4 head doser on a 40g AIO

[Reefer Brent]

Sooo probably overkill but I'm excited to soon receive my new 4 head chihirios dosing system straight from Ghina! Black Friday deal got me.

I have a 40g aquatop AIO cube that is coming up on 2 years old. I have a very light coral population and a heavy bioload for the tank with 3 chromis a blackcap basslet and a clown pair. Various inverts.

Knock on wood sand is white as can be and no GHA or Dinos (I hate even typing this for superstitious reasons).

I'm typically high nutrients at .3ish phosphates and nitrates around 30-40.
Calcium and alk are typically in line but I test very little.

Corals look healthy but do not grow except for my hydnophora which is growing great now.

I currently use 1.5 tsp of BRS kalk in my 5g topoff tank. I also haphazardly dose magnesium and iron(in old kinder bbq sauce bottles one squeeze=a dose lol) I do a small pour of microbacter clean once a week. AB+ twice a week and reef roids once a week (when I remember) elements once a week.

So I guess you could say a doser is meant for people like me with 2 little ones and lots of house projects.

Anyway here's my question. What should I put in the 4 dosing bottles? I'm thinking Kalk Vodka magnesium and iron.

Please discuss!

Picture is first morning light so everything is not open yet.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

what volume can these dosers dispense in a day? Kalk dosing takes a lot, iron hardly any.

 

[Reefer Brent]

what volume can these dosers dispense in a day? Kalk dosing takes a lot, iron hardly any.

Containers are only 450ml

https://www.chihirosaquaticstudio.com/products/chihiros-dosing-pump-system?variant=43174208667866

 

[JTP424]

Is that cost PER container or for the set of 4?!?!? Same thing is on Amazon for $24 for a 4 pack... so I'm curious.

 

[Reefer Brent]

Is that cost PER container or for the set of 4?!?!? Same thing is on Amazon for $24 for a 4 pack... so I'm curious.

Whole set with pump containers tube's cradle and it's wifi with an app. $143 on black Friday

 

[exnisstech]

You bought a doser and now your wondering what to dose? Sounds like your working backwards to me. Ussualy people determine what they need to dose then look for a doser to fit the bill. Your tank looks good, nice and clean. I wouldn't start dosing stuff just because you got a cheap 4 head doser but that's JMO

It is isn't broke don't try to fix it comes to mind ;)

 

[Reefer Brent]

Yeah impulse buy I have been eyeing for a while. New gear is one of the things I enjoy about reefing. Also if my corals could start growing it would be great. But yeah totally get it cause I could definitely create a worse problem.

You bought a doser and now your wondering what to dose? Sounds like your working backwards to me. Ussualy people determine what they need to dose then look for a doser to fit the bill. Your tank looks good, nice and clean. I wouldn't start dosing stuff just because you got a cheap 4 head doser but that's JMO

It is isn't broke don't try to fix it comes to mind ;)

 

[Reefer Brent]

what volume can these dosers dispense in a day? Kalk dosing takes a lot, iron hardly any.

I could also use 2 of the pumps/containers for kalk. Would like to continue kalk for cost reasons but am open to other ideas.

 

[Reefer Brent]

Anyone else have any doser experience with smaller tanks?

 

[Lavey29]

Have you determined daily consumption of your primary elements? How do you know you need to dose trace elements like iron? Have you done a recent ICP test to look at all parameters?

If you have a lightly stocked tank under a year old you don't need to dose anything. Just regular water changes.

 

[rishma]

I think a large number of us use dosing pumps. I currently have 4 things I dose automatically via dosing pumps. My tank is very small, about 25 gallons.

When the tank started, I only used 1 head. Over time as I experimented and found the right daily dose of various additives, I would employ another dosing head. My tank is over 3 years old and I only started using the 4th head in the last couple of months.

Most of the time I think dosing pumps go hand In hand with water testing, or can be part of a solution to a problem. Since you don’t test much and you are happy with your tank, I’m not sure where to start.

In my own tanks, I always start with controlling alkalinity (and calcium). If you get interested in that, your dosing pumps can definitely be a good tool.

 

[SandNRocks]

I have a 40g aio and also a 4 head doser. I use one head to dose all for reef and another to dose rodi after the AFR and clear the dosing line. Heavy sps tank and havent needed anything else. Just now after 18 months i am going to start dosing a small amount of calcium as well as a trace element solution because the all for reef cant quite keep up any more.

 

[Reefer Brent]

Have you determined daily consumption of your primary elements? How do you know you need to dose trace elements like iron? Have you done a recent ICP test to look at all parameters?

If you have a lightly stocked tank under a year old you don't need to dose anything. Just regular water changes.

Yes more testing will be in my future to get things right. Tank is 20 months old at this point. I'm trying to get away from water changes as I only have time to do them at night after kids go to sleep and by that time I'm beat from the day.

I dose iron by recommendation of a LFS owner and have read it is hard to overdose it if instructions are followed. Trace elements I got on clearance and am giving them a shot once a week to see how corals react. So far so good.