why? can't this be automated with a dosing pump?

Well I run straight Kalk on a drip setup from my RO/DI Line and whatever i dont use in Kalk gets the straight DI Water. However using kalk all the time you are slowly causing the Mag to deplete. Yes u are getting the right amount of CAL and ALK but the MAG is neglected. I was going to dose vodka, but hmmmmmmmmmm really i remember looking at a chart before and sending it out to fishoholic to use. but if some one is out there using Vodka let me know how its making out for you.

What other methods are you using then Vodka, Carbon Phosban,

Using limewater doesn't cause magnesium to deplete. Limewater is essentially calcium and alkalinity together. Dosing limewater without dosing magnesium would be the same as dosing calcium and alkalinity without dosing magnesium. I'm sure you know this, but the way you said it is misleading.

I could, but I didn't want to invest in the hardware... Also what if the dosing pump goes nuts and overdoses. I don't like having that variable, thus no automation.

Also, with Zeo, there were many things being dosed, and that would be alot of money on many dosing pumps.

any updates?

My dosing pump, marine magic, does the job for about 4 months now without problem. It does have a fail safe and you can set the amount of second that it will do max before it stop. That is to prevent the pump going nuts and overdosing. It never hapened so far but if it does, the more it's going to dose is 30 seconds. Same with my ATO, it does have a fail safe. I am more afraid of my controler (reef keeper lite) freezing and stopping everything in my tank including the heater..that hapened to me once already.

But it is more interesting to dose every 15 days rather than each day. I can't help to wonder though, that a little vial will work the same for a 20 gallons as it does for a 120 gallons...and will last for 2 weeks...hmmm..I am a bit skeptical about it lasting 2 weeks.

I thought you said daily dosing with Vodka was a pain.

good to hear I have started in on 23rd Dec.

UPDATE:

Well I got back last night from christmas holidays expecting algae all over my glass, and to who knows what. I told the person taking care of my tank to not bother cleaning the glass (I am withholding his name to protect his innocence :biggrin:)

Well, I come home and to my surprise, not much algae at all to clean off the glass. Corals look great, actually I think even better. Wife even commented on how good it looked. The tank only had its second dose of the goods.

Color looks slightly better, but more importantly some corals that were quite brown or dark greenish, are now showing signs of color improvements.

So far I am impressed!

cool!! :)

Great to hear!

I started dosing about a week ago, hope to see some positive results in the near future.