Do you need a Dosing Pump
- Thread starter Flame Hawkfish
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All depends on what type of corals your looking to keep. One thing most members will agree on, if you keep sps, you'll need one of two things, dosing chemicals for manual or pump dosing or a calcium reactor.
jasonp87
Well-Known Member
Do you need a dosing pump? No. But it will make your life easier since you wont have to remember to dose certain amounts at the required intervals. It's like an ATO. Not necessary but very helpful for keeping things consistent; which your corals will like.
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Dose for Alkalinity and Calcium. Add Magnesium manually. 
ReefMadScientist
Valuable Member
No. Does it make life easier? No.
I have all sorts of SPS and LPS. I have a reminder on my phone to dose dKh on Tuesday and Calc on Thursday.
If you have a doser, you still need to replenish it...so how is that any easier?
I have all sorts of SPS and LPS. I have a reminder on my phone to dose dKh on Tuesday and Calc on Thursday.
If you have a doser, you still need to replenish it...so how is that any easier?
saltyfish
Active Member
If you have a dosing pump, you can have it dose small amounts at several times a day instead of dosing a large amount once a week. It keeps things more stable. I dosed calcium during the day and alkalinity at night. I use a calcium reactor now, which is even easier.
ReefMadScientist
Valuable Member
I dose once a week and have zero issues with growth, coral health, and fish health.
I am actually growing SPS at the moment at a phenomenal rate. I have a few threads open but will have to update them.
saltyfish
Active Member
You can get great growth with just water changes to replenish, without dosing anything else. It just depends on the demands of the system. I'm just saying you want to keep the alkalinity as stable as possible, and if you dose several times a day, it is going to be more stable than dosing once a week. It all depends on what corals you have as some are more hardy than others. I'm not saying dosing once a week will not work, but why not make a small investment in a dosing pump to make it work even better.
ReefMadScientist
Valuable Member
It all depends on how your tank acts. Every tank is different. Check your parameters every two days and right down how your tank reacts. Dose as needed and you will get a small routine down. I haven't checked my parameters in over 3 months now.
akitareefer
Active Member
If you dose daily it makes things easier. I've been hand dosing for 3 years and 2 years daily. I finally ordered dosing pumps last week. I'm sure it won't be any less time consuming for the first few months but I think the tanks will be more stable. Will have to see how things go
chrisfraser05
Community Member
my tank uses over 1dkh alk per day, to try and keep it stable I'd need to manually dose it a few times a day.
Being able to have a night away my tank would swing by 2dkh, potentially damaging my sps.
If you can dose once a week you must be having next to no growth!
Being able to have a night away my tank would swing by 2dkh, potentially damaging my sps.
If you can dose once a week you must be having next to no growth!
tyler1503
2500 Club Member
The main question isn't "do I need one?". It isn't "how big is my tank?". It isn't even "what corals do I want to keep?". The main question is "can I keep my tank stable and healthy without one?". If you can keep a healthy, stable environment without one, no you don't need one. Water changes are seriously under rated.
I have to dose daily with the addition of dripping kalk. Could water changes work for me? Sure, if I changed 10% 3 times a day maybe. In my situation water changes instead of dosing would break my wallet, stomp it into the ground, light it on fire and scatter the ashes in a parking lot somewhere.
ViktorVaughn
Community Member
I don't have a dosing pump but plan on adding one because it will make things way easier and more stable. Having to only dose twice a week like you do I can see not having a need for one. I have to dose 24 ml of calcium and alkalinity daily as my tank consumes about 12 ppm of Calcium and 1.4-1.5 dKH of alkalinity a day. That's 14 weekly doses. Rather than dumping in each at seperate intervals in big doses, I will have 6 or more seperate doses for each Calcium and Alkalinity to keep things consistently where I want them. I start the day at 9 dKH and end up around 7.6 so instead of the large swings, ill have a stable 8.4 dkh and 420 ppm Calcium. WAY easier in my opinion.
tyler1503
2500 Club Member
Fair enough. But you obviously need one to keep your tank stable. 30% a day is just ridiculous! Lol.
I meant that for the people who can get away with 10 or 20% a week water changes but still have a bunch of doses and reactors hanging out of their sump.
To me, adding a reactor to reduce nitrate or a dosing pump to ad calcium or whatever is like having a fan on in the bedroom. Sure it will make the air a bit nicer to breathe, but isn't opening a window for fresh air so much nicer?
