Dosing a pico

lucyretz · Apr 19, 2022

Hey reefers

I have a 3 gallon pico packed with euphyllia (it is a temporary tank, we are moving to a large waterbox in the next few months).
Now in a tank this small obviously the fluctuations are a struggle, i test nightly and the ato keeps my salinity stable, cal and mag don’t move much. weekly 25% water changes. alk has been an issue, so i purchased a red sea reef dose to help me keep it stable.
my question is, once i fine tune it to dose the exact amount of alk consumed daily (almost there…) it will be roughly 0.6ml. in a tank this small should i have it break that total amount up over the day? if so at what times? red sea is capable of accurately dosing down to 0.2ml so i could split up into 2 or 3 doses.

thank you kindly everyone

HuduVudu · Apr 19, 2022

@lucyretz just be aware dosers drift. Some worse than others. Until you know where your doser falls in that equation calibrate and test constantly, because as you are well aware mistakes are the end in a tank that size.

Nano sapiens · Apr 19, 2022

Quite frankly, most people with small pico/nano tanks just hand dose a balanced alk and Ca product once a day (testing should be done at the same time of day).

Since you have a doser, you can just spread the dosing out over 24 hrs. I use a Kalkwasser/RO mix in a gravity fed ATO that adds according to evaporation rate (usually ~every 2-3 hours or so).

Some minor swings in Alk are not going to cause issues with LPS.

lucyretz · Apr 19, 2022

HuduVudu said:
@lucyretz just be aware dosers drift. Some worse than others. Until you know where your doser falls in that equation calibrate and test constantly, because as you are well aware mistakes are the end in a tank that size.

100%. to tell you it gives me heart palpitations would be an …understatement .. i’ve been measuring the amounts it’s pushing and so far it’s on the money but continuing to test the tank sometimes even 2 or 3 times daily. it’ll be a good day moving to a tank with over 100 gallons of water volume

lucyretz · Apr 19, 2022

Nano sapiens said:
Quite frankly, most people with small pico/nano tanks just hand dose a balanced alk and Ca product once a day (testing should be done at the same time of day).

Since you have a doser, you can just spread the dosing out over 24 hrs. I use a Kalkwasser/RO mix in a gravity fed ATO that adds according to evaporation rate (usually ~every 2-3 hours or so).

Some minor swings in Alk are not going to cause issues with LPS.

to be up front with you, I was hand dosing it and the reason i invested in a doser is because i’m a rather forgetful human, and a few times in the morning i forgot to dose causing a swing . so i figured investing in a quality doser may be the best way to keep the alk stable. thought about adding to my gravity ato, but because it’s a tiny tank i figured that may be a risky move.