Aquaph8
Love The Fish
Lets continue to help others learn and explain how we accomplish dosing on our systems. Please explain how you meet demands and feel free to ask any questions along the way. I don't mean for this to be a discussion on whats best but just to explain the different ways people go about dosing.
Here is what I do:
Kalkwasser:
I started with just my kalk reactor running all of my top off through it. This did really well and I found it to be really cheap compared to other methods of keeping cal/alk up and it does a great job of keeping my PH over 8 which has always been an issue for me. Kalk is not very expensive to start with and its gonna last me a long time. I have my reactor hooked up to a timer and it mixes the kalk 6 times a day for just a minute. As you can see in the pic, a little goes a long way, I keep about 1/2 cup of kalk in the bottom of the reactor. The trick with kalkwasser is to not let your tank get too much all at one time, 1.25% of your total tank volume is too much and will raise your alk and PH at too fast a pace. Adjustments may need to be made when seasons change to due to more/less evaporation. You want to add it slowly through out the day to ensure you don't raise your PH too fast which is why ATO works so well. Some choose to run their reactors only at night to help with PH drop while their lights are out. Kalk is also reported to bind phosphates and make them more easily removed by your skimmer.
Another tip:
Reactors are not needed to use kalk, it can simply be added to your ATO container at a rate of up to 2 teaspoons per gallon (if you have low demand, start with less). These containers should be covered but do not need to be completely sealed.
Two Part
While kalk supplies a good amount of my needs it doesn't completely keep up with my demand. For this reason I also use two part. I use use calcium chloride from Bulk Reef Supply and make my own Alk part ( Ill add a link to do it yourself two part at the bottom of this post).
To dose two part I set up two dosers from BRS, one for calcium and one for alk. These dosers are set up through my Reef Keeper Lite and dose a small amount every hour 30 minutes apart. They do something like 1.1 ml per minute and come on like 3 minutes at a time.
After testing my water to figure out where I was after Kalk additions I used this free calculator on the BRS website Reef Calculator - Bulk Reef Supply to figure out how much two part I would need to bring my levels up to where I wanted them. Once I knew this I manually dosed raising my alk no more than 1 DKH per day and calcium no more than 50ppm per day until my target levels were reached.
Once the tank was where I wanted it I let it go testing every other day to see how much everything was dropping and set my dosers up meet this need. Testing is still done weekly to ensure things stay stable and adjustments are made when needed.
On left I have a custom container that holds 3 gallons of part 1 and 3 gallons of part 2 with tubing ran through the top to my dosers. The container on the right is fresh water that runs through the kalk reactor via an aqua lifter pump for top off.
Magnesium:
I bought a third doser for magnesium but found I don't have to dose mag that often and it would just be a waste. I test for mag monthly and dose a small amount manually once a week to meet my demands.
I hope this helps people trying to understand dosing a little and I hope others will add what they do to this thread for others to use. I didn't touch on Calcium reactors at all cause Ive never used one but I hope someone will add some info. Ill add a couple links to articles I found helpful over the years along with a do it yourself two part recipe to save you guys some $$$ along the way.
Here is what I do:
Kalkwasser:
I started with just my kalk reactor running all of my top off through it. This did really well and I found it to be really cheap compared to other methods of keeping cal/alk up and it does a great job of keeping my PH over 8 which has always been an issue for me. Kalk is not very expensive to start with and its gonna last me a long time. I have my reactor hooked up to a timer and it mixes the kalk 6 times a day for just a minute. As you can see in the pic, a little goes a long way, I keep about 1/2 cup of kalk in the bottom of the reactor. The trick with kalkwasser is to not let your tank get too much all at one time, 1.25% of your total tank volume is too much and will raise your alk and PH at too fast a pace. Adjustments may need to be made when seasons change to due to more/less evaporation. You want to add it slowly through out the day to ensure you don't raise your PH too fast which is why ATO works so well. Some choose to run their reactors only at night to help with PH drop while their lights are out. Kalk is also reported to bind phosphates and make them more easily removed by your skimmer.
Another tip:
Reactors are not needed to use kalk, it can simply be added to your ATO container at a rate of up to 2 teaspoons per gallon (if you have low demand, start with less). These containers should be covered but do not need to be completely sealed.
Two Part
While kalk supplies a good amount of my needs it doesn't completely keep up with my demand. For this reason I also use two part. I use use calcium chloride from Bulk Reef Supply and make my own Alk part ( Ill add a link to do it yourself two part at the bottom of this post).
To dose two part I set up two dosers from BRS, one for calcium and one for alk. These dosers are set up through my Reef Keeper Lite and dose a small amount every hour 30 minutes apart. They do something like 1.1 ml per minute and come on like 3 minutes at a time.
After testing my water to figure out where I was after Kalk additions I used this free calculator on the BRS website Reef Calculator - Bulk Reef Supply to figure out how much two part I would need to bring my levels up to where I wanted them. Once I knew this I manually dosed raising my alk no more than 1 DKH per day and calcium no more than 50ppm per day until my target levels were reached.
Once the tank was where I wanted it I let it go testing every other day to see how much everything was dropping and set my dosers up meet this need. Testing is still done weekly to ensure things stay stable and adjustments are made when needed.
On left I have a custom container that holds 3 gallons of part 1 and 3 gallons of part 2 with tubing ran through the top to my dosers. The container on the right is fresh water that runs through the kalk reactor via an aqua lifter pump for top off.
Magnesium:
I bought a third doser for magnesium but found I don't have to dose mag that often and it would just be a waste. I test for mag monthly and dose a small amount manually once a week to meet my demands.
I hope this helps people trying to understand dosing a little and I hope others will add what they do to this thread for others to use. I didn't touch on Calcium reactors at all cause Ive never used one but I hope someone will add some info. Ill add a couple links to articles I found helpful over the years along with a do it yourself two part recipe to save you guys some $$$ along the way.
