Dosing return lines

[Lavey29]

I am about to set up Red Sea doser for alk and cal. Little nervous because I've never set up a dosing system and don't want to nuke the tank. Currently dosing about 4ml of both daily via bionic 2 part. I can see this number growing as I add more SPS and more coraline forms.

Can I run the return lines into the skimmer section? I tend to dry skim mainly. It is a short clean route for the lines or is it better to go all the way around to the return chamber for dosing? Only concern there is my ATO sensor.

 

[Uncle99]

I run to my return and have a small wavemaker to ensure a good mix. Not sure why you can’t hit the skimmer section, all ends up in the water column.

Dose 15 minutes apart.

Dose MG first, the CA, then ALK.

 

[Lavey29]

I run to my return and have a small wavemaker to ensure a good mix. Not sure why you can’t hit the skimmer section, all ends up in the water column.

Dose 15 minutes apart.

Dose MG first, the CA, then ALK.

I'm just going to hand dose mag once or twice a week. Water changes seem to suffice there with minimal drop between.

I guess my concern is the skimmer would remove some of the dosage?

 

[Uncle99]

I'm just going to hand dose mag once or twice a week. Water changes seem to suffice there with minimal drop between.

I guess my concern is the skimmer would remove some of the dosage?

Yup, manual MG, perfectly fine.
I have no concern, the amount if any would be minor.
You may consider keeping only a weeks worth of additive at a time, in case the doser malfunctions.

I dose 8 things

 

[Lavey29]

Thanks for the advice.

Any other thoughts from reefers?

 

[ariellemermaid]

Yup, manual MG, perfectly fine.
I have no concern, the amount if any would be minor.
You may consider keeping only a weeks worth of additive at a time, in case the doser malfunctions.

I dose 8 things

Good advice here; I didn’t realize until recently that pumps have gotten stuck “on” and destroyed tanks. What I have found however is that my jebao Doser registers zero watts in idle and about 2 watts when dosing on my Apex. So I set the Apex to have an appropriate time-limited failsafe to shut the Doser down if it pulls >1W for too long. So I feel fairly comfortable with that. Refilling 8 bottles every week just isn’t in the cards for me. And I’m only dosing 2 right now .

I’ve been reefing for a few years now but I’m just setting up my first large sump build now so I’ve been looking into this question. It sounds like most folks are dosing the return chamber and I like the powerhead idea, but good point about worrying about build up on the ATO sensor too. One suggestion I found was to dose just before or directly over the baffle between sections so higher flow at that point. Theoretically it seems possible to me the skimmer could take some dosing with the skimmate depending on where exactly it’s dosed, but whether that could be enough to have any significant effect is another question. Another person I found doses directly into their return chamber which also seems like a good location for flow and dilution, but I don’t think I’ll go that route personally; too much messy modification involved. Again, just relaying my own research on the topic; still much to learn!