Dosing Setup

[dizzydiscus]

Looking to start a dosing system for my 9mth old setup but confused with the various options and equipment out there. Would like to hear from the community on your personal setups and preference of equipment and additives.

 

3 or 4 heads or even more is needed?

Tropic Marine All For Reef (1 head?) vs Red Sea or other additives? If so, how many heads is sufficient. Or Ca, Mg etc are different ball games.

 

If evaporation is more or less constant, would you use a dosing system in lieu of an ATO to top up on RODI water?

 

Just started trying some lps from fellow reefers after having softies stabilised.

 

Have a 2 ft cube tank with relatively small (1.5ft cube) sump below with about 50cm clear height so want to minimise the clutter outside of the cabinet (and away from toddlers trying to pull them apart).

 

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[Otaku Reefer]

i using red sea additives, ABCD + alk + Ca, have mag but not using. So total would need 6 dosing heads. My 2 cents is get as many heads as ur budget and space allows, u may never know when u want to start dosing other elements. I have not used all for reef b4 so cant comment but my opinion is better to split the dosing as each element consumption might be different, as my tank rarely consume magnesium.


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[R0B]

I would agree, getting a unit with more heads is better than less. I am using 9 heads (soon 13) hahaha. But a lot of that is for automatic testing systems.

As for 'All for Reef' this is certainly a great/fantastic product. I have used it on my smaller system. What I would say is that this is great for covering the base consumption in a small tank, but as you will discover you most likely will need to still Supplement with additional elements (possibly Magnesium and Trace Elements). You may also want to look at Tropic Marins carbon dosing supplements.

So that is one head for 'all for reef'. One for trace. One for carbon dosing; Possibly another one for Magnesium (although with small Mel is easier to manual dose this).

I have used a doser for ATO adding X.ml of rodi each hour. Having observed average evaporation over time. Although doses are not designed for continuous use, they last surprisingly long if you maintain them and calibrate often. Just give them some attention and love and all will be well. (Admittedly they do breakdown eventually).

Whilst I have GHL dosing units for my main system I have been super happy with the basic Jabeo unit. Once you calibrate it, and pinch out the tubes it works just fine. (Tip. On calibration you can double the steps so to get slightly more accurate dosing). I believe there is a new wifi version which looks really handy. Although there are many brands. The new ecotech does look awesome but rather pricey. If you want a super super cheap option. Get some 20ml syringes and some dosing tube. Is manual but gets the Job done hahaha.

Looking forward to hearing how you progress.

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[Otaku Reefer]

i also agree with bro rob, btw i using the kamoer so far no complains maintaining my alk nicely, its quite nice asthetics wise as the dosing head is multi color for easy differentiation. Mine is also cloud enabled reason to get this is acts as remote monitoring incase power trip when i overseas. just my 2 cents.


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[dizzydiscus]

Thanks to both seniors advice. Will try out soon and update here.

Chance upon a foreign forum and one guy used medical IU drips to control. Thought that was quite interesting. No need any power but have to time the number of drips per min which he had it all worked out. Amazing tank to boot.

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[Otaku Reefer]

not senior bro, just sharing, one piece of advice, automation and sustainability is key word in this hobby. i always felt i am getting lazy compared to when i first started, if within your budget get ur key equipment automated and also preplan ur tank around maintenance. its like when u first got ur new home, some ppl priority look nice nice but forget about maintenance, overtime as life take over and nobody do chores, the house will look cui haha.


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