Dosing

[Snappy]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I voted 3-part but IMO realistically 2-part and 3-part are the same thing. Big 3 being Ca, Alk and Mg .. you don't really have to dose Mg on a daily basis (or if you do it's some tiny amount compared to the other two). If you dose 2-part with something like Seachem "Reef Builder" and "Reef Advantage" (I forget which one is Ca and which one is Alk but that's what they are together), then you are already dosing Mg anyhow. If you use the Randy Holmes-Farley recipes then you have to dose Mg separately.

I dunno, Ca reactors still have their place but you said it yourself, you can't beat the simplicity of 2-part. (No CO2, no "dialing it in", no fussy regulators, etc.)

Mag should be dosed at approximately the same rate per week that alk & ca are dosed per day.
I dose about 1 liter of each ca & alk per day. I use Randy's 2 part recipe which as you mentioned is actually 3 part but it's just called two part. I also use recipe #2 because my ph is high enough already I don't need to turn the baking soda or sodium bicarbonate to "soda ash or sodium carbonate". I quite like it but can't honestly compare since I have never owned a ca reactor. (I voted 2 part)

[Lance]

Between the 225g and the 90g, I'm dosing 220ml Ca, 180ml alk and 30ml Mg per day of Randy's 2-part. I use a dosing pump for the bigger tank and dose manually on the 90g. It's quite simple this way and keeps the levels pretty constant at where I want them.

[Parker]

I'm going to go the dosing route to start and see how things go.

Where are you guys getting your chem from, are you using the DIY material (Arm & Hammer etc) or are you going with a commercial solution?

[xtreme]

I use the Calcium and magnesium from the chemmaster and arm & hammer for the alkalinity.

[mark]

Originally Posted by Parker

I'm going to go the dosing route to start and see how things go.

planning manually or a pump system?

[Parker]

Pump system,

3ea 5.5 gallon tanks
3ea Aqua Medic SP3000 peristaltic pumps. I've read a lot of people like the Drews pumps from BRS but once they reach a certain level of dosing they tend to run fair amount as they only pump at 1.5 ml/pm, the Aqua Medics run at 50 ml/pm

I'll control the pumps off my Apex controller.

I'm still undecided if I'm going to sell off the reactor though, but if the dosing work out fine I can't see myself using it. There are people with much larger tanks with a lot more coral then I will have doing just fine dosing so I don't see any issues.

[mark]

got your dosing system going?