2-Part Dosing; A Question for those who dose throughout the day and night

[gregzz4]

I've been dosing all my Ca in the early morning, and all my Alk in the later evening hours
I'm now considering changing my timers to dose 'round the clock, with my Ca and Alk an hour apart

I'm curious what others do ...

Do you dose throughout 24 hours with each split as I'm planning ?
If not, what are your timers set @ ?

[e46er]

I dose each 12 times a day every 2 hrs alternating.
So at 1 3 5 7 9 11 ect calcium and 12 2 4 6 8 10 ect alk
I do it this way as I feel it's the most stable even delivery and far enough apart that no precipatition happens.

1 large dose daily of each with a high demand tank will have a good fluctuation.

[Reef Pilot]

I dose alk very early in the morning, and Ca later in the day.

[gregzz4]

I dose each 12 times a day every 2 hrs alternating.
So at 1 3 5 7 9 11 ect calcium and 12 2 4 6 8 10 ect alk
I do it this way as I feel it's the most stable even delivery and far enough apart that no precipatition happens.

1 large dose daily of each with a high demand tank will have a good fluctuation.
Your schedule is exactly what I'm thinking of doing

I dose alk very early in the morning, and Ca later in the day.
Hmm, total opposite of what I do right now

[kien]

I dose each 12 times a day every 2 hrs alternating.
So at 1 3 5 7 9 11 ect calcium and 12 2 4 6 8 10 ect alk


This has been my schedule as well. Dose throughout the day :-)

[mark]

I dose once an hour Ca and alk same time, don't notice any precip.

[lastlight]

I let the profilux decide. I think it tries it's best to evenly space them all apart.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I let the profilux decide. I think it tries it's best to evenly space them all apart.

Is your profilux's nickname Skynet??? :twised:

Today, your doser. Tomorrow, the WORLD!!!! muahahahahahaha

[jason604]

I split my alk cal and mag as evenly as I can throughout the whole day so it's always as constant as possible. I tried the cal and all night day but my params swinged too much

[lastlight]

Is your profilux's nickname Skynet??? :twised:

Today, your doser. Tomorrow, the WORLD!!!! muahahahahahaha

lol i sure hope not! no there's a manual setting and then one where all you do is enter number of times you want something does in a day (0-24) and how many ml each time. From what I recall it's designed to space it out so the channels down't fire at the same time...

[dcw1sfu]

Dose Alk and Calc every hour spaced 30 mins apart. Seems to have worked well so far.

[Reef Pilot]

Hmm, total opposite of what I do right now
PH is lowest early in the morning (before the lights come on), and alk boosts that, and is highest in the evening when the lights have been on most of the day. I spread the dosing over several hours.

[Scythanith]

My Part A & B are twice daily, staggered 6 hours apart. Part C is sprinkled in between for good measure :)

[gregzz4]

Thanks for all the replies everyone
You've helped confirm my thoughts

[gregzz4]

I'm now dosing Alk and Ca every 2 hours each, and 1 hour apart. So Alk @ 6, Ca @ 7, Alk @ 8 etc.
This works well as dividing my previous dosing times by 12 comes up with round numbers for the new timer settings; each minute per day is 5 seconds of on time per cycle :wink:

Hopefully this will extend the life of my pumps by not heating them up running for up to 90 mins/day solid. But, on the other hand, it may kill them by having them turn on and off so much more ....

I've decided against breaking up my Mag dosing as I'm only running the timer for a total of 12 mins/day.

I'll be happy if this new stability shows some improvement in my corals.

[Myka]

Certainly, there is no harm in dosing more often. You don't have to dose multiple times per day unless you're going through a lot of solution. If your alkalinity drops 1 dKH (or more) over 24 hours then one dose per day will cause your alkalinity to bounce up and down 1 dKH which isn't beneficial. Calcium swing doesn't matter as much, but it's worth considering as well. Magnesium doesn't change much over 24 hours even in high-demand tanks, so once or twice per day is plenty.

If you want to be really anal about it...pH drops as the night goes on, so dosing alkalinity late night/early morning can help with that, but it gets used up during the day and the alkalinity will be lowest just after lights out, so that's negligible. Calcium gets used up during the day, so it makes sense to dose calcium during the day. Check charts on pH readings (if you have a controller) and check alkalinity at varying times of the day and figure out what is the best method to keep both pH and alkalinity as stable as possible.

[donkey77]

how much you dosing of each