Biokabe
2500 Club Member
How does everyone prevent crystallization within their dosing tubes?
I have had a persistent problem with my tank and dosing: The solution crystallizes within the tubing, which obviously blocks the flow and negates the whole point of running a dosing pump. When I've tried to look into this issue, most other people just seem to have issues with crystallization at the ends of the tubing, near the water's surface. Consequently, most of the solutions presented just aren't useful to me, because that's not where I get crystallization. For me, it always happens in the middle of the tubing, where it's not immediately obvious and where clearing the blockage is very difficult. The ends of the tubing are clear of crystallization, so I usually only find out about it after it's failed to dose for some time and the pressure forces the tube off of the pump.
My dosing pumps and solution are located in a secondary cabinet to the left of my tank, so the tubes stretch across about 3-4' of open air between the cabinet and the tank, and that open-air stretch is usually where the crystallization happens. I've had crystallization happen across multiple different solutions and multiple different dosing pumps.
Right now I'm dealing with it by... not dosing, as my stony coral population is light enough that regular water changes + the calcium powder in Benereef is enough to maintain alk/cal/mg. That will hopefully be changing soon, so I'd like to figure it out and not have to constantly be swapping out dosing lines.
I have had a persistent problem with my tank and dosing: The solution crystallizes within the tubing, which obviously blocks the flow and negates the whole point of running a dosing pump. When I've tried to look into this issue, most other people just seem to have issues with crystallization at the ends of the tubing, near the water's surface. Consequently, most of the solutions presented just aren't useful to me, because that's not where I get crystallization. For me, it always happens in the middle of the tubing, where it's not immediately obvious and where clearing the blockage is very difficult. The ends of the tubing are clear of crystallization, so I usually only find out about it after it's failed to dose for some time and the pressure forces the tube off of the pump.
My dosing pumps and solution are located in a secondary cabinet to the left of my tank, so the tubes stretch across about 3-4' of open air between the cabinet and the tank, and that open-air stretch is usually where the crystallization happens. I've had crystallization happen across multiple different solutions and multiple different dosing pumps.
Right now I'm dealing with it by... not dosing, as my stony coral population is light enough that regular water changes + the calcium powder in Benereef is enough to maintain alk/cal/mg. That will hopefully be changing soon, so I'd like to figure it out and not have to constantly be swapping out dosing lines.
