Mind you, dosing pumps then were still $100+ per head. With cheap Chinese peristaltic pumps going for just 20% of that these days, I might have done it differently. And remember I didn't claim it was glamorous or "best".
Also, I've posted about this a few times, including a chart of my test numbers over some time if you feel like searching through some of my old posts.
Here, in a nutshell, is how it went down....
WHAT WAS THE APPROACH?
I started off the tank slow and with the intention of focusing on corals exclusively.
In my estimation (which hasn't changed much), marine fish were too expensive, poorly understood, too jumpy and my 38 gallon was basically too small for most fish. Plus I was fascinated with SPS coral from before I even had a marine tank.
I added one coral at a time and watched for months before adding the next so I was in rhythm with the tank.
WHAT DID I USE?
I tested alk and calcium regularly and let alkalinity measurements dictate my water change schedule. I started off with 5 gallon water changes every week or two, which at the beginning was actually more than enough.
As demand for alk increased I used Brightwell's Reef Elements along with
religious, weekly water changes, and then finally added two-part (brightwell Calcion and Alkalin8.3 a la Recipe #1) to my arsenal.
Once I was dosing enough two-part that I could feel it in the wallet I switched to DIY reagents and Randy's Recipe #1.
This worked for a while, but I ended up switching to Recipe #2...which I now think most people should use. Recipe #1 actually seems silly with all the baking of the baking soda. Completely unnecessary under anything close to normal circumstances.
So, using recipe #2 is where I stayed for a long time.....I added kalkwasser for a while, but unless you're pretty dedicated to it, kalk can be a bother. So currently I'm just doing two-part.
HOW DID I DOSE?
EVERY SINGLE DAY. Misses are not good...especially once the coral load is rolling.
And usually once a day. Only when making a large correction, which was rare, would I split the dose and go twice a day.
When I got up to larger quantities I started making contraptions to drip two-part out of. It turns out that half an orange juice container, some airline and an air valve work really well! I'll try to scare up a new picture.
I would almost always dilute the dose by 50% or more once it was in the dripper, just to minimize the impact of a dose.
If it was an ordinary dose I could let it drip at about the maximum rate the dripper would go (30-45 min), but if I was making a correction, which is a larger dose, I'd dial the valve in a bit to a slow drip.
Hope that helps! Let me know if I missed any points!
he has one hell of an awesome, packed sps reef at his house. And after talking to him about his tank setup & the requirements/demands of the system aswell as all the beautiful fancy coral he's got growing in there, he has offered to help me get everything dialed in parameter wise with my water chemistry and after that he said he's going to " trim " his tank for me 
plus I feel like a little mini ocean scientist adding these cloudy white serums into my tank water to increase skeletal/tissue growth LOL
