Dosing setups - pictures
 

Considering moving from a Ca reactor to a dosing system.

Wondering if anyone willing to put up pictures of their system and a description; tank, dosing system, what dosing and how much/often?

tagging along

My setup is pretty simple. I have a profilux with 3 heads. It supports 4 so I could buy another one to install if I wanted to but as it is, I only use two out of my 3 heads.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2510/...4d5beb490b.jpg

I dose Alkalinity (Baking Soda) with one and Calcium (from LittlesilverMax) with the other. I mix them and store them in 4L jugs but dose from 2L bottles as seen below.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2626/...db2037b40b.jpg

There are two types of Profilux dosers, the standalone one (which has a built in timer) and the non-standalone one which requires a profilux controller. I have the latter because I have the controller. I dose each 4 times a day. Alkalinity is 49ml per dose and calcium is 66ml per dose. That's a depletion rate of 196ml of Alk a day and 264ml of calcium a day? Now that it is dialed in, all I do is top up the chemicals and test. When I first set it up I just guessed how much I needed. Then test every couple of days to see how much each depleted and compensated by pumping in more or less. I haven't touched the dosing amounts for about a month now.

Alk is 8.5dkH and calcium is 420ppm.

Thanks Kien.

Any thoughts for the 3rd channel?

Mine's even more simple and would be fair to call it ghetto. I use two aqualifter pumps ($15 each), ARM or carbon containers for the reservoirs (about 1 gallon volume), and then needle valves at the output for throttling down the driprate. Adjusting the right volume is a combination of how many minutes on the timers are plus opening up or closing down the drip valves. The timers run at 6 intervals of 2 minutes each, offset by 1.5 hours so that they don't drip at the same time.

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...g/P1010006.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...g/P1010007.jpg

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...g/P1010008.jpg

Mine is exactly the same as Tony's but I only have 1 pump and i dose Kalkwasser and makeup water. I adjust my levels by varying the amount of Kalk I use. My resevoir is a old salt bucket. Mine is set to run for 5 minutes every 3 hours during the night.

well the Aqualifters would definitely get me a feel for dosing.

What concentrations are you guys mix the solutions?

I just follow the Randy Holmes-Farley article recipes, so 2.25cups of Alk and 2.5 cups of Ca per gallon.

Mixing is a slight pain, I put half a gallon of RO/DI in the kettle and boil it then mix it all together in a big honking mixing bowl. Even with the warmer water I have to add the Alk part slowly otherwise it clumps up on me.

For Alk it's just baked baking soda from Costco, Ca is from Littlesilvermax. I get MB from LSM as well but don't bother with automated dosing for Mg, just do it by hand.

My setup is pretty much the same: Aqua Medic 3000 doser for alk and Aqua Lifter for calcium both run through an Aqua Controller Jr. (calcium dosed in the morning hours and alk in the afternoon) Magnesium manually. Salt buckets for reservoirs.

GHL SA2 (stand alone).....set to auto (automatically alternates dosing time so the doses never overlap)....25 ml of both Calcium and DKH (Randy's recipe, #2 recipe for DKH)24 times/day.... manually dose Mg...... system is roughly 150g....considering adding a third pump to it to dose phyto

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...IMG_0001-6.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...IMG_0007-3.jpg


I couldnt be happier with this set up.....very easy to use and set up...

I find that the GHL dosers have been the easiest for me to setup. I have used a reactor in the past and it was the biggest pain ever.. i know there are a tun of people that use them and have no problems but i have a tun...dosers are the best way to go.. new technology

I'll get pics of mine tomorrow

J

The 3rd channel was originally intended for magnesium. However, I have not been able to determine a depletion rate. I have only had to dose it once manually. I think my weekly water changes replish magnesium enough. So presently I have no plans for the third pump.

I dose Ca and Alk 20 times a day, and Mg 2 times a day with a profilux doser.
Started off with Aqualifter pumps, but I found it too frustrating keeping my levels consistent. At the time I was dosing Sodium Carbonate/Bicarbonate mix and it hardened the diaphragm in the aqualifter as well.
http://excalibur.bc.ca/pics/slides/Dosing.jpg

I run a SA 4-channel Profilux Doser (from BWI), and I store my chems in 4L brown glass containers (rescued from the Lab):

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...jugs032509.jpg

One for Ca (13x4ml/day), Alk (12x5ml/day), and Mg (5ml/day). The last channel on the profilux handles vodka dosing (1ml/day).

Dosing set up in my tiny stand:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...il109front.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...il109Lside.jpg

Is the current thinking that dosing is the way to go? I am quickly learning that I cannot supply enough A & B to get my Calcium levels up to where I want them to be. Been looking at Calcium Reactors and doing some studying but it seems that dosing would be a simpler setup.

I've run a couple of different DIY Ca reactors and finding they were keeping up no problem on my 145g display that had a fair bit of SPS. Easy to set up, could run for weeks to months without having to touch, gas lasting 6 months or more.

For me, dosers more just the new flavor of the day (and happen to think they're rather elegant) so looking to get an idea not taking a step backward or unnecessarily complicating my layout, if switch.