Dosing pump schedule / times per day?

[HomeSlizzice]

Hi everyone!

How many times per day do you run your dosing pump for your Ca, Alk, Mag, etc? Only once per day? Twice a day? 4 times, 6 times, 12 times?

What do you think is the most stable for you parameters, and also the best for dosing accuracy. I was dosing 12 times per day, but because I have a pretty low Ca, Alk, and Mag need currently, I am thinking of bumping it down to 4 or 6 times per day so when my dosing unit kicks on its pumping out more than 1-3 ml per time. What do you all do?

Thanks!


- David

 

[dbl]

I personally spread it out as many times as possible throughout the day. To me, it's better to keep things as stable as possible so by spreading it out you can avoid even small spikes throughout the day.

But in all likelihood, unless you're dosing a large quantity of anything at once, going from 12 times to 6 times per day likely won't make that much difference. I just spread it out because my doser allows me to dose as many ml's as I choose up to 24 times per day.

My $.02 anyway.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree. If you use a dosing pump, I don't see a reason to not spread it our over as many times during the light cycle and perhaps some at night, as your timer and dosing volume will permit.

 

[HomeSlizzice]

Thanks for the replies y'all!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the replies y'all!

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing.

 

[ZaneTer]

In a bit I will post my dosing schedule and a picture of my alkalinity levels. My dosers only operate during my lighting schedule and ramp up in the mornings followed by a ramp down in the evening. This maintains a 0.1dkh tolerance measured at any time of day. In about 4 weeks time I will be doing a write up with the method I used to determine doses.

 

[ZaneTer]

 

[ZaneTer]

 

[ZaneTer]

For info this is one for triton 3a
I use 4 dosing heads all using the same setup but with dosing times staggered by 5min per hour on each dosing pump.

 

[ZaneTer]

For those curious, when I get back home in a few weeks time, I will be showing the consumption rates within my tank over a 24hr period. Every hour. Yes this will waste some reagent but I believe it will be beneficial for new reefers to see coral consumption. I am beginning to think about the possibility of people that find they have to dose well outside of their photoperiod are having problems with precipitation as opposed to consumption.

 

[reefndude]

Im dosing 17 times a day. Starts at 9am and stops at 2 am. That was the only way I was able to keep it consistent

 

[Brew12]

I'm dosing fully saturated Kalkwasser so it is a little different for me. I'm up to 1200mL per day. I dose 20mL per dose, 70 times a day.

I dose at 12mL/min so my pump runs for just under 2 minutes at a time.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

For those curious, when I get back home in a few weeks time, I will be showing the consumption rates within my tank over a 24hr period. Every hour. Yes this will waste some reagent but I believe it will be beneficial for new reefers to see coral consumption. I am beginning to think about the possibility of people that find they have to dose well outside of their photoperiod are having problems with precipitation as opposed to consumption.

I'm still wondering how much of the peak during the photoperiod may also be preciptiation, since it would peak at the pH peak.

 

[ZaneTer]

Out of curiosity @Brew12 have you measured your alk first thing before lights come on and about 5hrs into your photoperiod?
If you have what did you find?
I am very curious to find out about everyone’s experiences.

 

[ZaneTer]

That is a very good question. Thankfully I will be able to provide you that data along with my dkh readings each hour. Currently my pH runs between 8.2 and 8.5, I do absolutely nothing to raise it or lower it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That is a very good question. Thankfully I will be able to provide you that data along with my dkh readings each hour. Currently my pH runs between 8.2 and 8.5, I do absolutely nothing to raise it or lower it.

Precipitation might be twice as high at pH 8.5 as at 8.2

 

[Brew12]

Out of curiosity @Brew12 have you measured your alk first thing before lights come on and about 5hrs into your photoperiod?
If you have what did you find?
I am very curious to find out about everyone’s experiences.

I have not. Mostly because I don't know if there is value to be gained. Not that I don't think the knowledge is useful, only that my test results would not be. I have and use both the Redsea and Salifert test kits and neither of them are accurate or consistent enough to have confidence in the data.

Hanna might be better for that, but I haven't picked up one of those for Alk yet.

 

[ZaneTer]

Fair enough. I cannot fault that at all @Brew12.

 

[ZaneTer]

@Randy Holmes-Farley
I apologise before hand, I have very little knowledge when it comes to chemistry. What type of surfaces could this precipitation bind to?

I have very little in the way of rocks and I run a bare bottomed tank. I like the look of a tank with only a few very large corals....eventually.

Please could you tell me what sort of signs I should look for? There is no point wasting dosing chemicals if it is only going to precipitate out.

 

[Kayvon]

I'm dosing fully saturated Kalkwasser so it is a little different for me. I'm up to 1200mL per day. I dose 20mL per dose, 70 times a day.

How does dosing that often affect your dosing pump longevity?