Dosing Plan - When & with what...

[psumms]

Hi all, I'm now using a D-D P4 Pro dosing pump and which give great control over chemical anti-interference, split dosing over a schedule etc. and its got me researching for answers to a couple of questions...

For each of my Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, NoPoX ...

1. Recommended times of day to dose? e.g. Morning, afternoon, evening, lights on/off etc.
2. Daily dose in one hit or spread evenly in many or a few doses? e.g. 50ml Alk or 10x 5ml throughout the day.
3. Anything that should be dosed closer of with greater separation, e.g. 15 minutes between...

As a second stage to my plan, extending to the Red Sea mixed reef recipe, including trace elements and coral nutrition, anything to consider re. the above there?

Thank you in advance for any advice, as always, much appreciated.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Hi there! I'm definitely no expert on dosing, but I have been dosing 2-part by hand for several months now and have done a ton of research so hopefully I can provide some insight and then someone more knowledgeable than me can chime in as well.

For dosing 2-part (alkalinity/calcium), I generally try to dose alkalinity (BRS Soda Ash) in the evenings close to lights out to give the tank a small pH boost for the night. Then I'll dose calcium in the morning before I leave for work. I used to wait ~30 minutes after dosing alkalinity and then dose calcium but found it easier just to wait until the morning.

However, I've recently run into the issue where my dosing is not keeping up with the tank's demands. I've read the rule of thumb is you don't want to have the alkalinity swing more than 1 dKH in a day, so if your tank is consuming that much or more, you'll need to be dosing periodically throughout the day to maintain stability and prevent large swings from dosing. I'll likely be investing in a dosing pump soon because of this issue.

In general though, I think dosing small amounts periodically throughout the day is better for overall tank stability than dosing a large amount all at once, so that's what I would recommend.

Regarding dosing separation, you absolutely need to separate the times that you dose alkalinity and calcium in order to avoid precipitation. 15 minutes apart would probably be alright, but I would recommend 30 minutes or more. For example: you could dose alkalinity on the hour every hour and calcium on the half hour.

Regarding dosing magnesium, you could honestly dose that by hand if you even need to at all as it's unlikely that your tank's consumption will necessitate constant dosing. Honestly, anything that doesn't need to be dosed frequently can and should probably be done by hand. I dose things like phyto, aminos, and iron by hand periodically as needed.

I don't have any experience with NoPoX so I won't comment on that, but hopefully the rest of this information has been helpful. Best of luck to you!