Dosing pumps.?? Or stay manually

[Tautog]

My 2- part has doubled since in the last month after switching lights from LEDs to T-5's. I've been dosing manually for the last 8 months, but my consumption has increased to 120 ml/ day of each 2- part. Do I need a dosing pump? I read they clog and fail. What's the best for the buck, reliable dosing pump? Do I need a controller too? I do everything manually, replenishing R/O as well. I have a 180 with 60+ corals, and going into Acro addiction! Thanks for your help

 

[Bj’s Reef]

I would get a Doser . I went a long time with out one. To be honest it's hard to be regular with the dosing day to day. I for one would miss a day here and there. My wife ended up in the hospital for a few days. Guess what I didn't do? Yep my wife's favorite coral paid the price. Please get a Doser it will not forget to dose your tank. Life's to busy to trust our tanks to our memory. There are a lot of good Dosers out there. Just get a quality Doser from the start. I have a Ghl Doser and I really like it. I can make adjustments from anywhere. It just depends on what you really like.

 

[Water Dog]

I believe in dosing pumps as you can spread out the intervals of dosing throughout the day for better stability, which is very important for a growing acro addiction. Since I have an Apex, I use BRS dosers that I manually program... super reliable. Without a controller, I'd personally opt for the standalone GHL 2.1 Doser.

What's your budget for a dosing set up? Also, you should look into getting an ATO as well to better maintain salinity stability.

 

[Travis Stewart]

I second and third the doser vote. Just makes it super accurate and less time consuming! It helps that these are dosed st the same times daily. If you're gone, it's taken care of.

 

[Eddie7144]

make life easier get Dosing pumps, I used to do it manually and always forgot, now it's set it and forget it.

 

[Mrx7899]

Dosing pumps without a doubt been using BRS dosing pumps for years controlled by my Apex never had one problem dose a little bit every hour

 

[Travis Stewart]

Dosing pumps without a doubt been using BRS dosing pumps for years controlled by my Apex never had one problem dose a little bit every hour

I have a small tank and don't dose more than 5ml of each. How would I do that every hour?

 

[Mrx7899]

I have a small tank and don't dose more than 5ml of each. How would I do that every hour?

If you have brs pumps 5 mls a day every hour each pump would run for 7 seconds an hour

 

[Travis Stewart]

I have junk Jebao pumps

 

[Greybeard]

Coralbox makes a reasonably priced 4 head doser, set up is from a phone app. I have one, works very well. Once you've got one set up, you'll wonder how you ever got by without one.

I'm not sure, but I _think_ I saw that you don't have an ATO system... that you're replenishing RO water manually? If this means you're refilling your RO/DI reservoir once in a while manually, fine... if you're actually refilling evaporation manually, THAT would be my 1st suggestion. A good, reliable ATO system (Tunze!) is the single best investment you can make for keeping your parameters stable. If your salinity isn't stable, forget about keeping Calc/Alk/Mag stable. I'd say a stable temperature is the top of the list, followed by salinity, then Alk, Calcium, Magnesium.

 

[Tautog]

Coralbox makes a reasonably priced 4 head doser, set up is from a phone app. I have one, works very well. Once you've got one set up, you'll wonder how you ever got by without one.

I'm not sure, but I _think_ I saw that you don't have an ATO system... that you're replenishing RO water manually? If this means you're refilling your RO/DI reservoir once in a while manually, fine... if you're actually refilling evaporation manually, THAT would be my 1st suggestion. A good, reliable ATO system (Tunze!) is the single best investment you can make for keeping your parameters stable. If your salinity isn't stable, forget about keeping Calc/Alk/Mag stable. I'd say a stable temperature is the top of the list, followed by salinity, then Alk, Calcium, Magnesium.

Thanks for the info, temperature and salinity have never been the problem, I still have the glass canopy, and AC the room in the summer, leave the window open the rest of the time. My needs for R/O daily are small, maybe 1 gal / day, sometimes less. My concerns are dosing large amounts at once, 50-60 ml 2X/ day. Talking to commercial guys they haven't used pumps in years, only reactors. I like the features of the Coral Box, but everyone swears by the BRS pumps, but then I need a controller as well? I've done everything manually so I can keep up on what's going on exactly. With the 4 pumps, what are you using the 4th pump for? Again, thanks for your time!

 

[Tautog]

I believe in dosing pumps as you can spread out the intervals of dosing throughout the day for better stability, which is very important for a growing acro addiction. Since I have an Apex, I use BRS dosers that I manually program... super reliable. Without a controller, I'd personally opt for the standalone GHL 2.1 Doser.

What's your budget for a dosing set up? Also, you should look into getting an ATO as well to better maintain salinity stability.

I don't put a budget on important things, really want quality over anything else, hate buying cheap crap. I try to save my budget for new corals. I'm totally addicted, I could care less about the fish, but I know their important too, I just don't spend $100.00 on a fish, corals, it's another story. If I buy a 4 pump dosing system, couldn't I use a dosing pump as a ATO? Or do I really need a Apex? Or a separate ATO system entirely? I've never gone cheap, but have always wanted to be cost effective.

 

[Greybeard]

I'm using the four pumps for Triton core 7, which is 4 bottles. I would NOT use a dosing pump for ato. You need water level sensors, preferably redundant.

 

[Water Dog]

If you don't put a budget on important things, then for an ATO, I'd go Tunze 3155 Osmolator... if you wait for Black Friday sales, Premium Aquatics discounts them $50 bucks every year. For the Doser, I'd go GHL 2.1 Standalone Doser. These two products are top of the line in their respective categories. I personally own the Tunze 3155 and if I didn't own an Apex to run my BRS dosers, I'd own the GHL Doser.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Jebao DP4. Cheap and its been great so far. I work swing shift and I can't dose at the same time every day, and with a dosing pump I can spread my dose out over the entire day instead of just dumping all of it in at once.

 

[Cory]

Ive got a used ghl gen 1. Thing if great! I just had to replace the screen, which was easy to do. Total cost was 200$ cad.

Im dosing limewater, and vodka via my ghl doser. Im happy i didnt buy a calcium reactor.

 

[Tautog]

Ive got a used ghl gen 1. Thing if great! I just had to replace the screen, which was easy to do. Total cost was 200$ cad.

Im dosing limewater, and vodka via my ghl doser. Im happy i didnt buy a calcium reactor.

Why no Ca reactor? Then, what about Ca? What size is your tank to make dosing cost effective?

 

[Cory]

Why no Ca reactor? Then, what about Ca? What size is your tank to make dosing cost effective?

Well because its not needed, and to be honest a little complicated imo. I dose 500ml limewater daily which supplies both calcium and alkalinity in ideal proportions. If something gets low i just increase the dosage.

 

[Tautog]

Wow, I'm reading the wrong stuff, I didn't realize limewater, or is it kalkwasser, that would take care of both? I thought the kalk only took care of Alkalinity . Do you have a sps dominated tank? And what size tank are dosing 500 ml? Limewater seems to be the most cost effective way to go, correct?

 

[Tautog]

Well because its not needed, and to be honest a little complicated imo. I dose 500ml limewater daily which supplies both calcium and alkalinity in ideal proportions. If something gets low i just increase the dosage.

Sorry, forgot to hit reply to ask a few clarifications.