DIY Calcium Doser

[Reef Mike]

I have been playing in the lab today and managed to test some interesting things out.

As you know I just got a bunch of IV lines and have been toying with making my life easier, and dosing B-Ionic using a dripper. Well I found out today that using the valves I can get a consistent rate of 300ml/day out of my IV lines.

So I am going to setup a 1L dosing system and this should last me 3 days before I have to add more water and calcium. It will be two parts (since B-Ionic comes in two :))and we will see how it goes. I am hoping i can get this to be reliable and accurate, as it should be since it is all high quality stuff.

This way I figure I only need to think about calcium 2 or so times a week and it will maintain the level much better then dosing large parts once a day.

If anybody has suggestion please post, and I will update with some pics later tonight if I finish the system.

Mike

[Michael_Lambert]

Mike just wondering why you would not want to go with a larger container?

I now myself i dose Kalk.. and im doing 2.5G's of water mix every 2 days..

[Reef Mike]

Tooloud

Good question :)

The main reason is that I have to assume that this system will fail and dump the whole container into my sump. Hope it wont happen but better safe then sorry. 3-4 days of Bionic all at once should not be a big problem for the tank.

Mixing calcium 2 times a week will match with how often I fill my resevoir with RO so that means I will just fill the containers as well.

Sure I can go bigger, I even may but for now I am gonna set it up this way and see how things go.

Mike

[Michael_Lambert]

What i guess im wondering is now that you have what you need.. Just make the unit mix the chemicals with your RO topup water... and dose the everything.. so that you are not adding the larger amounts of water to your tank every few days.. you are replacing it at the rate it being evaporated.. your SG will never change.. and all you need to do is fill the one container every few days.

[Reef Mike]

My top-off is going to be run by float switches (just waiting for them to come in) This will be on a seperate system as my tank evaporates at different rates, depending on outside temp, cloudy or not cloudy day.

I just want to keep the calcium part seperate. Also I don't know how well the two parts would mix in the top-off water. They might percipitate out and clog my top-off pump.

Mike