What are dosing pumps used for?

[Slipstream06]

New to this reefing business. What are additives are dosing pumps used for?

 

[gone fishin]

Typically they are used to dose for calcium and for alkalinity.

 

[SFish]

For dosing

: )

 

[toothybugs]

When your system grows in enough that water changes won't keep up with the demands for alkalinity, calcium, and the other ions consumed (particularly for SPS) you will see people using dosing setups to keep up. Alternatively, reactors are great too, but that wasn't the question here.

Alkalinity and calcium are the primary 2, though it's not at all uncommon to see additional solutions used, like kalkwasser (a 1-part calcium/ alkalinity product), vinegar, potassium, magnesium, iodine, iron, or supplements like AcroPower.

If you have to ask what dosing pumps are for, you will likely learn all the ins and outs of this as you develop the need for such an apparatus

 

[garyinco]

Dosing pumps add things in very small quantities, like 1ml per minute. With one and a timer you can spread out the addition of key elements like calcium and alkalinity. Thus avoiding spikes. Be fore you can benefit from using them you need to have a feel for what the consumption level of your tank is. So manually adding for awhile, while conducting tests, is the best way to find out. The dosing pumps are very nice though once you get them tuned in to your tank's needs.

Just adding once a day gets old after awhile. And with a dosing pump/timer/controller you get to spread that out over the day. Stability is key in reefs. A lot of people will add calcium during the day and alk at night. pH drops at night when the lights go out and alk additive tends to drive pH up. So, end result is you have have less variation in pH.

If I were you I'd manually monitor and add calc and alk as needed and then considering dosing pumps to automate the process down the road a ways.

 

[Slipstream06]

Thanks for the information, much appreciated. There's a very steep learning curve to this hobby with very drastic outcomes without the proper knowledge.

 

[hkgar]

Don't try to learn it all at once. Learn as you need to, but do not do things without asking, so you won't make mistakes.

I am 15 years + in and still learning things by reading posts that interest me and add knowledge every day. I am here every day and sometimes more.

 

[hkgar]

Oh, and don't be afraid to use the search button in the various forums.

I use dosing pumps for ALK ,Auto water change (AWC), auto top off (ATO) and vinegar (go to the Reef Chemistry forum and read up on carbon dosing). I still dose CA manually.