ATO or Doser?

[DeepBrew]

I'm pretty new to saltwater, set up this 75 gallon tank last october:


There have been a lot of challenges in the last 10 months, including red cyano issues but it seems to be stabilizing now. I've got two Hydor Koralia 425 power heads in the tank and a 29G sump underneath. Inside the sump are a Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer, a UV unit and a small refugium with a ball of chaeto. The return pump is a Sicce Syncra 3.0. I recently added a BRS reactor running a mixture of carbon and GFO. Lighting is a Orbit Marine Pro 48" on top running with the white channel at 50% and the blues at 60% for 8 hours a day. A Reefkeeper Lite controls the heater, pump, powerheads, sump light and skimmer

In order to keep the alkalinity up I'm dosing 10-15ml of BRS 2 part alklinity per day. I do 20% water changes every 2 weeks and at this point I rarely need to add calcium. I top off 1-2 quarts of water per day. All water used is RO/DI.

I'm getting more into corals and would like to do something to keep the tank more stable. I'm thinking about adding either an ATO system or dosing pump for the alkalinity.

If you could add one at this time, which do you think would benefit the tank the most?

 

[ndrwater]

ATO... with the amount you are dosing, doing manually isn't gonna kill you. Maintaining your salinity, will help keep many other parameters stable too.

SPS doesn't just stand for Small Pollyp Stony, it ALSO stands for

Stability Promotes Success.....

 

[jsker]

ATO, you can alway dose your kalwasser in your ATO water

 

[ReeferReefer]

ATO first for sure.

 

[Robink]

ATO

 

[mcarroll]

There have been a lot of challenges in the last 10 months, including red cyano issues but it seems to be stabilizing now. [....] I recently added a BRS reactor running a mixture of carbon and GFO.

How are nitrate and phosphate levels? How often do you check and are you keeping a log?

I've got two Hydor Koralia 425 power heads in the tank

Too small or too few, depending what you want. If you like those powerheads, get a least two more, so you can alternate two on and two off to create a tide pattern. Switch which pumps are On/Off every few hours or so. Bigger pumps wouldn't be a bad idea either, but isn't necessarily better.

Lighting is a Orbit Marine Pro 48" on top running with the white channel at 50% and the blues at 60% for 8 hours a day.

12 hours, if you're running a tropical tank with sunrise/sunset. My sunrise/sunset tank peaks at about 50,000 lux, but not for very long.

Use a [HASHTAG]#lux[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#meter[/HASHTAG] to measure how much light you're putting in the tank....you can get a free app for your smartphone to get started...like "galactica luxmeter" for IOS.

I'm thinking about adding either an ATO system or dosing pump for the alkalinity.

If you could add one at this time, which do you think would benefit the tank the most?

I concur...ATO. Although dosers can be so inexpensive now, it's a lot harder to argue for putting that off than it used to be.

 

[RushReefer2112]

ATO

 

[DeepBrew]

It sounds like a pretty good consensus for ATO.

I keep up with maintenance and water parameters with an iPad app. I try to test kH every day and other parameters once a week. Dusky kH tests done always happen though.

Nitrates stay below 5ppm. Phosphates have been barely detectable using an API kit. The carbon/GFO reactor has been running a little more than a week and I can tell I big difference in the tank appearance and algae growth already. I'll be testing water again tonight, the first taste after running GFO for a week.

There's no SPS in the tank and I'm not planning on trying any until I'm more confident in ability to keep things stable. All softies and LPS for now. The lighting schedule is reduced to help fight algae, I may start increasing the lighting in a few weeks of I'm keeping algae at bay.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'll start looking around at ATO options.

 

[reefwiser]

Why not get both. Buy a GHL Doser 2 and you can do both task's with one unit.
An they are on sale too.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/our-way-of-saying-thank-you-ghl-doser-2-offer.261098/
I use mine this way an it saves space and is rock solid.

 

[ReeferReefer]

Why not get both. Buy a GHL Doser 2 and you can do both task's with one unit.
An they are on sale too.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/our-way-of-saying-thank-you-ghl-doser-2-offer.261098/
I use mine this way an it saves space and is rock solid.

Because using a doser as an ATO will require readjustment as temperature changes. Maybe it's more of a problem for in the desert but with monsoon season some days it's 75 degrees and humid and other days it is 110 and dry. Using a fan and an ATO is much more stable than deciding your tank evaps x gallons a day.

 

[DeepBrew]

It looks like the GHL Doser 2 that reefwiser pointed me towards has inputs for float switches and can be programmed to operate like a regular ATO or AWC. It's pricier than regular ATOs though. I'll be doing some research this weekend to see what will fit me best.

Thanks everyone!

 

[ReeferReefer]

It looks like the GHL Doser 2 that reefwiser pointed me towards has inputs for float switches and can be programmed to operate like a regular ATO or AWC. It's pricier than regular ATOs though. I'll be doing some research this weekend to see what will fit me best.

Thanks everyone!

I didn't realize. If that's the case it would be a great option. It's expensive but it's a high quality doser, no question.

 

[reefwiser]

Yes the GHL unit is way more advanced unit that the other unit's It has float switch inputs and temperature inputs. Plus is easy to program with your phone.

 

[DeepBrew]

I'm going to try to figure out the cost of everything I would need to do ATO with the GHL later today. I know it's more flexible but it's also significantly more than say a Tunze Osmolator.

Since I have a reefkeeper I can use that and an $80 BRS dosing pump for kH. So I could have a nice ATO and basic doser for less than $300 but future options are limited if I go this route.

 

[DeepBrew]

I got a 10% off coupon code from BRS for labor day so I ordered a Tunze Osmolator ATO today. Looking forward to getting it up and running.

 

[Bpb]

ATO was a good choice. You can start mixing up Kalkwasser as your ATO water and no longer will need to hand dose

 

[DeepBrew]

The Osmolator arrived today and I got it installed with no problems. It was super easy to set up and seems to be working fine. Skippy, the starry blenny approves:



I occurred to me that the high level alarm will go off whenever I go to standby mode on the ReefKeeper to feed and the return pump turns of so the sump level rises. I have an unused plug on one of the RK powerbars and am thinking about plugging the osmolator into it and programming it to turn off in standby mode. I can also set a delay of a couple minutes after the return pump starts before it turns back on giving the water level time to stabilize.

Does anyone have a reason I shouldn't do this?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[PaReeferJ]

The Osmolator arrived today and I got it installed with no problems. It was super easy to set up and seems to be working fine. Skippy, the starry blenny approves:



I occurred to me that the high level alarm will go off whenever I go to standby mode on the ReefKeeper to feed and the return pump turns of so the sump level rises. I have an unused plug on one of the RK powerbars and am thinking about plugging the osmolator into it and programming it to turn off in standby mode. I can also set a delay of a couple minutes after the return pump starts before it turns back on giving the water level time to stabilize.

Does anyone have a reason I shouldn't do this?

Thanks again for your help!

When you kill power and turn it back on it will run on a 20 sec prime mode. If you have Kalk in the ATO, might make a spike in parameters. I have the same setup. Osmolator with the reefkeeper. If you take the osmolator apart you can turn the alarm off. That's what I did so now I don't get the ringing when I'm in feed mode.

 

[DeepBrew]

I'm not planning on running kalk in the ATO but I may turn the alarm off.