Pazzoman

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Hello Everyone,

I have a bubble magus dosing pump with three channels sitting brand new in its box along with reservoirs and all the chemicals needed (All/Mag/Calcium) by Kent. Some reason I have been intimidated to set it up, and now that I have a lot of corals and no Coraline algae in my 40 gallon IM tank, im considering finally setting it up. Any tips on setting it up? Like how should I set It up? Heard something you have to do a water change, than test your water after a week and see what's get depleted and so on. Anyone have any input?

40 gallon IM with mainly LPS dominated along with a few sps (birds nest, mdntipora)
 

pecan2phat

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Wallingford, CT
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Can't say for the Kent supplements but when I first started dosing with ESV, I followed the directions of 1ml per 4g of tank capacity for both alkalinity and calcium. Magnesium does not change enough for daily dosing so I just manually dose that after testing.
I would first bring the alkalinity, calcium, magnesium to where I want them to be then start with the initial dosing and test same day once per week and adjust the dose.
So in summary, I have a 180g.
Tested and brought levels to target.
I did 5ml every hour for 9x (alkalinity at night, calcium during day).
Test every week on day dosing started, adjust based on draw.
Started in June @ 45ml per part per day and now 6 months later at 120ml per part per day.
Since the amount is high, I now dose every 2 hours for 12x. Even hour for 1 part and odd hour for other part.
 

Pazzoman

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Location
Yonkers
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19   0   0
Can't say for the Kent supplements but when I first started dosing with ESV, I followed the directions of 1ml per 4g of tank capacity for both alkalinity and calcium. Magnesium does not change enough for daily dosing so I just manually dose that after testing.
I would first bring the alkalinity, calcium, magnesium to where I want them to be then start with the initial dosing and test same day once per week and adjust the dose.
So in summary, I have a 180g.
Tested and brought levels to target.
I did 5ml every hour for 9x (alkalinity at night, calcium during day).
Test every week on day dosing started, adjust based on draw.
Started in June @ 45ml per part per day and now 6 months later at 120ml per part per day.
Since the amount is high, I now dose every 2 hours for 12x. Even hour for 1 part and odd hour for other part.


Thanks, I made a mistake not Kent, I have everything ESV as well. Thank you I will try sometime today, really want to get it rolling. Heard the wonders of dosing does with coral growth as well as the hard to get Purple Coraline algae growth on the rocks instead of the dark green that cant be scrubbed off kind lol
 

pecan2phat

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I'm pretty impressed with 2-part. I find that the SPS have a little more color and growth. Before I restarted this tank, I was a long time (15 years) calcium reactor user.
But it is starting to get pricey, I'm going through the gallon containers at exactly 1 month.
 

Pazzoman

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Thanks appreciate the info, i just tested my tank today. Calcium was at 415/Alk 5.7/ MG at 1200 after a water change. Also realized that the saltwater that i was getting for weekly waterchanges was with instant ocean (regular not reef crystals). Have a feeling thats why everything is pretty low since been using that water for a year now lol. So will be very soon making my own water so i can keep track of tds as well as use high quality salts. Tonight i will test the water and see how much did my corals ?absorb? to have an idea of dosing schedule. Or maybe I will test and still wait till i change salt/do my own water before dosing?
 

pecan2phat

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I would bring your parameters back into balance first.
Balanced alkalinity for a calcium level of 415 ppm is 7.7 DKH.
But before you even attempt that, you should raise magnesium to 1350 ppm first.
If this was my tank, I?d go a step further and bring the levels to target entirely.
 

Pazzoman

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Thanks for info, i used Red Sea Kit and Hammah checker for All, heard those kits were the best for what i was testing. Ok so tonight at 1am will be a full 24 hours since i tested the water/water change. So im curious what my results will be, should be leas if not mistaken, id be suprise if things went higher. I?ll update with the readings. And i will go from there
 

Pazzoman

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After 10% water change, results:

MG 1220 Cal 415 Alk 5.7

24 hours since last tested, results:

MG 1200 Cal 375 Alk 5.1

Out of curiosity if anyone is using Red Sea kits, have 2 questions:

When filling up the 1.0 of either Cal or Mg solution it requires a sharp plastic cone tip on it. Does anyone have a hard time getting to the 1.0 with he tip on? With the tip it goes up to around .9...so what I been doing is taking off the tip, filling up the syringe, than placing the tip back on, push the syringe till it hit 1.0ml with tip.., does that sound accurate? Feel like I'm doing it wrong which would alter results
 

Pazzoman

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Looks like my readings are all false

After watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-z3yZYppP8

Realize that the gap was compensated by the tip, instead I had the tip filled as well as the entire syringe to the 1.0 which means together I was using 1.15 ml in the syringe. Since the tip is equivalent to .15 ml.

Now Im trying to figure out the math to get the correct readings.

Which I cant figure it out, so I guess I have to wait to test everything again.
 

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