Just ordered this for top offs and dosing

H

Hiker4twenty

Reef enthusiast
Marine Depot AquaDoser

It's a 5g aquadoser from Marine Depot. I'm sick of having to add water to my tank 2x per day for top offs. I go though about 1g per day in evap so this will buy me a few days. Do you think I should also include my alk and calc dosing to this with my top offs? Anyone have experience with this or something similar?
 
Dave,I've never use anything like that so I don't know how well it works.It's gravity fed so I don't think to many people use it here.

Personally,I would of went with something else that uses a pump and float valves.Capt had posted a place to buy the parts but I forgot where.Me,I been using a Reef Fanatic ATO for a couple of years now.It has never let me down.

Dosers RF-RFLC Premium Aquatics
 
Mine is gravity fed, running about 40 feet from the garage to my sump.
I see people dose kalk in their ato, but you can have calcium in there at the same time.
Definitely would want to use a float valve though. Just in case.
 
Last edited:
Well, hopefully it work out for me. I really bought it because I'm in pinch situation for next weekend. I'm going out of state for my cousin's wedding and will not be around for 2 days to do top offs. I was looking for a cheap way to do this and saw the doser. I figured it was better and easier than something I could make (I'm lazy).

I would like to be able to add my calc and alk suppliments to the water, but I'm a little leary about it. I don't want my levels to get screwed up, although, I think it would be better for my system if the dosing was spread out over the course of 24hrs rather than all at once like I'm currently doing.
 
reeffreak said:
Dave,I've never use anything like that so I don't know how well it works.It's gravity fed so I don't think to many people use it here.

Personally,I would of went with something else that uses a pump and float valves.Capt had posted a place to buy the parts but I forgot where.Me,I been using a Reef Fanatic ATO for a couple of years now.It has never let me down.

Dosers RF-RFLC Premium Aquatics
Click to expand...


I like the idea of the electronically controlled device. Something like this will be on my upgrade list.
 
I use gravity fed just like Dennis
its extremely easy and cheaper than what you just bought.

a float valve in the sump with a siphon. as long as you have water in your jug and its above the float valve you are good to go.
 
d2mini said:
Mine is gravity fed, running about 40 feet from the garage to my sump.
I see people dose kalk in their ato, but you CAN'T have calcium in there at the same time.
Definitely would want to use a float valve though. Just in case.
Click to expand...

Crap, i was just re-reading this thread and realized i had a typo. Sorry.
 
d2mini said:
Crap, i was just re-reading this thread and realized i had a typo. Sorry.
Click to expand...


Well that sucks. Why can't I have calcium in there also? What if I was to add the alk and then a few hours later add the calc? When I dose my tank I add the alk and then a minute later I add the calc without any issues.
 
You can add kalk to the water, but not a seperate calcium AND alk supplement. The reason being the concentrations would be so high they would just precipitate out of solution and what precipitated out would not redissolve.

Your best bet is probably loading up the container with ro water and saturate it with kalk. 1 tablespoon/gal will saturate the solution. I have some Mrs Wages Pickling Lime I can give you (I can even throw it in the mail). You would only need a few tablespoons to hold you over.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Larry. I'll have to take you up on the offer and pick your brain on the proper way to dose it. I'll give you a call tonight after I get out of work if that's ok?
 
Hiker4twenty said:
Marine Depot AquaDoser

It's a 5g aquadoser from Marine Depot. I'm sick of having to add water to my tank 2x per day for top offs. I go though about 1g per day in evap so this will buy me a few days. Do you think I should also include my alk and calc dosing to this with my top offs? Anyone have experience with this or something similar?
Click to expand...

Hiker - I bought this same item about a year ago for my 29g when I went to Hawaii - worked perfectly fine. However, I tried tieing a knot it in to slow it down and ended up getting some odd 'flush' effect where about every 8-10 'drips' it would spurt out a ton of water until the air caught up in the knot again.

Just be careful and literally watch it for a good 15-20 minutes when you set it up - otherwise it works great. I use some extra teflon tape around the main hose connection to avoid any leaks.

For my upgrade to my new tech tank, I still use that same item, but now i connected the bottom hose to an Aqualifter MW-20 and use an RKE to turn the pump on and off - so if you ever upgrade it'll still be worth the investment :)
 
I have a float valve that came w/ my ro/di unit and I don't use it. I was thinking about setting that up so it would only fill it up when the valve says to do so to eliminate flooding.
 
Hiker4twenty said:
I have a float valve that came w/ my ro/di unit and I don't use it. I was thinking about setting that up so it would only fill it up when the valve says to do so to eliminate flooding.
Click to expand...

I think for your trip a float-valve would be fine (and should be when it's used in conjunction with the drip) - my only hesitation with my in-tank float valve are crawling creatures, they can hinder normal operation. Get a couple of large turbo snails on your float and it will weigh it down.
 
You definitely want to test everything before you leave. If you are going to be adding kalk to your top off water, I'm not sure using a float valve is a good idea. It may let too much water in at once and skyrocket your pH. Kalk is supposed to be dripped to avoid pH spikes. You may want to make a real weak kalk solution so it will add a little to your alk/ca levels, but won't impact your pH as much.
 
ccCapt said:
You definitely want to test everything before you leave. If you are going to be adding kalk to your top off water, I'm not sure using a float valve is a good idea. It may let too much water in at once and skyrocket your pH. Kalk is supposed to be dripped to avoid pH spikes. You may want to make a real weak kalk solution so it will add a little to your alk/ca levels, but won't impact your pH as much.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. I did not even realize that. I'll let you know how that testing goes and if I need any help...which I'm sure I will. :bowdown:
 

Similar threads

R
Please give advice on my 75gal reef stocking plans
Replies
2
Views
2K
runningrandy04
R
Sherrell Rell
Ekkk...I have no idea what I'm getting into!
Replies
1
Views
2K
Becky
Becky
JohnVH
New Salt
Replies
1
Views
2K
mariobrothersleeve
mariobrothersleeve
R3verb
R3verb's new 60 gal Cube!
Replies
12
Views
5K
Becky
Becky
Starfyre1
Shrinking soft corals
Replies
6
Views
6K
blazend
blazend
Back
Top