Carbon dosing once daily or hourly

[cilyjr]

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to having a peristaltic pump dose a carbon regiment daily versus hourly?

The choice would be have it dose the full amount once a day which is roughly 7 ml for my system for maintenance purposes.

Or

Have the pump dose a small amount every 3 hours or so throughout the day.

What would you do? are there any advantages to either?

 

[lapin]

I do it once a day by hand. No fancy pump needed. Unless you are dosing a lot of carbon and worried about Ph changes or only running a skimmer certain times a day I see no need to do more than 1 time a day

 

[cilyjr]

Right on. I'm still going to use the pump because I want it to be something that's done automatically when I am away.

it's interesting I've been doing this hobby for almost 20 years and never bothered with carbon dosing. I moved across the country and set up a new 120 gallon tank and decided to give it a try from the get-go and I am amazed at how it is keeping algae at Bay. I do believe that the water is clear as well. And I'm definitely seeing the uptick in skimmer performance.

 

[Pistondog]

Right on. I'm still going to use the pump because I want it to be something that's done automatically when I am away.

it's interesting I've been doing this hobby for almost 20 years and never bothered with carbon dosing. I moved across the country and set up a new 120 gallon tank and decided to give it a try from the get-go and I am amazed at how it is keeping algae at Bay. I do believe that the water is clear as well. And I'm definitely seeing the uptick in skimmer performance.

The skimmer has more to remove. Carbon dosing produces more bacteria that are ultimately removed (with captured nutrients) by the skimmer.

 

[Rmckoy]

The only issue I would see with manually dosing would be losing track or testing as it’s no longer part of a routine .

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I chose to spread out the dosing during the light cycle for 2 main reasons:

1. Organic carbon dosing tends to lower pH when CO2 is produced.
2. Organic carbon dosing tends to lower O2 as the organic is metabolized.

I would prefer both of these to happen during the daylight hours when pH and O2 are naturally highest, and to spread it out so the effect at any given time is minimized.

 

[cilyjr]

Setting it to dose a couple times daily would be no problem.

 

[Tub Life]

I chose to spread out the dosing during the light cycle for 2 main reasons:

1. Organic carbon dosing tends to lower pH when CO2 is produced.
2. Organic carbon dosing tends to lower O2 as the organic is metabolized.

I would prefer both of these to happen during the daylight hours when pH and O2 are naturally highest, and to spread it out so the effect at any given time is minimized.

Makes sense.
I just started my first dose yesterday at 10ml.
It's on a doser, so might as well spread it out, I'm thinking 12pm- 3ml, 3pm- 4ml, and 6pm- 3ml.

I know it's an old thread, but it's the exact question I was pondering.

 

[Waldek M.]

I chose to spread out the dosing during the light cycle for 2 main reasons:

1. Organic carbon dosing tends to lower pH when CO2 is produced.
2. Organic carbon dosing tends to lower O2 as the organic is metabolized.

I would prefer both of these to happen during the daylight hours when pH and O2 are naturally highest, and to spread it out so the effect at any given time is minimized.

Tropic Marin NP-Bacto-Balance is recommended to be used once when turning on the lights. Do you think it is better to spread the dosage of this product throughout the day?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Makes sense.
I just started my first dose yesterday at 10ml.
It's on a doser, so might as well spread it out, I'm thinking 12pm- 3ml, 3pm- 4ml, and 6pm- 3ml.

I know it's an old thread, but it's the exact question I was pondering.

Sounds good. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Tropic Marin NP-Bacto-Balance is recommended to be used once when turning on the lights. Do you think it is better to spread the dosage of this product throughout the day?

Spreading out cannot be worse and may limit the O2 drop. I’d do that.

 

[Waldek M.]

Spreading out cannot be worse and may limit the O2 drop. I’d do that.

Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing :)