should take is to get a doser up and running.

I'll take the recommendation for Jebao, and double check each head to ensure they are calibrated well. Until I actually get the unit, I'll try to split my dosing throughout the day to simulate as stable of an environment as I can personally handle.

 

[brianspider]

Had a jebao. All 4 heads stopped functioning within 2 months. Got a Dos unit and haven’t looked back.

Also have a friend that has had no issues with the jebao. So who knows

 

[EmdeReef]

The general consensus so far dictates that the next course of action I should take is to get a doser up and running.

I'll take the recommendation for Jebao, and double check each head to ensure they are calibrated well. Until I actually get the unit, I'll try to split my dosing throughout the day to simulate as stable of an environment as I can personally handle.

IME the only thing that matters in respect to stability is alkalinity and to a lesser degree calcium. So you can easily get a smaller, more brand name doser for those two, the rest of the stuff like trace elements is mostly a guess anyway.

 

[Literallyhydro]

IME the only thing that matters in respect to stability is alkalinity and to a lesser degree calcium. So you can easily get a smaller, more brand name doser for those two, the rest of the stuff like trace elements is mostly a guess anyway.

My understanding of magnesium is that it typically doesn't need to be dosed daily anyway. And Nopox is dosed in such small quantities it can be done around feeding time.

I have an Apex Jr, so if I start looking into name brand pumps with only two heads, is the DOS the obvious choice for me? Or are there others I should look into?

 

[EmdeReef]

My understanding of magnesium is that it typically doesn't need to be dosed daily anyway. And Nopox is dosed in such small quantities it can be done around feeding time.

I have an Apex Jr, so if I start looking into name brand pumps with only two heads, is the DOS the obvious choice for me? Or are there others I should look into?

I’ve never used DoS but can’t imagine it being bad.

I have magnesium connected to my ghl doser bit I only instruct the pump to manually dose after I perform a test and rarely notice issues.

Nopox you should be careful that there’s no damage to tubing or the pump as it is a solvent.

 

[EmdeReef]

I've seen the Jebao dosing pumps floating around the internet and one of my LFS. It just seemed difficult to believe that something so cheap could potentially work so well.

I'm definitely interested as it would lighten the load on daily maintenance on the tank, if it works.

Until I actually get a doser I'm going to try to split the dose up to two or three times a day. Shortly before I leave for work, as soon as I get home, and maybe even one before lights out.

Besides, all that extra maintenance is going to motivate me to invest in equipment instead of more livestock! [emoji1]

You can also get a pretty cheap “doser” by using an IV bag with a check valve... alternatively getting a cheap single head doser with a timer should work too

 

[Literallyhydro]

I’ve never used DoS but can’t imagine it being bad.

I have magnesium connected to my ghl doser bit I only instruct the pump to manually dose after I perform a test and rarely notice issues.

Nopox you should be careful that there’s no damage to tubing or the pump as it is a solvent.

I didn't think about that with Nopox. I'll play it safe and dose it manually.

I've decided to order the Jebao 4 head dosing pump, even if I don't use all four heads on it right away, it will leave me at least one pump available if I decide to use it for dosing any liquid foods or amino acids or something.

Thanks everyone for the advice! If there's any further advice or information regarding the Jebao, I'd like to hear it. This will also be my first time using a dosing pump, prior I've always manually dosed.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree with there not being a need to put the magnesium on the doser since the recommended dose is so low (16% of the alk part) and the depletion rate is so low (only 1-2 ppm per day max). So manually dosing it once a week is fine if you do not want to buy a dosing pump for it.

I think dosing with a dosing pump is a good idea for organic carbon to spread out the dose during the day, and silicone tubing is certainly fine with the organics we use.

 

[Literallyhydro]

I agree with there not being a need to put the magnesium on the doser since the recommended dose is so low (16% of the alk part) and the depletion rate is so low (only 1-2 ppm per day max). So manually dosing it once a week is fine if you do not want to buy a dosing pump for it.

I think dosing with a dosing pump is a good idea for organic carbon to spread out the dose during the day, and silicone tubing is certainly fine with the organics we use.

Thank you for the input. The doser will have four pumps on it, so if it should be safe to run the carbon dosing on it, I'll use two for calcium and alkalinity, one for Nopox and the last for some sort of amino acid for the corals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thank you for the input. The doser will have four pumps on it, so if it should be safe to run the carbon dosing on it, I'll use two for calcium and alkalinity, one for Nopox and the last for some sort of amino acid for the corals.

Which doser and do you know the type of tubing in the internal section?

 

[Jeremy Luke]

Just a thought.. but since you have an Apex already, why not just get a couple of BRS dosers and have the Apex run them for the appropriate amount of time during the day? I use a couple on my GHL Profilux 4 controller. The BRS dosers are reliable and accurate (if measured before use). They are also cheap.

 

[Literallyhydro]

Which doser and do you know the type of tubing in the internal section?

Jebao DP-4 is what I'm looking at, I can't find any information on the tubing with it. If I'm unsure, should I stick to manually dosing carbon?