Auto doser.... SPS now dying
 

Well i officially regret adding the doser I bought.

My SPS are dying off. Quite choked.

Doser. Off.

Should have kept to my principles of simplicity.

My green plate. German blue digi. Lavender digi. Orange digi.

Well for what time I saved, I upset the balance.

Marine magic my butt.

Did you overdose?

I purchased the same doser and couldn't be happier. After one little adjustment mine has been working perfect since the get go.

I noticed that these dosers work better on speed 4 for a short duration of time rather than speed 3 or less for a longer period. Mine was heating up the peristaltic tubing and causing a black film to form on the surface and flake off down towards my sump. Once I adjusted the pump interval to be shorter for a higher speed, it's been working great.

Another observation I had with my doser was that the dosing amount listed in the manual wasn't even close to what my actual doser was pumping. I was using a shorter length of tubing than what the book said so my pump was actually pumping way more fluid than the max dosing rate listed in the book. I simply collected all of the fluid being dosed from the 3 pumps in containters and measured it after a full 24 hour period. I took 3 or 4 days to get the dosages figured out proprely but if you went by what the manual said, you are likely overdosing. Overdosing Ca or Mg isn't such a big deal but an overdose of Alk will lead to a rapid decline in all of your corals health.

Hopefully you can figure out what the problem is but I'd start off by collecting all of fluids being dosed to make sure that is accurate and also check your tank parameters as well. My guess would be your Alk levels are too high.

Maybe should have spent the extra $ and went with the Profilux GHL.

A couple of things.

The GHL units are very easy to use and if necessary repair/upgrade.

I have found that the calcium demand of aquariums can fluctuate if there has been a disturbance to the equilibrium of the tank. ie Temperature fluctuation, lighting fluctuation. This is why I check Ca, Alk and Mg every 3 days and adjust as necessary.

Cheers,
Tim

I'll buy your doser if you wish to sell

Im happy with the doser, they only issue I had was not knowing that the bottles were empty but I should have checked to see if they were low.

When test I get normal results. That's what's funny.

I wonder if the dosing is creating PH swings.

Would ph swings hurt SPS yet not my other corals In the same manner?

Not prepared to throw in the towel yet.

More ****ed off that I can't figure out the problem.

I also have he marine magic doser, and couldn't be happier. It's been running for 8 months now.

Are you dosing all of your alk at the same time? If so that could be causing a swing in your ph. Also dosing the alk at night every couple hours will keep your ph more stable.

What speed, frequency and time do you suggest?

Currently I had it set twice daily (kh) and calcium once. For about a minute each on speed two.

I'll test the water today and post results.

Doesn't the doser allow you to adjust volume in mL?

This one uses time setting and Approx dose volume. The theory is that when the pump ages and tube wears, the volume setting becomes useless and setting based on lengthening or shortening the cycle is more accurate.

It could be related to the chemicals being added to the tank? When I switched from my 2-part to the calcium reactor I had some swings in PH, ALK, Ca and MG. All of which I just dumped "estimated" amounts of each chemical to "balance" it out, nothing died in that process.

On another note, my refract went crazy on me and I ended up bringing my salinity upwards of 1.030+ then dropped it to 1.026 within a single day. Nothing died.

By no means is my method "right" in any way, so for anyone reading this... don't do this because I got away with it. But from my experience, these corals are fairly durable if your parameters swing within reason.

Alk start at 2000-30s- speed 2
2300-1:30- speed 2
0200-2:00- speed 2
0400-2:00- speed 2

Calcium I start at 0800 and basically the same schedule.

I test every couple weeks, and adjust accordingly.

I have a 72g mixed reef and have my doser adding 2 part, alternating every hour at speed 4 for 12 seconds. So it would dose part A at 12pm for 12 secs at speed 4 and then dose part B at 1pm at speed 4 for 12 secs and so on 24hrs a day.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk

Your system seems similar to yours.

So you dose both 12 times each/day?

Pat please give us details on your system and dosing frequencies and times, can probably figure it out for ya, dont forget to post your times of day for dosing each

Steve

Unless they doser failed, I dont see how this is the dosers fault?

Yes, just alternating hours.

I agree 100%. Can you share the details of what you are dosing? For example I dosed Dowflakes for years but then got a very impure batch & had nothing but trouble, this product is only about 40% calcium chloride on a good day and can nuke a system. I will never use it again and don't recommend it & feel it had a lot to do with my tank crash in 2010/2011. The calcium chloride from BRS, Fauna Marin or Eli in Calgary is all very good purity wise. Not sure if this relevant in your case but I thought I'd throw it out there. Long story short, it's unlikely the problem is the actual doser but more likely what you are dosing and in what quantities.

I'm using the same chemicals as before. Exact. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm wondering if it's operation is causing ph swings. I know it's not "the doser" ... It is simply tied to the issue and the stoppage of it's use is required until the issue is solved. This addition to my system is the only change. Hopefully we can Move past that.


I use calcium from steve at red coral, seachem mag, and carbonate from BRS. Can't remember which but I believe it's sodium bicarbonate.

Have used them a while now.

System volume is about 100G.

Steve. I'll try get the dosing times and such info posted later.

My dosers only come on twice a day.....once at night and once early in the morning when pH could use a lift. HTH

Sorry I missed your post about what you are using.
It always takes a while to get things tweaked just right when changing the way you administer chemicals into any system. Good luck, I think once you get things dialed in you will be glad you bought an auto-doser.

Temp 78F
1.024

Kh 100 (normal for my tank)
Ca 400
Mg 1360 (normal for my tank)

Ph is coming up yellowish. Lower than chart.

This is my obvious issue. I understand the kh can be the culprit when dosing.


Any tips on best way to correct this? I have never before had ph below 8.0



Steve at RCE..... What product do you have in stock that works with my current chems?

You can buy some Reef Buffer to raise your ph to 8.3, I would also suggest to bring your water to be tested at your most trusted lfs as some test kits could be way off.

I wouldn't go messing with your pH yet

When you say KH 100, what do you mean ? 100 mg/l ? 10.0 degrees ?
If it's 100 mg/l, then I'd say Ya, your pH could be low as that comes out at 5.6 degrees
But even that shouldn't allow your pH to be scary low - maybe near 8.0, but not bottoming out

I'd get a second test opinion of your pH, or buy a pH pen/probe

And you may want to allow you and your tank a week or two to settle into the new dosing before you mess with any additional products

I have been using the doser for about a month.

And yes, 100 kh. A tad low but consistent in my tank.

My ph has never been this low before.

I agree messing with ph is the last step, but needs to happen soon as my SPS are not doing well.

Take this for what it is ... an attempt from a newb to help :wink:

I just re-read this thread and I don't see mentioned what you are dosing
What products are you using ?

Did you test before you started dosing ?

Again, I'll say a second opinion on the pH test would be good and if your KH is really that low, I'd go with either dc4's suggestion of using Reef Builder to get your Alk back up, or bump up your Alk dosing, until it's higher
Either way, do it over a day or 2 so you don't create anymore shock and also Calcium precipitation
This should get your pH back inline

I note you have given the times that you are dosing but have you ever checked the volume that is actually being delivered per dose? Even precision dosers can vary, I would check this to make sure. With your system you may have to alter the time of dosing for each product to make sure it is delivering exactly what you want.

I worked with a computer controlled nutrient delivery system for my Masters and had to check delivery of each channel before every experiment (180 channels) and input into the computer to ensure even dosing across the system.

Anyway I hope you figure it out.

Steve St RCE tested my ph.... 8.2. So my test is pooches.

Going with the theory that my bulk dosing was adding more and although testing at 100 alk... The consistent 100 is lower with my doser than when dumping large single doses.

Make sense? Back to upping my alk manually.

I would try and dial in the doser, may take a couple days or weeks, but once you have it you wont be disappointed.

Adding any chemical in large doses, at one time, is asking for trouble IMO.

must be something else. YOu would need major swing that would be obvious in tests, not what you mention.

Maybe you should test for something else, like copper.

I have had my aquarium for 2 years and half and I never checked the PH, and I am sure it is all over the place, because my KH sometimes get low, but yet my SPS are doing great. Only time I had die off and bleachign when when I used Kent carbon with copper and contaminated my tank.

It took 2 months to recover and it is still not as it was before.

If anything, dosing one large single dose will create far more swing, and dosing with a pump had brought real stability to my tank. I don't see how dosing a single dose could be any better, quite the opposite.

100 kh is low? my tank is at 7 kh.

If I had 100 kh in my tank, all SPS would surely die.

what test are you using?

lol 100 is his measurement and it isnt in Dkh.... 100 mg/l works out to 5.6 Dkh... which is low....

Steve

Copper test negative.

I have dosed bulk for six years. This issue started when the doser began it's work. Anyone who has seen my tank knows it does great. Until now.


Ph is fine, as mentioned.

Thanks steve.

Oops.