Digital timer for dosing

[Andrew_B]

What's a good digital timer to run dosing pumps? Needs to be able to do down to the minute. I've been looking all over and not finding anything.

I need two of them (one for cal, one for alk... I'll be dosing mag manually as needed).

I was told to start off dosing slow (they are 1.1ml per minute units) by doing 2 minutes every 4 hours. And doing 12 hours of dosing cal, and 12 hours of dosing alk... not alternating them or at same time. So calcium during the day, alk at night etc etc.


Late night over-explainations... Again, looking for a timer that can do 1-2 minute intervals, multiple times a day. What do you guys use? Or is it time to just nut up and get a reefkeeper or something.

[mgarrido]

Digital timer for dosing

Time to get a real reef controller like the rk or apex

[mgarrido]

Digital timer for dosing

But before dose you need to know what is your alk, cal and mg levels and setup your dose according your corals consume

[Andrew_B]

Yeah... that's what I was afraid of. Just don't think I would be using it to it's potential though. I don't need a heater (I have one set for like 76 degrees *just incase*) My lights have a built in 24h timer. My ato is gravity fed. I guess I could use it for powerheads as well. Instead of just one k3 on full time, I could put my other back in and alternate them or something.

[Andrew_B]

Yeah, I have test kits in the mail now and the BRS reef calculator bookmarked

[mgarrido]

Digital timer for dosing

Do a normal water change and wait 30 minutes before test your parameters.
You can do more than just that with the controller, ie: temp controller for turn on your heater, lights or a fan/chiller, turn off your filtration for x minutes when you are feeding your corals, monitor your ph and stop dosing in case your ph is too high, setup alerts and more, it will help you a lot man

[Darbex]

IMO manual dosing every couple of days is fine for your size tank. Unless you really want to automate the dosing but then you really need to get an apex controller.

[SunnyHouTX]

Re: Digital timer for dosing

So how does Omar have such beautiful tanks without the hi-tech?

[mgarrido]

Digital timer for dosing

So how does Omar have such beautiful tanks without the hi-tech?

not all SW tanks are the same, there is a big difference between lps, softies and sps dominant tanks. Also I know Omar use Kalkwasser for keep alk/cal in check.

[Darbex]

Digital timer for dosing

Just like planted tanks hi-tech isn't needed but it makes it easier if you automate things. My next build will be completely automated. That the only work I have to do is WC and that's going to be semi auto.

[Darbex]

Digital timer for dosing

And kalk will make dosing virtually unneeded IMO.

[rage]

If you dose with kalkwasser, you can use your ATO.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1826795

[Andrew_B]

I have kalk as well, just haven't started using it yet. Does it need to be a part of ATO or can I slow drip it into the sump? How my ATO is set it, it's gravity fed inside of my stand, so it only holds 2 gallons. If I add kalk, I was told, I would have to raise the outtake a little bit, so the loose kalk debris doesn't drop into the sump either which would reduce my small ATO tank even more. With my lights, I'm already losing 3/4g a day so trying to avoid that. What if I was to mix the kalk in this tall/skinny 1g jug from BRS, then just drip it slowly into the tank using a little ball valve. So it stays apart from my ATO. Does kalk need to be perfectly dosed, or is there some wiggle room?

In terms of cal/mg/alk, I'll just dose manually until I figure out what I want to do. I have zero room inside my stand for it, so I would have to build a box/shelf right next to the tank to house everything. I'll probably look into buying myself a RKL for a xmas present. That way, I could ditch this gravity fed ATO and hook up this Aqualifter pump to a 10g tank or something, then be able to mix kalk into it easier.

[madehtsobi]

mine is setup like this..

http://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-chemistry-forum/54889-kalk-all-s-cracked-up.html