Maintaining Levels in Tank
 

Hi,

Just wondering what everyone uses to maintain the Alk/ CA levels in their tank? I have been manually dosing for the last little bit, and its getting tiresome. I've read about a CA reactor and Kalk, but im leaning towards a 3-4 pump doser.

Leaning towards to doser as it seems noob proof, but just looking for feedback as to weather or not this would be the most beneficial maintenance method for my tank.

tank is 220+ gallons.

Doser
 

I think doser makes things easier.

I use a doser, can't complain, pretty simple and need some adjustment every once in a while, I use C-Balance and mag to keep the levels steady... my tank is only 100g water volume, so I do not have to dose much at the moment.
I think mostly depends on what is the demand of your tank, and maybe for a tank over 120-150g a calcium reactor is a better option due to the cost in the long run...


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For a tank your size, a calcium reactor would probably make the most sense, especially if you have lots of SPS. It's fiddly to set up, but once you nail it it's set it and forget it. I know, because I went from manual dosing to dosing pumps to calcium reactor (plus kalk). I found the routine of constantly having to make and replenish the Alk and Calcium solutions annoying.

Just my $ 0.02

thanks. I only have lps atm. I guess my issue with a CA reactor is I have some weird fear that the CO2 tank will leak or something and blow up my house (I don't know if its possible or not, but yeah paranoid lol).

Anyways i'll look more into a reactor. thanks

I've seen your tank and while you're lightly stocked on corals unless your planning on stuffing your tank with full of sps a doser will work fine, just order the 5g pails from brs and you're good to go.

I have 2 jebao dosers and they are hassle free calibrate it and off you go.

I've also owned a vertex doser before aswell easy to set up and touch screen display is awesome but clunky size is a downside.

Also a ca reactor I think initially costs a lot, like over $1k once you factor in the reactor a 20lb tank, selenoid and ph controller....

A doser like the jebao is about $100, the bulk chems are $400 but that can last you atleast 4-5 years.

thanks for this

Calcium reactors unlike skimmers and lighting haven't changed much over the past decade. So a used one will work just as well as a new one for around half the price if cost is a concern.

no this is my concern lol

I wouldn't worry about the tank exploding. Worst case , it leaks , you go to sleep & not wake up . No explosion !

Ahahah good one!!!


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good one but its true....need a co2 alarm to help you Wake up:biggrin:

If your really that's worried spray the connections with soapy water and see if it bubbles.

I was using a doser and it got to the point I was dosing 250ml of cal and 250ml of alk every day. I had a hard keeping my levels balanced when my consumption got that high. I switched to a calcium reactor a few weeks ago and everything has been completely stable. This is just my experience. I know other guys who dose large amounts of cal and alk with a doser without any problems.

All depends what direction you want to take your tank.

could be worse I guess lol

Thanks, im going to try out a doser first.

Guys, it's CO2, not CO. If your CO2 tank leaks all that's going to do is make the plants in the room happy. It's more dangerous having a propane tank out back with the barbecue.

I was just going to say you can't get poisoned with your breath can you... ?
If it was car fumes then yah you could go to sleep and not wake up!

I would just make sure to check the connections once in a while. This way if anything is leaking you will be able to determine where the leak is and fix it :smile:

Try putting a bag over your head , see how long you last !
CO2 is what comes out the tail pipe of your car .
By the way , I run a cal reactor & no fear of leakage .

If you put a bag over your head you would suffocate quickly, but if you inhale someone's exhale breath I think you could last a few days weeks even, but you may suffer brain damage.

Say what??

Exhaust fumes from your car is carbon monoxide last I checked... unless your car runs on oxygen lol
People breathe out Co2 not the same but please correct me if I am wrong.

Car exhaust contains both

Anything is poisonous in high enough concentrations but carbon monoxide is MUCH more poisonous than carbon dioxide

Yes , correct
Car produces co & hc , then runs thru catalytic converter to produce mostly co2 & water

sorry I didn't want to start another thread so since it was related figured id post here:

in terms of dosing would this be the correct procedure?

1. once calibrated, test params and use reef calculator to figure out how much is needed to reach desired levels
2. set dosing amounts
3. after monthly water change, re-test and reset dosing amounts based on new params
4. repeat step 3 after every water change?

not sure if I have a bad batch or not, but I noticed my aq reef salt produces a low ca. i am going to open another box, although I bet they will be part of same batch. Also considering H2Ocean since it has higher CA levels.

Wow some of these posts hit a whole new level of ignorants that I haven't seen for a while on this forum. Okay heres a story for all of you unnecessarily paranoid folk. About 10 years ago I had a roommate looking after my tank for a week while I went out of town. One day (probably the day I was returning home) while feeding the fish or topping off the water lost to evaporation he bumped one of the valves further open on the C02 regulator. What I came home to was an empty 20 lbs C02 cylinder (which had been full when I left) two very alive roommates (although I felt like killing them myself), and one ticked off tank. The pH was low and the fish were gasping but not dead. I dealt with the problem quickly, no one died or even noticed for that matter and all of the fish and coral lived too.

Most hobbyists use smaller 5 or 10 lbs C02 cylinders which do not contain enough gas to do anything harm unless you accidentally open the valves and purge the entire thing into your tank (a pH controller should stop this) or start sucking on the end yourself. FYI too much Ca or Alk solution from a 2 part dosing system can nuke a tank too.

Compressed gas cylinders don't just rupture on their own either. It takes a strong impact to damage the unit and send it flying like a missile. Sitting idle in a house you'd need a toddler with a hammer or a good old fashioned house levelling earth quake to make that happen.

FOr the first week or two I would be checking alk daily and the other stuff every 2-3 days until you are confident it is dosing correct amounts. Even after that I would still check alk almost daily and everything else once a week or so.

thanks I will do this.

You should be able to maintain your levels with the doser without much issue. Eventually when/if the tank demand gets too high, you may need to reevaluate or get creative.

yeah just trying to figure how to dose properly before I run out and buy it this weekend.

Not sure what salt you use but I use IO and AF

IO we all know is low in mg and ca alk closer to 9.5 and above
When I do a 25g wc with this salt I add about 6 tbsp of calcium chloride to buffer the ca closer to 460. Mg I don't bother as my tank was reading above 1800

For AF salt I don't add any chems.

I think once you have figured out how much your tank consumes daily then checking alk weekly same with ca and mg is fine. As long as you're starting off with a base line dose you can tweak the cycle.

I am currently dosing 7ml of sodium bicarbonate 14 times per day of my solution as its quite diluted tho about 8tbsp to 2.5 l of water. The reason for spreading the doses is it will raise ph and in a smaller systems of 100g it can rise quite quickly if dosing larger amounts in less doses.

Everyone's tank is different and consumes less or more so should test new batch of SW mix to see where your params are then add to it to get it as close to the tank params. Most people aren't too fussy but that will help your params to stay more stable.

Now I am testing every week and a half and the alk is always rock steady at 8.5 ca above 420 and mg 13ish.

I am actually more concerned with making sure po4 is low so my tank will uptake more ca

Nice information tang daddy.