Auto doser.... SPS now dying
 

Well i officially regret adding the doser I bought.

My SPS are dying off. Quite choked.

Doser. Off.

Should have kept to my principles of simplicity.

My green plate. German blue digi. Lavender digi. Orange digi.

Well for what time I saved, I upset the balance.

Marine magic my butt.

Did you overdose?

I purchased the same doser and couldn't be happier. After one little adjustment mine has been working perfect since the get go.

I noticed that these dosers work better on speed 4 for a short duration of time rather than speed 3 or less for a longer period. Mine was heating up the peristaltic tubing and causing a black film to form on the surface and flake off down towards my sump. Once I adjusted the pump interval to be shorter for a higher speed, it's been working great.

Another observation I had with my doser was that the dosing amount listed in the manual wasn't even close to what my actual doser was pumping. I was using a shorter length of tubing than what the book said so my pump was actually pumping way more fluid than the max dosing rate listed in the book. I simply collected all of the fluid being dosed from the 3 pumps in containters and measured it after a full 24 hour period. I took 3 or 4 days to get the dosages figured out proprely but if you went by what the manual said, you are likely overdosing. Overdosing Ca or Mg isn't such a big deal but an overdose of Alk will lead to a rapid decline in all of your corals health.

Hopefully you can figure out what the problem is but I'd start off by collecting all of fluids being dosed to make sure that is accurate and also check your tank parameters as well. My guess would be your Alk levels are too high.

Maybe should have spent the extra $ and went with the Profilux GHL.

A couple of things.

The GHL units are very easy to use and if necessary repair/upgrade.

I have found that the calcium demand of aquariums can fluctuate if there has been a disturbance to the equilibrium of the tank. ie Temperature fluctuation, lighting fluctuation. This is why I check Ca, Alk and Mg every 3 days and adjust as necessary.

Cheers,
Tim

I'll buy your doser if you wish to sell

Im happy with the doser, they only issue I had was not knowing that the bottles were empty but I should have checked to see if they were low.

When test I get normal results. That's what's funny.

I wonder if the dosing is creating PH swings.

Would ph swings hurt SPS yet not my other corals In the same manner?

Not prepared to throw in the towel yet.

More ****ed off that I can't figure out the problem.

I also have he marine magic doser, and couldn't be happier. It's been running for 8 months now.

Are you dosing all of your alk at the same time? If so that could be causing a swing in your ph. Also dosing the alk at night every couple hours will keep your ph more stable.