Best dosing system/way to manage alk/mag levels?

[matthew_coletta]

Hi all,

I know Apex is probably most common, but I was wondering if people had another way to manage their parameters. My tank has been running for about 4 years and had a lot of LPS, but I had to constantly tweak my Jaebao... I currently have mushrooms and zoas that are doing well, but would like to go back into LPS. Not really looking to do sps though. Just looking for other opinions and what's worked well for people.

 

[blaxsun]

An Apex, DOS and Trident provides a very-effective way of dosing (Trident-controlled). While I make the occasional tweak, it's more to refine the amount as I add new corals, etc.

There are lots of dosing options out there, so it really depends on what you all want to achieve, ie: automated testing, automated dosing or both.

 

[matthew_coletta]

An Apex, DOS and Trident provides a very-effective way of dosing (Trident-controlled). While I make the occasional tweak, it's more to refine the amount as I add new corals, etc.

There are lots of dosing options out there, so it really depends on what you all want to achieve, ie: automated testing, automated dosing or both.

That's what I thought people would recommend. Do you have an estimate of what a setup would cost pre-owned/new? Or perhaps, what it wound up costing you? And what are all of the pieces you have set up in total?

 

[blaxsun]

That's what I thought people would recommend. Do you have an estimate of what a setup would cost pre-owned/new? Or perhaps, what it wound up costing you? And what are all of the pieces you have set up in total?

My Neptune setup probably ran me $2,500 CAD, which includes:

• Neptune Apex and 2x EB832 Energy Bars
• Neptune DOS, DDR and Trident
• Neptune FMM, ATK, PMK

I started with the Apex, Energy Bars, DOS and Trident. I added the DDR and the other modules piece by piece (maybe one every 3 months or so). Is it worth it? For me, absolutely - yes. Keep in mind that I'm running this on a 200-gallon system so it works out to an investment of $12.50 per gallon. For a smaller tank (<100 gallons) I might look at something like the Red Sea ReefDose because you can run everything through the app, test periodically with the Red Sea test kits (which are all good) and make the occasional adjustment with to your dosing. A lot of people also use Tropic Marin All For Reef so they only need a single dosing pump.

Automation is great - just remember that it's only as good as the user running it. You have to periodically recalibrate probes, and even Trident-controlled dosing isn't 100% (it's probably about 95-99% effective, because it can't take into account the addition of new corals, etc.)

 

[Cali Reef Life]

Red sea doser works for me I only dose alk and calcium but they have a 4 pump version very accurate.

 

[matthew_coletta]

Red sea doser works for me I only dose alk and calcium but they have a 4 pump version very accurate.

Is it complicated to set up/run?

 

[Cali Reef Life]

Is it complicated to set up/run?

No its supper simple you download app and then calibrate it once. Its all done by app and then you can change the dose as your demand increases. I'd say from out of box to full setup about an hour. You can put like 10 mg spread out over 24 hours each day etc. I will say you can test how much it raises your tank over a couple days and then set it and forget it. As your demand goes up you just add a few mg of dose per day.

 

[polyppal]

I use basic Kamoer X1s and they're great. 60$ a piece and good app.
(they use bluetooth, the wifi Kamoers that are more expensive suck)

 

[Cali Reef Life]

One thing to note though is the dosing tubes were sold separately I bought the red sea dosing kit ReefDose Deluxe 4-Color Tube Kit (Red/Yellow) - Red Sea. Helps with keeping track of which pump is mixing what.

 

[Ef4life]

Every morning I wake up and manually dose alk, ca, and tropic Marin part c.

it’s never failed me in over 4 years.

 

[Cali Reef Life]

Every morning I wake up and manually dose alk, ca, and tropic Marin part c.

it’s never failed me in over 4 years.

I travel for work and don't trust my girlfriend to dose haha

 

[matthew_coletta]

No its supper simple you download app and then calibrate it once. Its all done by app and then you can change the dose as your demand increases. I'd say from out of box to full setup about an hour. You can put like 10 mg spread out over 24 hours each day etc. I will say you can test how much it raises your tank over a couple days and then set it and forget it. As your demand goes up you just add a few mg of dose per day.

That sounds like exactly what I want. How much did it run you?

 

[Cali Reef Life]

That sounds like exactly what I want. How much did it run you?

I paid 229 for the 2 pump and 20 bucks for the kit a year ago. Now the 2 pump is 249 and 30 for tubing the kit. Get the tubing kit it makes your sump so much cleaner and easier. I think the 4 pump one is 399. I manually dose mag couple times a month so I didn't get the 4 pump one. Tip make sure you connect to 2.4 g Wi-Fi and not 5 g. It took me 15 minutes to figure that out but if you run into issues bunch of YouTube videos on it or message me I am in IT. It did fail to connect to Wi-Fi a couple times at first but other then that fairly straight forward.

 

[matthew_coletta]

I paid 229 for the 2 pump and 20 bucks for the kit a year ago. Now the 2 pump is 249 and 30 for tubing the kit. Get the tubing kit it makes your sump so much cleaner and easier. I think the 4 pump one is 399. I manually dose mag couple times a month so I didn't get the 4 pump one. Tip make sure you connect to 2.4 g Wi-Fi and not 5 g. It took me 15 minutes to figure that out but if you run into issues bunch of YouTube videos on it or message me I am in IT. It did fail to connect to Wi-Fi a couple times at first but other then that fairly straight forward.

Thanks so much for all the info. So this system is capable of testing automatically or do you manually test?

 

[Cali Reef Life]

Thanks so much for all the info. So this system is capable of testing automatically or do you manually test?

It's not, I manually test just use the red sea calcium pro kit and alk test kit salifert test kit. Every week or 2 takes like 10 minutes to do both. I had a Hana and it broke on me so sticking with the manual. I will say test often when first get a doser because you want to find the right amount for your tank. I