Need dosing opinions for LPS heavy tank

[Calvin]

I'm losing about 1.5 dkh and 60-70 ppm of calcium in a month and a half on my system that is 99% LPS, would it be a waste of money for me to buy dosing pumps to dose calcium, alk, and mag for an LPS tank?

I have been hand dosing but for me the more streamlined everything is the better and I feel it would obviously keep everything more stable in the tank.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mermaid_life]

In my opinion, yes. In addition to extra cost, it takes extra real estate - not sure if space is limited for you.

Also takes up space but.... Another option to think about is auto water changes setup? Would consistent small water changes keep up with your tank's demand?

 

[Calvin]

In my opinion, yes. In addition to extra cost, it takes extra real estate - not sure if space is limited for you.

Also takes up space but.... Another option to think about is auto water changes setup? Would consistent small water changes keep up with your tank's demand?

Space is not an issue, and I thought about auto water changes but I don't have a practical place to send the old water and don't really want something like a brute trashcan sitting next to the tank to collect it. Plus I would have to have two of them, one for the new water and one for the old water.

 

[mermaid_life]

Then I think "waste of money" is a personal decision. Dosing is something you have to do. How much will you pay to have someone else (something else) do it for you.

 

[Calvin]

Then I think "waste of money" is a personal decision. Dosing is something you have to do. How much will you pay to have someone else (something else) do it for you.

I understand what you're saying. I guess for me it more of a stability thing and I can keep it there a lot easier than having to manually dose and having the user error factor of it. Especially since I have a trident and was think about getting a dōs and it is adjusted according to the Trident readings.

 

[KonradTO]

Wow that's very low consumption. I have 7 frags of softies/lps and the tank consumes that amount in a week.
For that amount you can dose manually once per week and save money for frags

 

[Calvin]

Wow that's very low consumption. I have 7 frags of softies/lps and the tank consumes that amount in a week.
For that amount you can dose manually once per week and save money for frags

What size tank do you have? Cause I have a waterbox 220.6 and I've got a 110 frags in there and only 4 are sps and 3 huge trachys and 5 small trachys.

 

[KonradTO]

What size tank do you have? Cause I have a waterbox 220.6 and I've got a 110 frags in there and only 4 are sps and 3 huge trachys and 5 small trachys.

Yes mine is much smaller, 40g water considering displacement and sump.
Are you sure that with 110 frags without dosing or wc you consume 1.5 dkH in 6 weeks? This seems like a crazy outlier case to me. How long have you had the tank going? Mine at the beginning was consuming like that but once coralline, macros and frags adapted to the tank that increased. I was reading about people with mixed reefs consuming that amount in a single day

 

[mdb_talon]

Then I think "waste of money" is a personal decision. Dosing is something you have to do. How much will you pay to have someone else (something else) do it for you.

1.5 dkh in a month does not necessitate dosing and is easily accomplished with water changes(assuming using a high alk/calc salt that is significantly above tank running params that is)

 

[mdb_talon]

I'm losing about 1.5 dkh and 60-70 ppm of calcium in a month and a half on my system that is 99% LPS, would it be a waste of money for me to buy dosing pumps to dose calcium, alk, and mag for an LPS tank?

I have been hand dosing but for me the more streamlined everything is the better and I feel it would obviously keep everything more stable in the tank.

Thanks in advance.

To me yes that would be a big waste, but i cant answer how you value you place on "streamlining" or automating it. For me I would just be hand dosing alk once a week, calc every couple weeks, and mg every few months(or i would increase WC with high parameter salt).

The other factor would be what you expect in the future. What you describe seems like very low consumption. What is the high low dkh values? I am assuming you dont have much coralline growth currently as it could be easily consuming more than that in a week. That in addition to the coral growth should increase consumption quite a lot over time.

 

[Calvin]

Yes mine is much smaller, 40g water considering displacement and sump.
Are you sure that with 110 frags without dosing or wc you consume 1.5 dkH in 6 weeks? This seems like a crazy outlier case to me. How long have you had the tank going? Mine at the beginning was consuming like that but once coralline, macros and frags adapted to the tank that increased. I was reading about people with mixed reefs consuming that amount in a single day

I think part of the reason it is slower could also be because I have elevated nitrates and phosphates right now as well. So that's definitely inhibiting skeletal calcification I'm sure.

Which the set up I have right now for doing water changes isn't conducive to having any effects on my nitrates and phosphates. I'm only set up to do 40 gallons at a time but I have the stuff I need to increase that to 90 gallons I just have to find the time to set it up properly and get it going. And that 40 gallons only brings nitrates down by 3ish ppm.

I've also started running biopellets to help keep nitrates down so I can keep my fish fed well. And will run gfo for the phosphates if need be.

 

[Calvin]

To me yes that would be a big waste, but i cant answer how you value you place on "streamlining" or automating it. For me I would just be hand dosing alk once a week, calc every couple weeks, and mg every few months(or i would increase WC with high parameter salt).

The other factor would be what you expect in the future. What you describe seems like very low consumption. What is the high low dkh values? I am assuming you dont have much coralline growth currently as it could be easily consuming more than that in a week. That in addition to the coral growth should increase consumption quite a lot over time.

I do have a decent amount of coraline and if grows pretty quickly too. But as I told KonradTO I think my elevated phosphates and nitrates are inhibiting the growth.

 

[KonradTO]

I think part of the reason it is slower could also be because I have elevated nitrates and phosphates right now as well. So that's definitely inhibiting skeletal calcification I'm sure.

Which the set up I have right now for doing water changes isn't conducive to having any effects on my nitrates and phosphates. I'm only set up to do 40 gallons at a time but I have the stuff I need to increase that to 90 gallons I just have to find the time to set it up properly and get it going. And that 40 gallons only brings nitrates down by 3ish ppm.

I've also started running biopellets to help keep nitrates down so I can keep my fish fed well. And will run gfo for the phosphates if need be.

Maybe consider a big fuge. I have a 10g fuge and I struggle to keep nutrients detectable usually

 

[VegasReefer]

Seems like you will have to dose sooner or later.... maybe consider a single dosing pump running all-4-reef and adjust as needed for growth.

 

[Calvin]

Maybe consider a big fuge. I have a 10g fuge and I struggle to keep nutrients detectable usually

I would have set up a fuge because the sump that came with the tank had a removable divider for one but the skimmer I was told to buy was is so big that I never had the option to run one.

I'll see how the biopelletes do and if I'm not satisfied with them I'll get either a turf scrubber or a algae reactor and try that route.

 

[Calvin]

Seems like you will have to dose sooner or later.... maybe consider a single dosing pump running all-4-reef and adjust as needed for growth.

I never thought about that. I've also never used all-4-reef.

 

[Lavey29]

The advantage to dosing is you can get exact small amounts dosed equally over a 24 hour period. This helps stability. Set ups are not expensive and very compact. However as others mentioned you seem to be losing minimal alk and cal per month which water changes or simple hand dose balance out. Until your demand increases you are probably fine but if your corals are not growing you may have another underlying issue to resolve.

 

[exnisstech]

I have about 40 gallon volume in one of my tanks with about 20 sps frags and a 3 larger LPS and I go through that much in less than a week. I manually dose 15ml of 2 part daily. Have it sitting on the toilet tank so I remember to dose when I get up. I thought about a pump but figure it's not really worth it to me. How much do you need to dose daily to keep up with only 1. 5 dkh drop over a 6 week period? The amount required is what I would use to determine if it's worth using a pump.

 

[VegasReefer]

I never thought about that. I've also never used all-4-reef.

I'm running it on a 65g system mixed reef, with heavy population of LPS. Its been rock solid for me over the past year.
Also wanted to mention, your system could be consuming large amounts of dkh/calcium due to precipitate in the sand or calcareous algae growth.

 

[KonradTO]

All for reef its a very interesting solution. Kamoer pumps are know for being reliable. I use a jebao x4 doser and it works well. If I need better accuracy I just dilute the solution and it works perfectly