Dosing on water change day?

AquaJunkie · Oct 29, 2016

Pretty new to dosing and will soon be getting my first dosing pump.

I've calculated my tank to be using around 0.7dkh per day and about 7ppm calcium.

But my weekly water change adds around 0.5dkh and 10ppm calcium so I'd prefer not to dose on this day as it would throw my parameters higher each week if my dosing pump were to come on the same night I did the water change.

So my question is.. how do you guys with dosing pumps get around this?

Is there a way to make the dosing pump skip a day or would I have to turn it off etc.... ?

lion king · Oct 29, 2016

I use the brs dosers, each with it's own individual digital timer. The timer allows me to choose by the day. I've never used the multiple programmable ones so I've not sure how they are able to be program. Read up on the one you are planning to get, I'm sure some allow you to chose by the day.

AquaJunkie · Oct 30, 2016

The one I've been looking at only has intervals on it so I don't think I can set each one by the day

AquaJunkie · Oct 31, 2016

Anyone else?

AquaJunkie · Nov 1, 2016

[emoji17]

cmcoker · Nov 1, 2016

Maybe use a salt that more closely matches your tank parameters...
What are the tank parameters you are running and what salt (and parameters it mixes to) are you using?

Armydogracing · Nov 1, 2016

I dose everyday even water change day never had issues. I use Bio-Sea Marine Salt

AquaJunkie · Nov 1, 2016

I'm using reef crystals and I get a 14dkh reading from it. My 20% water change usually takes my dkh up by 0.3-0.5.

I'm running my dkh at 9 so each day it drops to around 8.3

If I set up a doser 7 days a week then on water change day my doser will put my alk back to where I want it but then my water change would put it up to about 9.3-9.5 dkh so every week the water change would just move my dkh out of line by 0.5 meaning 1st week it would be 9 then 2nd week would be 9.5 and so on...

Here's what I'd like a doser to do but I think the jebao ones only do intervals..

Monday dose .7alk 7ppm cal
Tuesday 0.7alk 7ppm cal
Wednesday 0.7alk 7ppm cal
Thursday 0.7alk 7ppm cal
Friday 0.7alk 7ppm cal
Saturday 0.7alk 7ppm cal
SUNDAY 0.2alk 3ppm cal

AquaJunkie · Nov 1, 2016

If my alk is 9dkh on a Sunday night after my doser has gone off then a water change is only going to make my alk higher then I want it... I.e.. 9.5dkh

AquaJunkie · Nov 1, 2016

Only solution I can think of is turn my doser off for a day every Sunday which would become a pain in the butt or lower my dosage so I lose around 0.1dkh per day to let my water change top it back up?

AquaJunkie · Nov 1, 2016

Armydogracing said:
I dose everyday even water change day never had issues. I use Bio-Sea Marine Salt

Does your dkh not go up each week though? If you're dosing how does your water parameters remain the same after a water change?

john.m.cole3 · Nov 1, 2016

Fritz RPM mixes to 9 dkh at 1.026

ksc · Nov 1, 2016

If you're dosing there is no need to use RC. Switch over to the regular IO mix. That should mix @ 9-10 dkh. If you let it mix for a few days the dkh will drop too. I'm sure RC is the same.

Armydogracing · Nov 1, 2016

It stays steady at 9.3 dkh my alk in my new saltwater is 8.5

AquaJunkie · Nov 1, 2016

Unfortunately I still have over 20kg of the RC so changing salt is not an option for me for awhile...

it would be perfect if I could just reduce the dosage on water change but the doser I'm getting does not have that ability.

Is there anyway I could get the new salt mix alkilinity to drop faster in the bucket be fore I add it to my tank?

AquaJunkie · Nov 1, 2016

Armydogracing said:
It stays steady at 9.3 dkh my alk in my new saltwater is 8.5

Yeh I see what you mean, that would be perfect for me...

Armydogracing · Nov 1, 2016

Honestly Im shocked that RC is always 14dkh each new batch for you. Before I switched to Bio-Sea Marine Salt I had several bad batches of RC giving me different readings each batch and I thoroughly mixed the bags in the bucket before using

ksc · Nov 1, 2016

AquaJunkie said:
Unfortunately I still have over 20kg of the RC so changing salt is not an option for me for awhile...

it would be perfect if I could just reduce the dosage on water change but the doser I'm getting does not have that ability.

Is there anyway I could get the new salt mix alkilinity to drop faster in the bucket be fore I add it to my tank?

You could always mix it with a salt that was close to 7 dkh. Then there is alway muriatic acid, that will drop the dkh.

AquaJunkie · Nov 1, 2016

Armydogracing said:
Honestly Im shocked that RC is always 14dkh each new batch for you. Before I switched to Bio-Sea Marine Salt I had several bad batches of RC giving me different readings each batch and I thoroughly mixed the bags in the bucket before using

TBH I've only tested new mixes twice but they both gave around the same readings.