Dosing Location

[Joel B in FL]

I will be adding a dosing pump in the near future to my system and had a question about where the additives should be added. It appears that most people have the additives dosed into the return section of the sump. I understand that this is a good section for several reasons but my thought was is it the best or only place to add. I have been manually adding my calcium and alkalinity and have been doing so into the return section for a few weeks now. My issue is that no matter how slowly I add the alk it will always cloud up and clump for a little while until it fully dissolves. Now I do add it slow enough that I do not cloud the tank or see any clumps in the tank but I still think I could be creating temporary "hot spots" of calc and alk under the return lines in the tank. My thought is to add the calc and alk to the fuge so that it can disperse more evenly prior to hitting the return section. I cannot remember where I saw it but I even think I remember seeing where someone had their dosing lines going in prior to their skimmer and fuge section. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Is there anything to consider when deciding where to have the additives added?

 

[jsker]

I used to add my alk (kalwasser) via my ato water and had a small power head string the ATO tank. The ato would add the water to the return of the sump. I would add my Ca, Mg via water changes and stir the salt mixture with another power head and add the elements.

I switch the the balling method and use a liquid product that is pre mixed to dose my tank in my return.

 

[Joel B in FL]

I used to add my alk (kalwasser) via my ato water and had a small power head string the ATO tank. The ato would add the water to the return of the sump. I would add my Ca, Mg via water changes and stir the salt mixture with another power head and add the elements.

I switch the the balling method and use a liquid product that is pre mixed to dose my tank in my return.

Yea I am currently using BRS calc, alk, and mag supplements which I mix and then add to the return section. I just from a personal thought I would like to add them sooner rather than later so they can disperse and have less of a hot spot so to speak.

 

[Salty1962]

I add my Alk and Ca alternating to my return section. The dosser drips the elements slowly enough to keep the cloudiness down. Can't see a reason to add it to the PS section. You'd be pulling out your elements before they can get to your tank. JMO

 

[Joel B in FL]

I add my Alk and Ca alternating to my return section. The dosser drips the elements slowly enough to keep the cloudiness down. Can't see a reason to add it to the PS section. You'd be pulling out your elements before they can get to your tank. JMO

Yea that's what I thought as well but like I said I have seen it done so I thought I would get other people's opinion on it.

 

[rsumner]

I know this is an old thread, but I've been struggling with this issue lately myself. I use the Neptune DOS for my two-part and the lowest setting it has is about 7mL/min. To add to the concern, I run quite a bit of equipment off a manifold that's attached to my return pump. So, when I dump 15mL of carbonate solution into my return section, it doesn't have time to dissolve prior to getting sucked up by the return pump. In the last month, I've had to break down my return pump, my skimmer, my bio pellet reactor, and my carbon reactor and scrub them down with citric acid due to the massive amounts of build-up.

It's gotten so bad that I'm almost afraid to dose anything at this point.

I have switched the location of my dosing lines to in the main skimmer section but downstream from the skimmer so that any dosing amounts will have time to dissolve prior to dumping over the bubble trap and into the return. I've had Calcium dosing turned off for the last week and only running Carbonate dosing. Dosing is running every hour with 30 minutes between calcium and carbonate.