What to dose with for proper levels?

[ameares8]

I am going to Discovery cove to go swimming with dolphins and swim in the reef there in July. I will be gone for a week and I am trying to do some planning ahead before I run into a problem last minute. I am thinking about buying a doser and was wondering what products work the best when dosing. I personally like the KENT line of products and have been eyeing the KENT marine Liquid Reactor. Does anyone have a clue about this stuff? Does anyone have another suggestion?

I also have an automatic feeder for flake food, but have I overlooked an option for fresh/frozen food? I would imagine the frozen food would thaw regardless of what you use, but should I hook up a brine shrimp (not much nutrition I know) hatchery with some sort of drip? I am just not a big fan of flakes, so I do not want to feed them longer than I have to.

I have to do this for a 55 and a 10 gallon reef that are in two seperate rooms.

All suggestions and help are appreciated.

Thanks,
Anthony

 

[poolkeeper1]

A close friend to care for your tanks while your gone Is the best solution. IMO

 

[sandalscout]

Honestly, if you absolutely can't have someone watch the tank, I'd not dose anything at all, unless you don't have an autotopoff. I think that your tank will be fine with nothing new added over one week, so why start something that you can't monitor?

 

[fallinapart]

Anthony, I can feed and check you tanks while your gone if you like, I expect to be in town during that month. We will talk more about it when you make it over to my house.

 

[ai-reefer]

Re: What to dose with for proper levels?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14958998#post14958998 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ameares8
I am going to Discovery cove to go swimming with dolphins and swim in the reef there in July. I will be gone for a week and I am trying to do some planning ahead before I run into a problem last minute. I am thinking about buying a doser and was wondering what products work the best when dosing. I personally like the KENT line of products and have been eyeing the KENT marine Liquid Reactor. Does anyone have a clue about this stuff? Does anyone have another suggestion?

I also have an automatic feeder for flake food, but have I overlooked an option for fresh/frozen food? I would imagine the frozen food would thaw regardless of what you use, but should I hook up a brine shrimp (not much nutrition I know) hatchery with some sort of drip? I am just not a big fan of flakes, so I do not want to feed them longer than I have to.

I have to do this for a 55 and a 10 gallon reef that are in two seperate rooms.

All suggestions and help are appreciated.

Thanks,
Anthony

I've been trying to do something similar trying to automate my tank. The main thing is to have a decent auto-top off reserve.

Pellet food is better than flake i think because its more likely to sink. You could try Hikari Marine-S or something similar.

Frozen food you cant use, freeze dried you can use for sure.

If its only for a week dosing shouldnt be that big of a problem unless you have lots of corals.

I was gona use just regular water bottles, turn them upside down and glue an airline with a valve, but i need to build something to hold those bottles plus you have to figure out how much or at what rate you need to drip.

The most important thing i think is to run a successful simulation for a week or two before you leave.

Also battery backup is something to think about. Hookup a power head or something to it.

 

[waynesworld]

I would recommend Norman not any auto dosing as it can do more harm then good when you are not there to keep an eye on them I use to have a non reefing friend watch my tanks and feed them and had losses every time now Norman takes care of them with no problems.

 

[ameares8]

Thanks for the input guys. I talked to Norman and decided that would be the best bet, granted that he is available that week. I also talked to him about what he used to dose and he gave me a very handy sheet on dosing with Dow flakes and baking soda. Thanks again Norman. Now to find some Dow Flake and Magflake...

ai-reefer: Good idea about the battery backup, I did not think about that if I was going to leave it unattended.