I dose these from Seachem.
http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...eefBuffer.html
Keeps PH up as well.

http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...dvCalcium.html
Adds Mg as well as Ca.

I keep my alk at around 8 KH, and Ca around 400. Mg is around 1300. Using IO salt for now.

My tanks remain very stable, and have not had to adjust my dosing for a couple months now.

DITTO! lol!

The Bubble Magus dosing unit is also really good and quite cheap. I'm sure you can get that through your supplier as well.

I have been using the Marine magic doser (3 heads) for 6 months now and it works great, absolutely no problems with it yet. It can dose up to 16 different times a day per pump, and each pump has 4 different speeds. I think i paid 160 shipped from china or where ever it comes from.

The only draw back I have noticed is if the power goes out you have to reset the clock. It keeps all your scheduled dosing times/speed/length stored though.

So far I have not had to adjust anything after the initial adjustment and it's been 4 months maybe more (lost track). So far it's been very reliable and my levels stay exactly what they should.

It cost me 175$ can shipped and it took about a week before I got it from China. They have put "gift" and value of 50$ so I had no duty to pay on it, that was nice too. no taxes and no duty...175$ shipped to my door.

The motor and pump are cheap to replace if they broke.

The only negative feedback that I can give at this point is that each pump has a slightly different output, so not because one pump does 100ml at speed level 2 for 30 seconds, it does not mean that they will all do that. Some have a slightly different debit then others so they all need to be adjusted separatly. As exemple, of you want to dose 100ml of calcium and alkalinity, you cannot assume that both pump will produce the same quantity at the same setting, there is a slight difference. However once each pump is adjusted to produce 100ml per day, it will pretty much stick to this and be reliable. I tested mine each day for a week to make sure it would produce the right quantity.

Other negative is that if there is a power outage, it does not resume on its own and you must re enter the date and put it into auto mode. However you don't need to re enter all the settings for the pumps as this is kept into a flash memory, so only the date must be re-enter when there is power outage.

That's about it.. I am happy and I only test once a week or once every second week and my parameters are always spot on and it did not cost a lot.

For someone on a low budget, this is a very nice unit.

Laurie,
Wow, I am surprised that you don't dose at all and yet, your tanks are beautiful. When is the next tank tour? I wanna go over to see your tanks again :biggrin:
Reef Supplies,
Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely keep them in mind when I make my order. I just purchased a Marine magic dosing pump too for $160. That's why I am thinking of purchasing the Brightwell 2 parts dosing to take advantage of the pump.

Thank you all for the replies. You guys are great!!

i dose nothing and virtually never do water changes on my cube 29G bc (drip lines for new stock top up) have 2 lps 1 geneopora 1 4" clam and tonnes of zoas.

ah yes, but Lauries tank kills most coral:razz::razz:.....not sure if its the parameters or her "reef" fish.....

I on the other hand have a full blown mixed reef .....heavily sps dominant, some lps and a whack of zoas....... not 1 drop of Ca, Mg or DKH in two years(I have a profilux doser sitting on a shelf collecting dust).....tank has been on Prodibio for about three monthes and thats it........

how big is your tank David?.....I would think about getting in to the bulk chemicals if your tank is over say 100g.....this will save you a tonne of money over buying pre-mixed solutions....

I guess your zoanthids must be really happy because they react strongly to any sudden change in alkalinity...a very slow drop won't affect them as a suddent increase.

But what about that clam? I guess it does not have much calcium to grow its shell...

I didn't read everyone's replies, so I don't know if anyone has pointed out yet that SeaChem Reef Calcium (the liquid) is calcium gluconate rather than calcium carbonate. I'm not a fan, and wouldn't recommend that product. If you buy a dry powder it will be much cheaper to dose. Brightwell Aquatics is usually easy to find, and I have been very happy with their products.

I think half those products you're dosing are a waste of money. Purple Up is essentially just a calcium/alkalinity booster (can't remember if it is cal or alk), and I've never found it to actually increase coralline any more than simple keeping proper parameters. Reef Plus and Coral Accel probably do little other than increase nutrient load in your tank. Nutrients make for brown SPS, although LPS and softies like some nutrients.

In my reef tanks I dose calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, and potassium (just in the SPS tank). I have been experimenting with a mild form of "carbon dosing" using Brightwell Aquatics Microbacter7 and BioFuel. The point of carbon dosing is to reduce nutrients, rather than adding nutrients. Fyi, carbon dosing has nothing to do with the black carbon you put in a filter.