Dosing system, or Manual Dosing? What do you do?

[Michael_Price]

I have been manually dosing my whole time having my system. I am now considering getting a Jebao DP-4 for around $70 to auto Dose my NO3 PO-4-X Reducer, Cal, and Alk. I currently test these through the week, Manually dose, and do to my crazy work schedule its a pain.

 

So who here manually doses, or auto doses. Or perhaps doesn't dose at all? Here's my set up, I could easily add a dosing system in the bottom of my stand.

 

[burtbollinger]

your setup looks so clean, its begging for some dosers. do it.

[Asureef]

Make your life easier, get a doser.

[shaneandjohn]

your setup looks so clean, its begging for some dosers. do it.

Burt nailed it. You have plenty of room, so it makes sense. I am very envious of how clean, organized, and spacious your cabinet it.

[Michael_Price]

Ha ha thanks guys. guess ill go ahead and order it!

[lkoechle]

with my 85 I had a 2 year old and a newborn, having the DOS (we are all apex here) took so much stress off of me. I would have forgotten so much and it makes vacations easier too. If you have the space and money (which it seems you do Mr. SumpBucket), definitely automate that lol

[Michael_Price]

with my 85 I had a 2 year old and a newborn, having the DOS (we are all apex here) took so much stress off of me. I would have forgotten so much and it makes vacations easier too. If you have the space and money (which it seems you do Mr. SumpBucket), definitely automate that lol

 

 

Ha ha thanks, I think it will make my work weeks less stressful. Sometimes I get home at 10:30pm and think "Crap, I need to test my water"

 

#BucketSumpRules

#HighClass

#NextLevel

[pal]

I agree , Auto dosing makes life much easier. I just dose 2 part. Do you have a skimmer ? If not I would not dose nopox

[Michael_Price]

I do have a skimmer, so should be good! I did read that its required when using no pox.

How much/often do you have your system set up to dose?

[Clown79]

Manual. It takes no time to do it and less chance for malfunction.

[pal]

I do have a skimmer, so should be good! I did read that its required when using no pox.

 

How much/often do you have your system set up to dose?

I think I am at 18ml a night, spread out over the lights off period with a 5 min delay between ca and alk. get a hanna alk checker figure out what your tank uses and you should be good to go .

 

Manual. It takes no time to do it and less chance for malfunction.

maybe less chance of a malfunction. but way more labor intensive

[reefist]

I'm at my tank often. Tossing in some supplements is easy while I'm there. It makes me feel like I'm doing something.

[Clown79]

^ thats how i feel.

 

I'm more interactive with it, feel i am more responsible, and accomplishing something..

[Michael_Price]

I'm at my tank often. Tossing in some supplements is easy while I'm there. It makes me feel like I'm doing something.

 

^ thats how i feel.

 

I'm more interactive with it, feel i am more responsible, and accomplishing something..

 

Unfortunately with my crazy schedule, I don't always have time to sit in front of it as long as I would like. (I could easily sit in front of it for a long time ) Two days a week I give it a good chunk of attention, test water parameters, check my corals and livestock for problems, etc. But the only thing I have time for daily is feeding.

 

Some days I get off work at 7pm, and other days, like last night I got home at 9:45 pm after working all day. (my day starts at 7am) so of course I went straight to my tank to feed the fish before the lights shut off! But I got "The Glare" from my wife who just wanted to watch a show with me and go to sleep . So of course all I had time for was feeding! If I were to start testing water, measuring supplements, inspecting fish and coral, I would most likely have slept in the dog house! .

 

So I guess I am the perfect example of who dosing systems are made for

 

It will keep my dosing in check throughout the week, and on the days I invest time into my tank, I can focus on other things since that will be taking care of the supplements for me.

[Michael_Price]

Added my dosing system over the weekend

Just ordered one more container and Red Sea Magnesium to hook up as well.

 

 

 

[TheKahnasaur]

Very clean setup. Your doser looks like it was meant to be there. Most dosers say the heads nead to be horizontal (not how you have it) to be the most precise, but I can't say if it's necessary or not.

[Michael_Price]

I'm sure its meant to be sitting with the control panel facing up but it would have been a pain anytime I need to change the settings I would have to pull it out. So at least this way I can play with it without removing anything. I calibrated it in the position and tested it, and it works great

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Looking good. I'm with the "dosing pump" crowd. I travel for work so it's not even an option to dose manually. Personally I'm just dosing carbonate, but I maintain a relatively high alkalinity (around 11), which requires a steady stream of alkalinity. Calcium I test weekly and correct manually. Magnesium I test monthly and correct manually. Those two usually don't drop as much in my situation.

 

Although I will probably need to start dosing Calcium once my phosphates are in check and my corals start growing again.

[Michael_Price]

Calcium is my biggest problem ha ha, It drops like mad. It can go from 420ppm to 370ppm in 3 days without dosing. I hear my clam is probably a large reason, as well as a reasonable amount of coral in my tank. My alk stays pretty solid around 9 with only 2ml a week being added. Mag I'll start dosing and testing next week.