Dosing into your Auto Water change

[ReefHunter006]

I have my water bins and dosers in the basement. I was wondering, for sake of minimizing stuff going through my floor, is dosing everything into the auto water change bin a solution to the mass dosing lines?

I assume this risks precipitation or something else I am not seeing.

Would love to hear thoughts on this or other potential solutions.

Currently dosing:

KZ 1-4 trace elements (4 lines)
Auto water change (2 lines)
Magnesium (1 line)
Auto top off (1 line)
Kalk (1 line)


Planning on dosing in the future

All for reef (when kalk usage can no longer handle demand)
Iron
Rubidium

 

[Reef.]

Water evaporation is not the same everyday, even if it were some products are not meant to be mixed, many times you are going to have to top up with extra product, so stops becoming a simple option.

AFR is not meant to b diluted as this weakens the product allowing bacteria to multiply.

Your ato lines would soon get blocked too with Kalkwasser and other products.

I would put as many lines in you think you will need, 3-4 should do it, that would be the simplest option.

 

[ReefHunter006]

Water evaporation is not the same everyday, even if it were some products are not meant to be mixed, many times you are going to have to top up with extra product, so stops becoming a simple option.

AFR is not meant to b diluted as this weakens the product allowing bacteria to multiply.

Your ato lines would soon get blocked too with Kalkwasser and other products.

I would put as many lines in you think you will need, 3-4 should do it, that would be the simplest option.

Apologies, I’m not sure I follow on some of the points.

Why would AFR be diluted or the ato lines be effected?

I am talking about dosing what Inwould normally dose into the auto water change bin (salt water) except for kalk. So basically the traces and magnesium could be doses into the auto water change bin and then the water change exchanges a couple gallons a day.

Ato to tank
Kalk to tank
AFR to tank

Traces/magnesium to auto water change bin so that those 5 lines essentially turn into 1 line going from water change bin to tank.

 

[Reef.]

Apologies, I’m not sure I follow on some of the points.

Why would AFR be diluted or the ato lines be effected?

I am talking about dosing what Inwould normally dose into the auto water change bin (salt water) except for kalk. So basically the traces and magnesium could be doses into the auto water change bin and then the water change exchanges a couple gallons a day.

Ato to tank
Kalk to tank
AFR to tank

Traces/magnesium to auto water change bin so that those 5 lines essentially turn into 1 line going from water change bin to tank.

Sorry misread thought you meant auto top off…I can’t see an issue adding the products if the salt water is going into the main display within a short time span, as you say precipitation could be an issue depending on products used, mixing the products in the bins could also need doing but that all depends how big and how fast you auto change. The AFR should be fine if added to the tank within a short time.

 

[KrisReef]

Too many variables will make balancing the inputs difficult to achieve the desired impact in the DT. Sure it is possible but it will take a lot more planning to make it work out and avoid conflict in the process.

One element at a time.
How much water volume is in the return line?
How much water is going through the automatic water change system each day?
How big is the tank, and sump?
I think each doser will need to input one at a time, each taking a turn.

Could work. I thought people who are doing awc were using the water change/ salt mix to keep up with some (all?) of the trace elements that were being used.

I hope you can make this work!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

You can put magnesium into the new salt water, but not the kalkwasser. It will push alk and pH too high and precipitation will result.

I personally see no reason to ever dose rubidium. It plays no known biological role in any organism.

 

[ReefHunter006]

You can put magnesium into the new salt water, but not the kalkwasser. It will push alk and pH too high and precipitation will result.

I personally see no reason to ever dose rubidium. It plays no known biological role in any organism.

the kalk is on a direct line to the tank. Should have clarified that i was trying to reduce the lines by adding the mag and trace elements to the awc bin.

Ato and kalk are there own dedicated lines.

 

[ReefHunter006]

maybe an easier solution is getting a small pump that pushes water constantly through a 1/4” rodi tube and run that to the basement with a manifold and hen run that single line back up stairs.