Need advise on setting up dosser

[savethereef]

Hey Guys i am finally setting up my Bubble Magus dosser.
I Will be using the Fauna Marine line ALK, Cal and Mg in conjunction with Fauna Marine trace elements 1,2,3

My total water volume is around 450g after sand and rock displacement.
This is my 1st attempt with a dosser so a little lost. What is a good place to start dossing. How many ML should i start it at? I know i need to start low and increase it till i balance out the consumption/refill.

I dont want to start to low or to High.

Any tips for setting it up 1st?
Should i fill the canisters with RODI 1st to leak test?

 

[goodtimes2]

Hi Rob

I would check with RO water and confirm that the number of ML being dispensed over a 24 hour period is accurate, there could be up to a 10 % error rate between each dosser, so you can easily adjust for this factor . In most cases you will dose the same amount for your CA and ALK needs . A good starting point is about .5 ml per gallon of tank water. You need to measure every few days and readjust your dosing accordingly. For a heavy SPS tank your needs can exceed 1 ml per gallon of tank water. Good luck

 

[savethereef]

So 250ml for Alk and Calcium to start? Wow might need to buy this stuff in bulk from now on. What about for MG? Thanks

 

[jeffreylam1132]

For Mg, I usually check weekly and dose manually as needed.

 

[calistyle]

I'd test the levels day 1, test again 24 hours later. whatever it used replace manually and adjust doser accordingly. test again the next 24 hours to ensure your levels are right.

 

[Colione]

I don't know about Fauna Marine, but BRS their handy calculator.

What you do is get your parameters to optimum levels, let's say 450 ppm for Ca. Then don't dose or do anything for 4 days. If your Ca drops to 400, you basically enter in your water volume, say you want to go from 400 ppm to 450 ppm, it will spit out a volume and then you divide by 4 to get your daily dosing! (at least a great place to start and measure)

 

[cunningham]

Check this out

Check this out

I want to start dosing also and found this

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video/view/how-to-dose-2-part-video/

 

[pciscott]

Rob the Alk in the Fauna Marine is half as strong as the Calcium mix, so you will dose double to tripple the Alk with Fauna Marine System. Here is a good starting point. Measure your tank and get your baseline parameters. Then dose 100 Mills of Alk and test what the change is in a hour. This will give you the start of the formula. If 100 mils changes your tank from 7.4 to 7.8 then 100 mils equals .4 in your tank. Now wait 24 hours and see what it drops to. If it drops to 7.3 your tank consumes .5 per day. Now cross multiply and divide to get your starting dose. 100 x .5 divided by .4 = 125mils. Now repeat this same equasion with CA and Mag. As long as you figure what your tanks uptake is per day you can add extra to bring up to desired level. You should be able to get them all set up in a week with this method. In larger systems I dose 100 mils to figure out what it does in a hour. If your tank is under 100 I would start with 50mils and do the samme math.

Your dose will be based more on your coral load than tank volume. As your tank gets happy you will see your levels fall and you will have to adjust your dose. I like to keep my Alk at 7.5 to 8.5 and do not adjust my dose until it falls below the 7.5 mark. This keeps you from chasing numbers.

I go for 7.5 to 8.5 on Alk, 400 to 450CA, and 1400 to 1500 on Mag on Red Sea kit. If your Alk goes up your CA will fall and if your CA goes up your Alk will fall it is a balancing act.

I just moved to the ESV System because it is easier to mix than the Fauna Marine and the Alk is much more concentrated. I was also having good luck with ESV salt and I wanted to give this a try. Also Fauna Marine has been hard to find in stock in So Cal, but BRS is now carrying.

If you are confused give me a call. Good luck and one tip with your doser, if you do manual dose with the doser you have make sure you put back to auto or it will not dose anything until you do. This is why I prefer the GHL dosers.

Test every day until you get it right!

 

[savethereef]

Thank you all. Scott thanks for the informative write up now it makes sense to me. I will use that as my bible to set it up. I set up in two 2.5L canisters each for ALK & CAL and a 1.5L for magnesium with rodi today. I'll let it run for two days.then I'll fill them with the 2 part solution. Thanks again

 

[goodtimes2]

For ALK I just use the baking soda from Costco, been using it for over 3 years and never had a problem. Mix 1 cup per gallon of water. If you need a greater concentration , then bake it first although it will also increase your PH as well.

 

[reefomeez]

At that size you should just get a calcium reactor. You're going to be dosing gallons of elements and it'll get costly in the long run...

 

[black74]

great question... I'm going full SPS in my new 150. Was wondering if I should go straight to calcium reactor instead of dosing.

At that size you should just get a calcium reactor. You're going to be dosing gallons of elements and it'll get costly in the long run...

 

[reefomeez]

great question... I'm going full SPS in my new 150. Was wondering if I should go straight to calcium reactor instead of dosing.

I would. I don't have the space for one but I wish I did. They're expensive to buy but in the long run I think you spend the same if not less than dosing. Also, from what I understand, once they're dialed in they're pretty self sufficient.

 

[savethereef]

Omar i have a Korallin Calcium reactor full set up that i use to set up over my 225g had no problems (that i plan to list and sell soon). But with 2 part i feel like i will have better control over individual parameters. Once i get the hang of this i plan on getting 5g buckets of supplies to keep the cost down.