Quote:
Originally Posted by Delphinus
In real life, nope, not finding much variation, once outside of the dialing in period. Maybe not 100% equal but pretty close. I just have a ghetto dosing environment: two peristaltic pumps, one that is I think 1.1 ml/min and one that is 1.0 ml/min (they are not the same model) and these are on timers. I start with dosing each 3 times a day but alternating (not at the same time). So say I want to dose 40ml 3 times a day to make 120ml per day based on RHF's estimate of a "moderate" consumption based on tank volume. So I set both timers to 40 minutes each. Then I test after a couple days and adjust the "minutes on" up or down as needed to make the trend stabilize towards the numbers I like. During this time the amounts dosed end up being nowhere equal but it's because not only am I trying to find the right amounts to dose, because Alk levels influence Ca consumption rates and vice-versa; but also because the tank might not be starting at the levels where I want them to. So I first target Alk and once I get a steady reading there I leave it and then work on the Ca (while working on Alk, I do manual adjustments once per week on the Ca since it ends up being lower than target during this time). After about 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks, I found the magic number of minutes for each to acheive steady levels. And from there I can see that the reservoirs are lowering at around the same rate.
Sounds like a pain but it really isn't. Automated dosers make the process even easier, if you're OK with the higher start up cost for those. Once you've got them dialed in it's pretty much set and forget. I test my numbers once or twice a week and they have been steady for months now. I expect that as corals grow I'll have to up the minutes on the timers but I expect it to be minute adjustments.
I love not worrying about CO2 though, or media turning to mush, or compaction of the media, or the reactor burping and releasing a cloud of milky water into the tank. I don't really miss my old reactors anymore.
Hope this helps.
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ha ha, well put. I actually loved dosing, but now I'm using a CaRX because I'm just away to much.
There is just so much more control when you physically put something in your tank. You'll never accidentally add a 2 liters instead of 50ml