Alk n Calc

[MadReefer]

With the 3 head doser started to add calc daily with ALK; took Kamoer ALk doser offline. Good news calc is about 420ppm bad news ALK is still 10.9.
I couldn't figure this out as last week ALK was 10 and Calc 200 and I did some adjustments during the week.
I decided to boost the calc with manual addition 4 days ago and realized today I added ALK and not calc; grabbed the wrong bottle...ugh.
Least it didn't spike to high and now will just leave all as is and monitor weekly.

Current dosage using Reef Fusion 1 and 2:
ALK - 4ml daily
Calc - 24ml daily

 

[horseplay]

I would dose manually until both alk and calf are at the desired level then run the dozers with equal amount. Also, make sure you calibrate the doser as they can be quit off from the specification.

 

[MadReefer]

I would dose manually until both alk and calf are at the desired level then run the dozers with equal amount. Also, make sure you calibrate the doser as they can be quit off from the specification.

I did calibrate the doser; took several attempts

 

[Rjmul]

Here's my take on calibrating dosers, don't.

What does it matter how many ml a minute are coming out ? I just adjust based off of test results. Sometimes I need a little more, sometimes I need a little less. Wether or not it's "calibrated" is this weird sort of variable that kind of doesn't matter.

 

[MadReefer]

Here's my take on calibrating dosers, don't.

What does it matter how many ml a minute are coming out ? I just adjust based off of test results. Sometimes I need a little more, sometimes I need a little less. Wether or not it's "calibrated" is this weird sort of variable that kind of doesn't matter.

I thought the point of calibrating was to remove air so it can dose the right amount.
Otherwise, wouldn't you dose less if air is pushed through along with liquid?

 

[ericrodriguez]

I think you calibrate to measure the amount of liquids it pump up in (x) amount of seconds, because the consistency of every product can varies.
I really take my time and calibrate the doser and test it after,

 

[horseplay]

Here's my take on calibrating dosers, don't.

What does it matter how many ml a minute are coming out ? I just adjust based off of test results. Sometimes I need a little more, sometimes I need a little less. Wether or not it's "calibrated" is this weird sort of variable that kind of doesn't matter.

I calibrated my two dosers for alk and calc simply because I wanted to dose the same amount. Otherwise what you said makes sense. Both of my BRS 1.1ml dosers pump out 2ml/mins. It's good to know the amount which correlates to how much dkh the tank consumes and know how long the dosing container will last.

 

[horseplay]

I thought the point of calibrating was to remove air so it can dose the right amount.
Otherwise, wouldn't you dose less if air is pushed through along with liquid?

the air bubbles live in the tubing kind of and they do not affect the dosing. you will never be able to get rid of them for some reason.

 

[Rjmul]

I thought the point of calibrating was to remove air so it can dose the right amount.
Otherwise, wouldn't you dose less if air is pushed through along with liquid?

You're talking about priming to get the air out

 

[Rjmul]

I calibrated my two dosers for alk and calc simply because I wanted to dose the same amount. Otherwise what you said makes sense. Both of my BRS 1.1ml dosers pump out 2ml/mins. It's good to know the amount which correlates to how much dkh the tank consumes and know how long the dosing container will last.

Sure yeah with those dosers it makes sense to do it once in the beginning. Because you're right, they're never 1.1

 

[Rjmul]

my point is this. If your doser (of any kind) is telling you you're dosing 10 mil a day of buffer, and your tank is happy with this. One night you decide it's time to calibrate this pump. You calibrate it to find that it was only dosing 8 mil a day not ten. You quickly correct that. Now your "10" mil a day is actually "12". Now your Alk spikes. You scramble, you quickly drop it down to 8. Which was technically where you started. now imagine if you overshot the correction.


much ado about nothing. Could have just left it alone.

For my tank, I'm dosing a gallon of kalk a day, 35 mil of all for reef, 5 mil of Acro power, and one mil on nitrate. I'm sure the actual values going in the tank are different. Could in fact be 3k mil of kalk, 40 of all for reef, 6 Acro power and .5 nitrate. I don't actually care. As long as my test results are where I want them.

 

[MadReefer]

my point is this. If your doser (of any kind) is telling you you're dosing 10 mil a day of buffer, and your tank is happy with this. One night you decide it's time to calibrate this pump. You calibrate it to find that it was only dosing 8 mil a day not ten. You quickly correct that. Now your "10" mil a day is actually "12". Now your Alk spikes. You scramble, you quickly drop it down to 8. Which was technically where you started. now imagine if you overshot the correction.


much ado about nothing. Could have just left it alone.

For my tank, I'm dosing a gallon of kalk a day, 35 mil of all for reef, 5 mil of Acro power, and one mil on nitrate. I'm sure the actual values going in the tank are different. Could in fact be 3k mil of kalk, 40 of all for reef, 6 Acro power and .5 nitrate. I don't actually care. As long as my test results are where I want them.

I get what you're saying. I don't think you can ever get all the air out of the line but I try to get as much as possible. Looking at the line you can see huge gaps between air and liquid.
I see this happen if the solution is lower then the line in the container. I now make sure to add so this doesn't happen as often.

 

[eholceker]

I get what you're saying. I don't think you can ever get all the air out of the line but I try to get as much as possible. Looking at the line you can see huge gaps between air and liquid.
I see this happen if the solution is lower then the line in the container. I now make sure to add so this doesn't happen as often.

Still playing around with dosers and test kits, haha. Just get an apex, trident, and a dos pump and be done with it. Lol

 

[MadReefer]

Still playing around with dosers and test kits, haha. Just get an apex, trident, and a dos pump and be done with it. Lol

 

[Rjmul]

Nah nah nah

 

[Bot587]

Bearing in mind what @Rjmul said, I calibrate once a month (Red Sea doser). Based on my result I adjust with a correction factor on my actual dosage number and test twice a day for next two days.
Also as a standard I test alk daily to ensure I’m stable.

priming lines clears air. Calibration ensures you are dosing what you think you are dosing.

Red Sea Doser doses 5 mL as cal dose. Sometimes this is 4.8 sometimes 4.9. Then I just do a cf as a ratio:

if I’m dosing 25 mL and it reads 4.8… 25/4.8 x 5 (newly calibrated)… this means I up my dose to 26 to account for my calibration change. As I said above I test twice a day after calibration to ensure I’m holding stable for the next two days

i only calibrate so I know my consumption. The way Rjmul does it will also work. They common ingredient is testing. Also never correct on a single test (outlier) without confirming in triplicate.