Dosing ATO Water.... Crazy?

[JOE_2217]

This may be a terrible question, but does anyone dose there ATO water to match pH, alk, ca of their tank? Is this what limewater is for? Seems to me that you could save a lot of time and money with dosing pumps if you just keep your ATO water at the parameters that you like.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I've always felt like my salt mix does a pretty good job of pre-conditioning those parameters to the same values of my aquarium. I also have a 20 gallon so that may be a significant factor to why I feel that way haha

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This may be a terrible question, but does anyone dose there ATO water to match pH, alk, ca of their tank? Is this what limewater is for? Seems to me that you could save a lot of time and money with dosing pumps if you just keep your ATO water at the parameters that you like.

ATO water should match nothing about the tank. It is replacement of pure evaporated water, and you might chose to also use it to dose something, but in no scenario should it match the tank water (except perhaps when using it to raise salinity, but even then matching is not important).

 

[JOE_2217]

ATO water should match nothing about the tank. It is replacement of pure evaporated water, and you might chose to also use it to dose something, but in no scenario should it match the tank water (except perhaps when using it to raise salinity, but even then matching is not important).

So I have a 64 gallon tank and go through about 5 gal of rodi water a week. That's about 8% weekly. Does that not dilute the balance of chemicals in the tank? My house is also climate controlled so if I have have a consistent amount of evaporation daily, could I not dose my ATO to match my daily consumption of alk and ca?

 

[JOE_2217]

ATO water should match nothing about the tank. It is replacement of pure evaporated water, and you might chose to also use it to dose something, but in no scenario should it match the tank water (except perhaps when using it to raise salinity, but even then matching is not important).

And I should have clarified when I said match parameters of the tank. I was mainly referring to just alk, pH and ca.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

So I have a 64 gallon tank and go through about 5 gal of rodi water a week. That's about 8% weekly. Does that not dilute the balance of chemicals in the tank? My house is also climate controlled so if I have have a consistent amount of evaporation daily, could I not dose my ATO to match my daily consumption of alk and ca?

No. Totally pure water comes out by evaporation, so replacing it with totally pure water will keep parameters unchanged. Things like calcium rise a tiny bit when evaporation happens, then exactly drop back to normal when you add the pure water back.

If you put any alk or calcium into replacement water for evaporation, those things will rise. You can do that if the intent is to boost the tank, which is what limewater does.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes, you can add limewater to match the demand for calcium and alkalinity if you want. That's how I dosed limewater for 20 years.

 

[MichaelClark55]

Yes, you can add limewater to match the demand for calcium and alkalinity if you want. That's how I dosed limewater for 20 years.

Randy, I have read your comments regarding dosing Cal, Mag and Alk in ATO and it makes perfect sense to do that. However, I'm a bit confused by my testing which seems to be consistent numbers everyday for a week. My Mag is low (1200) calc is alittle off (420) alk seems to be stable at (10) So should I continue just to dose Mag based on testing or after getting to the recommended (1285) then do a daily dose to keep it there? I would assume if so I could run the daily dose in ATO x 5 since it's a 5 gal ATO.

Bio load: LPS corals, 6 fish, big sea hare, 2 urchins, several emeralds in a 75 gal tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The magnesium is not declining if alk is stable, so I'd just give it a one time correction to your goal. You can do that via the ATO if you want, or just in a few manual doses.

 

[MichaelClark55]

The magnesium is not declining if alk is stable, so I'd just give it a one time correction to your goal. You can do that via the ATO if you want, or just in a few manual doses.[/QU

Gotcha! Thanks!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing.