RollaJase Posted July 24, 2014 Author Share Posted July 24, 2014 Don't mind the crappy phone picture but... https://imageshack.com/i/ex8818ebj'> ...we have a doser in the house! Just plugged it in and it powers on anyway which is a good sign. I'll play around with it a bit more this weekend and see if I can get it calibrated. I don't have my dosing containers yet so I wont be able to do much with it just yet, I'm expecting the containers to arrive in a week or so. I also had my rigid airline tubing and a bag of adhesive zip tie mounts arrive today. Now that I have the Alk stabilised above 9dKH the remaining SPS pieces are looking much better, a few pieces are on the brink of complete write offs but the larger healthier pieces are starting to colour up a bit more and show some PE. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 25, 2014 Author Share Posted July 25, 2014 Jump on the PC after work today and BAM... https://imageshack.com/i/id7f37fcp'> Thanks for the share Marine Depot . Link to comment
Kijho Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 Jump on the PC after work today and BAM... Thanks for the share Marine Depot . Awesome!! Congrats! Tank looks so amazing! Link to comment
gena Posted July 25, 2014 Share Posted July 25, 2014 Don't mind the crappy phone picture but... ...we have a doser in the house! Just plugged it in and it powers on anyway which is a good sign. I'll play around with it a bit more this weekend and see if I can get it calibrated. I don't have my dosing containers yet so I wont be able to do much with it just yet, I'm expecting the containers to arrive in a week or so. I also had my rigid airline tubing and a bag of adhesive zip tie mounts arrive today. Now that I have the Alk stabilised above 9dKH the remaining SPS pieces are looking much better, a few pieces are on the brink of complete write offs but the larger healthier pieces are starting to colour up a bit more and show some PE. I've got a doser now too and it's wonderful . Less work for me . Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 26, 2014 Author Share Posted July 26, 2014 Awesome!! Congrats! Tank looks so amazing! Thanks, the tank hasn't been the greatest lately and I am trying to get it all back on track. I've got a doser now too and it's wonderful . Less work for me . I'm really hoping it makes life easier Gena. Which one did you end up getting? The biggest issue I am having at the moment is that being winter over here my evap rate is much lower than normal. I have my Alk buffer in my top off water and its just not keeping things as stable as I like. I'm hoping to get the doser up this weekend and will feed straight from the Seachem liquid bottles that I have at the moment until I get my replacement Alk buffer and the dosing bottles that I ordered. Link to comment
gena Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Thanks, the tank hasn't been the greatest lately and I am trying to get it all back on track. I'm really hoping it makes life easier Gena. Which one did you end up getting? The biggest issue I am having at the moment is that being winter over here my evap rate is much lower than normal. I have my Alk buffer in my top off water and its just not keeping things as stable as I like. I'm hoping to get the doser up this weekend and will feed straight from the Seachem liquid bottles that I have at the moment until I get my replacement Alk buffer and the dosing bottles that I ordered. I got the Bubble Magus which looks very similar to yours. Mine has 3 heads as well. Kinda wish I went with the 4 head. Actually 5 heads would have been perfect . But I DO love it anyways. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 26, 2014 Author Share Posted July 26, 2014 I got the Bubble Magus which looks very similar to yours. Mine has 3 heads as well. Kinda wish I went with the 4 head. Actually 5 heads would have been perfect . But I DO love it anyways. That's great! I looked at the Bubble Magus units but couldn't find them locally. Your right, it does look very similar to the Marine Color unit that I got, as does the Kamoer units. From what I read they are pretty much the same units with slightly different pump heads. 3 heads should be fine for me for now. Alk, Cal and Mag is all I dose but can get an extra 3 pump slave unit quite cheap if I need more. I hope you get it all dialed in fairly easily . Link to comment
Zia Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Thanks for the share Marine Depot . So much Awesome right here Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 26, 2014 Author Share Posted July 26, 2014 So much Awesome right here Thanks buddy! I got another piece of awesome that I am yet to show, just waiting for the tank to wake up Link to comment
Zia Posted July 26, 2014 Share Posted July 26, 2014 Thanks buddy! I got another piece of awesome that I am yet to show, just waiting for the tank to wake up Edit: This ones better Tease! Show the goodz man Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 Haha, pics will be up in the next 10-15mins. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 I know Zia will be watching this thread like a hawk now so here is my latest addition to my tank: https://imageshack.com/i/idC83WQ1j'> Went to the LFS to offload some more zoa frags (drowning in zoas ATM) and managed to get this guy for less than half price. It is an A grade export piece and the LFS had about 5 or so of them. For me a Chalice has to be round so I settled on this guy as the rest of the pieces looked like awesome coloured Doritos haha. I have been doing lots of work on the tank lately. Stockpiling and cooking dry rock, sorting out the lighting/fan system for the stand, finishing the sump. Things are almost complete and hopefully I can get the tank back to a stage where it was better than it was in February. Link to comment
Zia Posted July 27, 2014 Share Posted July 27, 2014 I leave satisfied!! Love this piece. Looks like it still has lots of coloring up to do also, bonus! Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 27, 2014 Author Share Posted July 27, 2014 I leave satisfied!! Love this piece. Looks like it still has lots of coloring up to do also, bonus! Thanks bud. Pics aren't as good as they could be as I was still trying to combat some excess blue light in the tank. Still has a bit of colouring up to do yes, the LFS have their corals under cheap LED fixtures so it is always a gamble picking up pieces from these guys. Really paid off this time. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 28, 2014 Author Share Posted July 28, 2014 Can anyone say 'drug lab'? https://imageshack.com/i/iqF77sBkj'> Took about 30mins to set up and calibrate the doser and I have to say I love it already . Calibrated it to the Seachem liquid additives and I will recalibrate once I start mixing my own. Using the dosing amounts that I calculated before but halved the daily calcium dose as it looks like the tank is using much less then before. I'll test tomorrow night and see how things are based on what I tested tonight. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 28, 2014 Author Share Posted July 28, 2014 Also the vendor I purchased the Reef Builder from and received Reef Buffer instead said that if I send back the buffer they will send the correct item and refund me the freight charge. Seeing as they are halfway across the country hopefully I can get what I need early next week. Hopefully the Seachem liquid can last that long. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 29, 2014 Author Share Posted July 29, 2014 Get home from work and it seems my check valves that I put after the dosing pump heads are leaking as they are cheap crap. After a bit more research it doesn't look like they are required anyway as peri pumps should be completely sealed when they aren't pumping. Looks like the residue from the leaked additives have sealed the check valves for now. I will be removing them when I install the doser on my sump for good. Link to comment
markalot Posted July 29, 2014 Share Posted July 29, 2014 Yea, remove the check valves. If you have no leaks the peristaltic pumps should hold the liquid without any movement either direction. In addition, the business ends of the dosing hoses should be out of the water IMO, dripping into a location with decent flow. I put an old unused circulation pump in my first sump chamber. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 29, 2014 Author Share Posted July 29, 2014 Yea, remove the check valves. If you have no leaks the peristaltic pumps should hold the liquid without any movement either direction. In addition, the business ends of the dosing hoses should be out of the water IMO, dripping into a location with decent flow. I put an old unused circulation pump in my first sump chamber. I didn't have the time tonight but I'll definitely be removing them tomorrow if there are any further signs of leaks or loss of suction. Currently the pump is dosing next to my skimmer and is in direct line of sight of the MP10 so flow should not be an issue, definitely an inch or so above the water surface. Once the sump is installed dosing will occur in the drain chamber so I should be all set for water flow. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 29, 2014 Author Share Posted July 29, 2014 Results are in and after a single day of using the doser my Alk climbed 1dKH and Cal remained stable!. I put the Alk rise down to there still being some of the Alk top off solution in the ATO lines. I have knocked 2ml off the Alk dosing for tomorrow to bring it back down and will try to stabalise things over the next week. I am seriously considering getting rid of my near new Red Sea Coral Pro big bucket and replacing it with the Red Sea blue bucket. I am still undecided on this though, I'm not sure what I'll end up aiming for as my standard Alk level. I was thinking around 8-9dKH and with the blue bucket mixing in at about 8dKH it would be easier to dose up then try and bring coral pro down from 11.7dKH. Link to comment
gena Posted July 29, 2014 Share Posted July 29, 2014 I am seriously considering getting rid of my near new Red Sea Coral Pro big bucket and replacing it with the Red Sea blue bucket. I am still undecided on this though, I'm not sure what I'll end up aiming for as my standard Alk level. I was thinking around 8-9dKH and with the blue bucket mixing in at about 8dKH it would be easier to dose up then try and bring coral pro down from 11.7dKH. I was considering the same thing. But so far, doing a water change with the RSCP isn't really making the levels fluctuate, at all. I can't explain it. And I love that the mg is so high with this salt. I haven't had to dose any magnesium yet. Whenever I test my alk I'll get a reading anywhere from 9.3 to 9.9 dkh. Even after a water change. So I'll stick with the RSCP. Man....do I love having the doser . Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 30, 2014 Author Share Posted July 30, 2014 I was considering the same thing. But so far, doing a water change with the RSCP isn't really making the levels fluctuate, at all. I can't explain it. And I love that the mg is so high with this salt. I haven't had to dose any magnesium yet. Whenever I test my alk I'll get a reading anywhere from 9.3 to 9.9 dkh. Even after a water change. So I'll stick with the RSCP. Man....do I love having the doser . I absolutely love the doser . I have a water change scheduled for sometime this coming weekend so I'll test before and after the change to see how it affects my Alk levels. I like the higher Mag levels of the RSCP also, my Mag is quite low as the moment. It has dipped down to the mid 1100ppm's. Not sure why, probably as I am dosing less of he Cal solution that had the Mag buffer integrated into it. I am manual dosing Mag right now using the Seachem Advantage Magnesium, once my dosing containers arrive and I will automate the Mag dosing as well, would like to keep the levels around 1300ppm. Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 After re-thinking--again--all the hoops I'm jumping through to keep levels stable at a lower alk and ca than the RSCP mix, I decided to bite the bullet and ordered the blue bucket yesterday. I feel like everyone uses RSCP and I'm going into unknown territory. Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 30, 2014 Author Share Posted July 30, 2014 After re-thinking--again--all the hoops I'm jumping through to keep levels stable at a lower alk and ca than the RSCP mix, I decided to bite the bullet and ordered the blue bucket yesterday. I feel like everyone uses RSCP and I'm going into unknown territory. That's pretty much how I feel as well. I'll see what happens with my next water change, if I have a huge fluctuation I will be pickup up a blue bucket and try to sell of my current bucket. Maybe I'll get lucky and the fluctuation wont be as bad like in Gena's case. Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted July 30, 2014 Share Posted July 30, 2014 That's pretty much how I feel as well. I'll see what happens with my next water change, if I have a huge fluctuation I will be pickup up a blue bucket and try to sell of my current bucket. Maybe I'll get lucky and the fluctuation wont be as bad like in Gena's case. Lucky girl! Hopefully you are too. I'm not so lucky unfortunately. It swings 1.5 dKH with each water change. Maybe it's the smaller overall water volume? If I do more frequent small changes, alk creeps up higher than my SPS like it. I thought about dosing less to compensate, but that means more swings and more manual work/testing. I just want to be a lazy reefer and let the controller/doser do all that work for me! :-) Right now it would be great to siphon up a bunch of brown goo off the sand--get that @@@@ out of the tank, ya know? But can't risk upsetting the acros even more by spiking alk with fresh water. That was the last straw for trying out the other salt. LOL Link to comment
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