Dosing

[BestMomEver]

Good Morning!

I have a new dosing pump but I haven’t set it up cause I have a question that my LFS can’t seem to answer. I was stupid to not ask here first. ;Sour So, question is... how do I figure out how much to dose and how often? I dont want to overdose and I don’t want my levels to drop so much that things go bad. Suggestions?

 

[kz4q66]

I assume that you are dosing Alk and Cal.
Test your water and record Alk and Cal level.
Do not dose anything.
Wait 24 hrs and test your water again to see how much Alk and Cal level consume by your tank and dose it to where you want it to be.
Repeat this for several days and you have the fell for how much alk and Cal drop everyday. That will be the amount you have to dose everyday after the testing period.
Make sure that you test the water at the same time everyday.

 

[kz4q66]

When you know the dosing amount then you can spread it out to 4 or 5 times a day. Do not dose Cal and Alk at the same time. I dose Alk first then wait 20 minutes before I dose Cal.

 

[Jason mack]

Well you need too know how Much Your tank consumes a day then multiply x7 ..this can only be done by testing ..or test after 7 days and divide by 7 this will give you your daily uptake .. then program your doses too dose 24x a day ...

 

[Bill_Moorman]

Morning! [emoji847]

So I am in the middle of figuring this out myself. I’ve got the BRS pumps and an apex. My alk usage is only .3/day, which requires 8.5ml/day to maintain my levels. You would think it would just be as simple as dosing 8.5ml/day and it would maintain, but nope....I’m not yet dialed in.

There are many variables such as air being trapped in the line (used BRS push lock bulkheads- these are trash- all four I bought didn’t create an airtight seal and let air in the lines) as well as making sure you know exactly how much your pump doses per minute.

I hope you have an easier time than I have. It’s been frustrating.

 

[saltyhog]

With the BRS dosers you need to run them for 3o minutes or so in to a container to make sure the air is out. You can then run them again for exactly 30 minutes and measure the output to know exactly how many ml per minute each one produces. All three of mine are spot on at 1.1 ml/minute.

Measure, adjust, repeat ad nauseum! Remember you are chasing a moving target. As corals grow, demand will increase. Hiccups that make your stoney corals "mad" will decrease demand. Keep your magnesium adequate. If it falls you will have in increase in abiotic demand(precipitation if you will).

After a while it will become much more intuitive. Just don't make big changes and keep monitoring.

 

[ZoWhat]

I would dose into a 5gallon bucket as a dry-run (practice-run) for a week or two....to make sure the pump is delivering on what you want.

 

[BestMomEver]

I would dose into a 5gallon bucket as a dry-run (practice-run) for a week or two....to make sure the pump is delivering on what you want.

Nice suggestion. I used kalk in my top off after for a while and corals grew like mad. Then, one day I tested and found pH and dkh off the charts. Ca was still barely 400(dosing). But because of the spike, I removed it and went back to two part. I’m gonna work on it..

 

[Super Fly]

I would dose into a 5gallon bucket as a dry-run (practice-run) for a week or two....to make sure the pump is delivering on what you want.

I did the same thing to ensure the dosing pump was functioning properly of adding the exact amount it was set to.

The easiest way to calculate amount to dose is before a water change, measure the Alk & Calc level of freshly made saltwater and also of your current tank water. The difference in the Alk & Calc levels is the amount of elements being used up by your tank and the amount to replenish via dosing pump. 2-part dosing should be dosed in equal amounts as they act in balance, i.e. when alk goes up, Calc goes down and vice versa. They should be dosed in an area of good water flow and not stagnant area and dose themin staggered schedule bc if they come in direct contact, Alk & Calc will precipitate and harden.

 

[BestMomEver]

I did the same thing to ensure the dosing pump was functioning properly of adding the exact amount it was set to.

The easiest way to calculate amount to dose is before a water change, measure the Alk & Calc level of freshly made saltwater and also of your current tank water. The difference in the Alk & Calc levels is the amount of elements being used up by your tank and the amount to replenish via dosing pump. 2-part dosing should be dosed in equal amounts as they act in balance, i.e. when alk goes up, Calc goes down and vice versa. They should be dosed in an area of good water flow and not stagnant area and dose themin staggered schedule bc if they come in direct contact, Alk & Calc will precipitate and harden.

Very helpful and seems to be the best idea. Does the time between water changes make a difference? Like... do you test tank, then water change water, then tank water again? That way you can see what difference the water change actually did. And how big a water change?

 

[Super Fly]

Very helpful and seems to be the best idea. Does the time between water changes make a difference? Like... do you test tank, then water change water, then tank water again? That way you can see what difference the water change actually did. And how big a water change?

Typically when a tank is young, a water change would be sufficient to replenish the amount of elements being used up. So once u start noticing coral growth has slowed and test shows alk & calc levels decreasing, then this is a sign that more additives are needed bc water changes are not keeping up with the amount of elements being used by ur livestock. Your history of water test results (hopefully a record has been kept) should be used as baseline to compare against newly made batch of saltwater. Otherwise, just few tests of existing water should be fine to use.

AS far as how much water to change, you should change same amount as you typically would unless there is a large imbalance between ur Alk & Calc levels then a large water change is a good way to start. Having said that, please don't start dosing until you r positive the tank is in need and not just for the sake of dosing, which can cause issues.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Start low and increase ML gradually