Dosing should be easy!
Definitely read all of Randy's articles on Reefkeeping.com - but that's a lot of reading and may take some experience to fully grok. Here's my nutshell in a nutshell version for newbs.
CaCl you can reliable dump in - just about in any quantity. In my 100 gallon system, I've dumped in 1 liter of
BRS's Recipe 1 for adjustments a few times and had no issue.
Buffers are where you need to be careful - due to potential for pH changes, etc - drip slowly, and dilute the solution in the dripper if necessary and you won't have a problem. There should be minimal to no clouding where you're dripping. Increase water flow where you drip, slow the drip rate or increase the dilution (or all three) if you do get a lot of clouding.
To wit, I've dosed Brightwell as well as
BRS Recipe 1 buffers up to 500mL per dose (daily is ~150mL) at the "same time" as my Ca Cl (again Brightwell or
BRS). I made a dripper our of a
Simply Orange* orange juice bottle (great size and form..plenty big and sits nicely on the corner of my sump) and I add about .5-1 liter of RO DI in with the dose to dilute it. I drip about as fast as possible, where the the buffer still drips, but does not stream. I just used an airline valve to control the flow. Been doing this for about 4 years now and never had an issue. Kent's
doser is a decent commercial alternative that I've also used with good success.
Ditto the dosing regime above for Kalk. For a more automated method, I really like
Tunze's 5074 kalk reactor and I use it with a standard Rio pump coupled to my
Ultralife ATO system. It isolates the pump from the Kalk and is easy to maintain. I had my LFS order one for me. I also dose vinegar in the RO bucket and this will give a huge boost to the Ca and buffering output of the 5074. I have measured the effluent at about 100ppm Ca (Salifert) with just Kalk (4 Tsp) and about 200ppm with my typical vinegar load. Don't have the links handy anymore, but there's a ratio for vinegar:kalk that you'll want to dig up and stick to if your intention is not also to be dosing vinegar. (I do not.)
What you really want to avoid is cross contamination of your Ca and Buffer. I still don't know how it happened, but I once unknowingly had some Alk get into my CaCl and when I poured out a dose it was thick - almost pasty - and cloudy white. At the time, I was both sleepy and ignorant of the fact that this goo was basically liquid chalk and I dosed it anyway. I woke in the morning to find all my pumps (skimmer, return, etc) seized and even the siphon break holes in my return plumbing had become blocked with chalk. A serious mess if you can imagine all the ramifications. I lost some corals due to exposure to air, but miraculously my sump held the excess drain water - no flood. The meniscus was
over the rim of the sump too. :-)
With a little understand and knowing what to look for (all above) you should have no issues dosing -- it is not magic. ;-)
-Matt
* A little coincidental promo for them too....
best orange juice I've ever had - by a wide margin. ;-)They use flavor packets. :( I like Uncle Matt's now (no relation) but their containers are not as good for making a dripper.
