Help with dosing option

[Saltwater_hobbiest]

I have the waterbox 50.3 AIO and I can only keep soft corals in my tank. Everytime I put an LPS or SPS coral in my tank it is dead within a couple weeks because my calcium and ALK fluctuate. Am I able to put a dosing unit on my tank and If so can someone help which one would be th best in my case?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

What are you dosing to begin with?

 

[Saltwater_hobbiest]

What are you dosing to begin with?

My calcium and alk are always low so I think I should dose those two elements.

 

[Privateye]

I'm a fan of the Kamoer dosing pumps. Mine have been running for 7-8 years without issue. And the price is competitive. I have the X1 but I think they're on newer models now.

If you're going to be dosing alkalinity and calcium, you may want to take a look at your magnesium too. If it gets too low you get a "see-saw" effect between alkalinity and calcium, where when you dose one the other drops. Magnesium helps prevent that. Once I started dosing a lot of calcium and alkalinity with my dosing pumps, and my coral growth exploded, my magnesium started to drop and I had to get a dosing pump for it too.

 

[Saltwater_hobbiest]

I'm a fan of the Kamoer dosing pumps. Mine have been running for 7-8 years without issue. And the price is competitive. I have the X1 but I think they're on newer models now.

If you're going to be dosing alkalinity and calcium, you may want to take a look at your magnesium too. If it gets too low you get a "see-saw" effect between alkalinity and calcium, where when you dose one the other drops. Magnesium helps prevent that. Once I started dosing a lot of calcium and alkalinity with my dosing pumps, and my coral growth exploded, my magnesium started to drop and I had to get a dosing pump for it too.

okay and am I able to do a dosing system like yours on a AIO aquarium?

 

[Privateye]

okay and am I able to do a dosing system like yours on a AIO aquarium?

I don't really see why not. You just need to find a place for the tubes to dispense into. Usually this would be after your filtration, but before your return pump. So probably in the chamber where the pump is. I'm not too familiar with AIO but it looks like the same general idea as a bunch of brands.

The diameter of the tubing is similar to air tubing. I use rigid tubing (the smallest model here) on the ends to help keep them where I want them, instead of just having a floppy tube. I just bought some 2L polyethylene bottles from Amazon to use as reservoirs. I drilled a hole in the cap (well, 2 because one is for air to enter as the liquid pumps out) to put the rigid tube through. That way my dosing pump draws liquid from the bottom of the reservoir.

 

[BryanM]

I dose in to the return pump chamber. I am also a fan of the kamoer dosing pumps.

All that said, what are you using to test, are you testing at the same time of day, and can you post some numbers of the fluctuations? FWIW, ALK in my opinion is the most important to keep stable.

 

[Privateye]

Oh, also, you probably already know this, but make sure you don't dose calcium and alkalinity at the same time. They'll just precipitate. So make sure you set your doses to different times. I usually space mine apart by about an hour.

 

[BryanM]

^^ great advice.

 

[X-37B]

My 15 aio setup. I dose esv 2 part into second chamber. Kamoer pumps.
Going to A4R so I will only need 1 pump.
A4R is another option you can look at.