Dosing

[RayAllen]

For those who have been in the hobby a while. After talking to Tony I want to start dosing my tank with B-Ionic. I have never drip dosed before so what is the best way to do this? Do I need to buy any equipment or do I just need a gallon jug, clamp, valve and airline hose? I should have checked out Tonys closer, lol.

Ray

[ErikH]

Dose kalk through your ATO! I stopped dosing B-Ionic some time ago.

[RayAllen]

Ok, Whats the diffrence between B-Ionic and Kalk. And by Kalk i assume you meen Kalkwasser Powder aka Calcium Hydroxide. I have a 1lb container of Kalkwasser. Dont want to start a debate on which is better because I know everyone has success by using diffrent products.

My ATO shoots water into my sump probably at half gallon intervals when the float valve fluctuates. Is that ok, if not how do I use my ATO to slowly ad it into the tank?

[RayAllen]

Basically Im trying to avoid purchasing anything else I have to plug in, lol. If I do not have to buy a dosing pump id rather figure out a way not to need one.

[ErikH]

They are both great imo, kalk is just easier. The only thing you would really have to test is ph and Mg, but the mg would be taken care of by water changes. Once you get your levels EXACTLY where you want them dosing kalk will pretty much keep them static. 2 tsp per gallon of RO/DI and only make enough to last a week. Have the ATO kick on about an hour after lights out, and it should help maintain your ph and Dkh through the night. Being that you have a small system, kalk is probably the easiest. Make sure the ph of the rodi with kalk is at 12.0 It may temporarily raise your ph above recommended levels if you run it during the day. It's so simple, but there are so many people that say otherwise. I had to try it myself before I was sold on it.

[ErikH]

Oh yeah, I picked up a cheapy tester from Jeremy at B&B for my PH. I had to adjust it with calibration fluid 3 times right off the bat, but since then it has held steady, and I use it every day. I think it was 40 dollars?

[RayAllen]

I need to get myself a better PH tester before I start dosing. Which do you use Erik?

[RayAllen]

Cool thanks for the info.

[ErikH]

it's a milwaukee..... That is the only thing I would worry about. The rest is pie.

[Fish4life]

I had problems when i tried to dose with the ato. If for some reason, the ato malfunctions your left with a white tank and a toxic pH level. not to mention its harder to regulate supernatant addtions from powder additions. i would recommend a kalk reactor. I will never go back to ato dosing again.

cheers,

kurt

[RayAllen]

what do you guys think about this. Ive read reviews and it seems to work

http://www.hawkfish.org/infoctr/kalkdrip.htm

[JimD]

Lots of people use the drip method for kalk dosing, the trick is matching the evaporation rate and making sure not to dose while mixing... Kalk needs to be stirred then allowed to settle before adding.

[ErikH]

If for some reason, the ato malfunctions your left with a white tank and a toxic pH level.

If your ATO messes up, that is a hardware problem, and not a dosing problem. What happens if a kalk reactor malfunctions? ITS MUCH WORSE, imo. :angel:

[SoLiD]

This what I used to do when dosed kalk regularly through my ATO.

1. Get a 5 gallon bucket and fill it with RO\DI water.

2. Put 2-3 teaspoons per gallon of Kent Kalk (I assume any will work).

3. Mix it up really good, wait about an hour and mix it up again.

4. Wait at least 12 hours for everything to settle.

5. Open the valve on the bucket a fill up my ATO.

This would leave most of the powder (but not all) behind in the 5 gallon bucket. Then the ATO would drip it in via a float valve into my refugium. This worked for me before I got a calcium reactor.

Like Erik said, you do have to monitor your pH to make sure it doesn't get to high.

-David

[reeferRob]

I guess I do it too simple, I add about 90ml - 120ml of Seachem reef complete with a syringe directly into my sump every other day, and 4 level teaspoons of Seachem reef builder mixed into at least 2 gals of top off water (Idon't use an ATO yet) poured directly into the sump every other day for my 180g + about 20g sump - rock = i dunno 150g system? My dkh is always 10.2 to 11.5 and my Ca is always between 420-460 and PH 8.2-8.3. I test once /week. As someone else mentioned my Mg gets taken care of with water changes + reef complete contains trace amounts of it, it is always around 1350. Been doing this for 2 years with no trouble. This is probably some sort of unorthodoxed method but it works for me.


Rob

[glennr1978]

I DIY'ed my own dosing pump system. It consists of 2 digital timers, 2 aqualifters, airline hose w/ valves, and a couple containers to hold 2 part (currently using B-Ionic). I have it dialed in to dose exactly 20mL per minute since my tank requires 20mL of each part daily. Alk is dosed for one minute at 11:30 pm, and again at 5:30 am, equalling 40mL. Ca is dosed for 2 minutes at 3:00 pm, Again, equalling 40mL. I've only had this system up and running for about 2 weeks. So far it seems to be working pretty well. I get consistant readings of 9-10 dkh, and 420 Ca. The only fluctuation I have is Ph, which ranges from 7.94 to 8.17 (I know, it's a little low) in a 24 hour period. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure the fluctuation I have in Ph is acceptable. I'm considering setting up an additional pump on an additional timer to dose kalk very slowly at night. Hopefully I can get that Ph swing even smaller.

Fwiw, my dosing system cost me roughly $60 total. Not bad considering a LMIII will run in the $400 neighborhood.