Best plan of Attack?

[Mario0240]

Hey guys.

So I’m getting my water quality where it needs to be and want to start dosing my tank. I have a friend that is going to give me 2 BRS dosing pumps.I’m driving myself crazy trying to figure out what to dose! I’m thinking kalk and mag, but I’m not sure. Of course I want to cover the basics but can it be done with 2 dosing pumps? I don’t have an ATO and I’m planning on putting SPS in my tank so I, again, want to cover the basics.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

One tube for calcium, the other for alk. I dont know of anyone that doses magnesium .

Brs has lots of tips and calculators.

 

[Mario0240]

One tube for calcium, the other for alk. I dont know of anyone that doses magnesium .

Brs has lots of tips and calculators.

Noted..

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

You are going to want to get a decent ATO to keep your salinity constant

 

[Mario0240]

You are going to want to get a decent ATO to keep your salinity constant

It’s on the list. I wish there was a way to do it with a dosing pump.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

How big a tank we talking here?

 

[Mario0240]

How big a tank we talking here?

100g display and a 30g sump

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

I would start with an ATO. It’s hands down the best thing I ever did. I put them on my QT also. I won’t ever run a tank without one. I will recommend the tunze. I also run the xp aqua on my qt, but the tunze is bullet proof.

 

[Mario0240]

I would start with an ATO. It’s hands down the best thing I ever did. I put them on my QT also. I won’t ever run a tank without one. I will recommend the tunze. I also run the xp aqua on my qt, but the tunze is bullet proof.

I’m going to get the xp. My lfs is giving me a good deal on one. Just gotta make it through the new year.

 

[Mario0240]

So, ato aside, would calcium chloride and soda ash be sufficient for a small sps load?

 

[Idoc]

Here's a link to a BRS video on dosing 2 part. There are several other dosing videos there as well that are really good! Just go on their site, click the new videos link at the top of their site, then in the video search box type Dosing and it'll give you all the videos.

How To: Dosing Two Part in Your Reef Tank

So why do they call it two part when there are really three parts? Why can't I mix everything and add it to my tank? These questions and more will be answered in this episode of BRStv. Maintaining calcium and alkalinity in your saltwater aquarium is essential to the health and growth of your...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

You could also use tropic Marin all for one, or all for reef. I forget but it is one bottle to take care of all alk, ca, mag and elements. You could use the other pump to add however much water per day you think your tank will evaporate, but you will need to check the water level daily and manually adjust.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

You really want to keep sps? I would do the following:
1. Get your ATO set up.
2. Get all the fish you want into the system
3. Monitor your phos and nitrate until you can keep it where you want it. (Vinegar dose, chaeto, whatever your export method is).
4. Once that is stable for a month or two THEN add some cheap sps.
5. They do well, then add a bunch of ridiculous amount of sps.

 

[Mario0240]

You could also use tropic Marin all for one, or all for reef. I forget but it is one bottle to take care of all alk, ca, mag and elements. You could use the other pump to add however much water per day you think your tank will evaporate, but you will need to check the water level daily and manually adjust.

I thought about doing an all in one... but how do you fine tune it?
I also thought the same thing about making a dosing pump an ATO! Set it on a timer and let it run like 15-30 minutes, or whatever works best, a couple of times a day. It’s take some experimenting for sure but I could make it work.

 

[Mario0240]

You really want to keep sps? I would do the following:
1. Get your ATO set up.
2. Get all the fish you want into the system
3. Monitor your phos and nitrate until you can keep it where you want it. (Vinegar dose, chaeto, whatever your export method is).
4. Once that is stable for a month or two THEN add some cheap sps.
5. They do well, then add a bunch of ridiculous amount of sps.

1. ATO is definitely coming. As I mentioned above, I may have figure out a solution, albeit temporary, but a solution non the less.
2. All the fish I want, for now, are in and have been for around 3 months. I’m needing to add more hermits, cause my sand needs some work, but I don’t plan on adding anymore fish for the time being.
3. Po3 and No3 are in check. Phos stays around .25 and nitrates are 10 or lower. I’ve gotten my slimmer tuned, more wet, and it’s doing a good job and I have a very healthy refugium growing good amounts of chaeto. I typically have to harvest about a gallon every other week.
4. I have a buddy I met in a saltwater group on fb that is going to sell me a piece of birdsnest and some red acro for $40. Around here, that’s the best price hands down. My LFS doesn’t even carry SPS and the one I go to in Lubbock is typicallyvery proud of their SPS coral.
5. That’s the plan!!

 

[Mario0240]

Holy crap!! I just Found an aqua lifter pump under my aquarium that was lost under some rags!!! Just found my ATO!!! Gonna set it up tonight!!!

 

[Mario0240]

OK. So the dosing pumps have been acquired. Chemical has been ordered. Timers are also on their way. Math has been done, now its time to hurry up and wait.

 

[Stephen Reed]

I use kalkwasser in my ato an have no problem keeping perimeters in check with weekly water changes. It’s pretty cheap to do just make sure you have a fool proof ato.

 

[Mario0240]

I use kalkwasser in my ato an have no problem keeping perimeters in check with weekly water changes. It’s pretty cheap to do just make sure you have a fool proof ato.

I'm looking into that. I wouldn't mind dosing Kalk in my ATO water, but the horror stories scare me. Just need to figure out the redundancy in safety that works best for my set up.