Do you dose your 2-parts twice a day?

N

newbie916

New member
Hi everyone,

My son and I are running a 45 gallon Tech tank that is overstocked with corals right now. We're currently dosing 17ml of Alk and 12ml of Ca of Bi-Ionic every morning, which keeps our Alk at 9dkh. Is it better to break up the dosing, half in the morning and half in the evening so not to cause Alk swings? Also, does that dosing regiment sound right? We can't dose equal parts or our Alk will drop to 6dkh by the end of the week.

Just curious to see what you guys are doing. I probably should get a dosing pump, but haven't gotten around to it and one of my friends just set one up and the Alk pump malfunctioned and dumped a liter of Alk overnight.

Appreciate the advice.
 
Twice daily would be better. A dosing pump would be better yet. I use a bubble magus doser and dose 24 times a day. Keeps everything level and constant. As far as the two part goes, if it is premixed it should be equal parts, so the calcium should be the same as the Kh. If you mixed it yourself is it possible that the recipes are off? I figured my dosage by getting Alk right and level and set Calcium to be the same. I think this is pretty typical.
 
the more constant the better. stablility of water parameters is the goal and the more spread out your doses are the more the tanks parameters rise and fall.

i have a litermeter III dosing pump, it doses 150 times a day in small increments. once you get it dialed in, its pretty sweet, no more dosing by hand just gotta test your water every so often. params dont move unless something changes in your tank (add more corals etc.)
 
i use b-ionic and dose 24 times a day in equal parts. I do creat a 15 min gap between dosing alk and ca. +1 on the dosing pumps. I have the dosing pumps from bulkreefsupply and they work great if you have a controller.
 
I use to manually dose 2 times a day just to break up the big dose once a day. Like everyone has already said the more you can break up the daily done the better the stability. I also got myself a BM and it doses 24 times a day.

As for the equal parts, I use b-ionics and never dosed equal parts. A lot of it has to do with your magnesium levels. Look through Randy Holmes Farley's articles on alk calc and mag and it'll explain the relationship between them. But your unequal dosing isn't uncommon.
 
Sisterlimonpot said:
I use to manually dose 2 times a day just to break up the big dose once a day. Like everyone has already said the more you can break up the daily done the better the stability. I also got myself a BM and it doses 24 times a day.

As for the equal parts, I use b-ionics and never dosed equal parts. A lot of it has to do with your magnesium levels. Look through Randy Holmes Farley's articles on alk calc and mag and it'll explain the relationship between them. But your unequal dosing isn't uncommon.
Click to expand...

+1 I'm also using the BM doser, 50ml spread out 24 times a day, parameters stay very stable.
 
You are fine with dosing twice a day. Of course a doser is more stable but honestly, I know tanks that get dosed heavy on a daily basis and they are fine. By heavy I mean in addition to Kalwasser and a ca reactor going hard, I add 2 to 4 table spoons of sodium bicarb and ca chloride daily to my system. Sometimes the alk swing is up to a full point, IE from 9 ro 10 in about 30 minutes. My guys dont seem to mind.
 
Thanks guys, I've heard good things about the BM dosing pumps and will probably invest in one soon. Glad to hear that my dosing regiment isn't abnormal with unequal parts.

I've never messed with the dosing pumps. Are the BM's pretty easy to dial in and maintain? For now I'll break up the dosing to twice a day, but with all of the sps in the tank I'd like to make it more stable. My Alk will swing .5-1dkh in a 24 hour period and I believe if I could stablize it more the corals will respond positively. No major issues right now, but I have a lot invested in the livestock and spending $300 for insurance won't be bad.

So you guys would recommend the BM? One of my LFS's recommend the Aqua Medic, but those are a little more pricey. I want one that will last, but I don't need the Ferrari of pumps. I don't have a controller yet.

Thanks again
 
I highly recommend the BM, its very easy to configure, just set the ML per day, how many times a day and at what time to start.
 
James404 said:
I highly recommend the BM, its very easy to configure, just set the ML per day, how many times a day and at what time to start.
Click to expand...

Nice, I'll have to sell some frags to fund this bad boy. You guys know of any good placed to buy it from online? Seems like the going price is $299 shipped. Anywhere, I could save a few bucks:)
 
I dose my 2 part in the morning and before bed, jus to reduce the daily swing and help it be a little "constant"...
 
my tank evaporates one gallon a day so I made a diy driper to replace top off and add the needed alk to it each day....calcium in my tank is dosed when needed seperately
 
Thanks guys, I'll probably dose twice a day until I pickup the BM doser. My tank evaps about a gallon a day, but I have it being fed by a JBJ ATO with a 10 gallon tank of RO/DI water. Not sure how consistent my evap is and how much Alk buffer I'd need to add to the top off water:)
 
Automated dosers is the way to go, what if you go out of town for the weekend? I use BRS dosers on a acjr. I used to dose every hour, but I found that the doses tend to work a little bit if you run them in longer intervals, so now I try to do 5 minute blocks and just change the interval between the blocks to get my dose correct. I think right now I'm @ 5 on 175 off. which works out to around 60ml a day.
 
Sounds like I have to invest in the dosing pump. Do you guys think that dosing 17ml of Alk and 12ml of Ca of ESV's Bi-Ionic is a little low for a 45 gallon Tech Tank with a 15 gallon fuge? Here's a pretty recent picture and sorry about the color of the corals. It was a few weeks after the transfer. I really need to retest my Ca because I usually just check my Alk and if it's stable at 8.5-9dkh I don't worry about testing the Mg and Ca. I know it's bad, but it seems like you guys are dosing a lot more than I do. I'll test tonight when I get home..

IMG_1123-1.jpg
 
hey your tank looks like it's workin. if it's working don't mess with it, general guidelines and advice ar to help people get setup who haven't found there groove yet.
 
newbie916 said:
Sounds like I have to invest in the dosing pump. Do you guys think that dosing 17ml of Alk and 12ml of Ca of ESV's Bi-Ionic is a little low for a 45 gallon Tech Tank with a 15 gallon fuge? Here's a pretty recent picture and sorry about the color of the corals. It was a few weeks after the transfer. I really need to retest my Ca because I usually just check my Alk and if it's stable at 8.5-9dkh I don't worry about testing the Mg and Ca. I know it's bad, but it seems like you guys are dosing a lot more than I do. I'll test tonight when I get home..

IMG_1123-1.jpg
Click to expand...

Your tank looks great. Your dosing does seem low, but as long as you are constant it is what it is. You have nice growth rings on some of your frags so they are growing at a reasonable pace. I personally am dosing 1.3 ml per gallon of tank water a day, which I think works out to a shade under 3 dkh a day, so you have some potential in your tank to pull down a lot more 2 part. I found in my system once everything stabilized/matured, that my two part consumption sky rocketed.

I have an aquamedic doser I used on my old calcium reactor and they are not good IMO. The can siphon depending on where the wheel stops turning. This could cause your two part to go into your tank uncontrolled, or the reverse scenario with air or water back siphoning. True, you could set all the tubing at the right height so it does not siphon into your tank, but honestly it is not worth it. I would go Bubble magus, or if you want individual control with a separate controller, then a BRS pump as they do not siphon. You really can't beat the value of the bubble magus, and if you want to automate more dosing later it is easy to expand. My .02.
 
MammothReefer said:
hey your tank looks like it's workin. if it's working don't mess with it, general guidelines and advice ar to help people get setup who haven't found there groove yet.
Click to expand...

I'm still trying to find that groove and get it up to par with some of these other reefers tanks..lol This tank has only had the corals in it for maybe 3 months, so I've had to adjust the dosing regiment a few times. My alk was ranging between 7-10dkh over a period of a week and I've been trying to fine tune it. I'm always open to doing things a little more efficiently and effectively because there are some insane tanks here:)
 
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