Vacation dosing

[tribbitt]

I will be going on 10 day vacation over the summer. I currently hand-dose DIY 2-part, with a pipette, each day. How do I keep that going over the vacation? Do I need to get dosing pumps? They’re really expensive for what I can do by hand.

 

[IOnceWasLegend]

I will be going on 10 day vacation over the summer. I currently hand-dose DIY 2-part, with a pipette, each day. How do I keep that going over the vacation? Do I need to get dosing pumps? They’re really expensive for what I can do by hand.

You could potentially set up a drip system, but that's cumbersome and not super precise (plus has the possibility of clogging if the alk cakes around the outlet).

I'd suggest a dosing pump to be safe. There's the 2-head Jebao doser for $60, or - for $10 more - a wireless 4-head Jebao doser. I'm sure if you ask around here someone has an old used one for sale, too.

 

[tribbitt]

I would worry so much with a drip system. I guess I’m making another post about borrowing someone’s dosing pumps?

 

[psidriven]

low cost option if you have an ato is add kalk to it. not perfect but could work for 10 days if your demand isn't high. you just need to know you alk/ca consumption and average daily evap to calculate how much kalk to add to ato reservoir.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Why? Why are you dosing? What are your parameters? How much do they change from day-to-day? I glanced at your tank journal and you don't have a lot of corals that are Ca/Alk sponges at all.

 

[tribbitt]

I dose alkalinity and Ca daily. Params are a bit wonky as I’m still getting it dialed in, but the relevant params:
Ca 500 (I dosed according to bad math for a week)
Alk 9.3
Mg 1500

Magnesium doesn’t get depleted fast so I’m okay with letting it fall (it’ll drop maybe 10-20ppm).

Calcium is high right now, and alkalinity was always on the lower end of okay (was trying to bring it to 10 but not super concerned).

This is my dosing. The leftmost “30mL Ca” and “20mL alk” are dry calcium chloride and dry baking soda respectively.

I’m probably doing something wrong, but I can’t just stop entirely for 10 days

 

[tribbitt]

low cost option if you have an ato is add kalk to it. not perfect but could work for 10 days if your demand isn't high. you just need to know you alk/ca consumption and average daily evap to calculate how much kalk to add to ato reservoir.

I dose a little kalk each day, but it doesn't do anything beyond raise pH. I do half a cup a day.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Why not? I don't dose at all. Just a water change every week or so. How much depletion is there in a day?

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

There's very little I can see in your tank that should require extra dosing.

 

[tribbitt]

Why not? I don't dose at all. Just a water change every week or so. How much depletion is there in a day?

I did some math. My tank depletes 2.25 grams of dry calcium chloride a day, and I think 0.45 grams of baking soda.
Math could be wrong, but it's an amount.

 

[tribbitt]

Or rather, that's the amount I add each day to make the params not change

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

I did some math. My tank depletes 2.25 grams of dry calcium chloride a day, and I think 0.45 grams of baking soda.
Math could be wrong, but it's an amount.

If you test your Calcium (which is at 500) today then what will it be in 24 hours?

 

[tribbitt]

If you test your Calcium (which is at 500) today then what will it be in 24 hours?

I honestly have no idea. All I can say right now is that even with calcium dosing, Ca is going down. The 500 was from 4 days ago - just retested and it's 480. The dose is lower than normal, but this shows that uptake is higher than the rate I'm adding it - again, 2.25g dry calcium chloride a day. I do not see precipitate on the heaters (it could precipitate elsewhere though)

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

So you have some time on this. Don't dose the next three days. Check CA, MG, and ALK every 24 hours record results. Then come back and lets discuss when we have data.
Do you also do water changes?

 

[tribbitt]

So you have some time on this. Don't dose the next three days. Check CA, MG, and ALK every 24 hours record results. Then come back and lets discuss when we have data.
Do you also do water changes?

I have a bad water change schedule. I do them infrequently, but large

I already dosed today. Do I need to test at the same time each day?

 

[Coral reefer]

Yes

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Let's see what happens. You are flirting with disaster though and it's pretty common. You are using chemicals that you aren't certain you need and in what quantity to make up for not doing regular watr changes which would result in a healthier tank and probably no need for any additives.

 

[tribbitt]

Let's see what happens. You are flirting with disaster though and it's pretty common. You are using chemicals that you aren't certain you need and in what quantity to make up for not doing regular watr changes which would result in a healthier tank and probably no need for any additives.

I used to stick with water changes, but parameters would change. I don’t remember how much, but that is why I started dosing.

I water change every 2-3 weeks, ~40%. I do smaller water changes of like 5% once a week or so, when rinsing out filter stuff.

 

[BAYMAC]

I honestly have no idea. All I can say right now is that even with calcium dosing, Ca is going down. The 500 was from 4 days ago - just retested and it's 480. The dose is lower than normal, but this shows that uptake is higher than the rate I'm adding it - again, 2.25g dry calcium chloride a day. I do not see precipitate on the heaters (it could precipitate elsewhere though)

You're fighting yourself. Those numbers are all elavated skewing the ratio. When you do that, you get precipitation of mg/alk/ca. Shoot for alk of 6-8 / ca 420 / mg 1300.

 

[tribbitt]

The reason I try to stick with my params is because IO reef crystals mixes to that number. Calcium 490, alk of 11 (despite claims of 13) and mag of 1440 (and i have lots of lps)

Although J should test my newly mixed saltwater… online there’s some claims of problems with consistency