Thinking of buying a dosing pump.
- Thread starter mbaeza64
- Start date
I love it! The integration into Fusion makes setting up the dosing schedule and amounts a breeze. I dose bizarre amounts just because I can, like 6.3ml of calcium. Why not 6 or 6.5 you ask, because I like to exercise that kind of precision....because I can! Anyway, I also like the face that I can spread my 6.3ml over any time frame. I spread it over 2 hours twice a day. It's pretty slick, and the build quality looks and feels top notch.
I was seconds away on buying an eBay doser, the BRS dosers, Jebao dosers, magic something dosers. I really struggled with the decision, but it was the stories I found of dosers failing and potentially adding a gallon of Alk to your tank, you come home from work and see you pH is 15! I just felt like it was one of those things you REALLY have to trust, and when the other pumps sell replacement heads for $10ea. I started asking myself is it more of a "When" not "if" type of thing.
All that being said, there are many great pumps out there. Each has pros and cons, and I think it is about researching a product and trying to get a sense of your comfort level with it and if you are going to trust it to carry out a very important job everyday.
I was seconds away on buying an eBay doser, the BRS dosers, Jebao dosers, magic something dosers. I really struggled with the decision, but it was the stories I found of dosers failing and potentially adding a gallon of Alk to your tank, you come home from work and see you pH is 15! I just felt like it was one of those things you REALLY have to trust, and when the other pumps sell replacement heads for $10ea. I started asking myself is it more of a "When" not "if" type of thing.
All that being said, there are many great pumps out there. Each has pros and cons, and I think it is about researching a product and trying to get a sense of your comfort level with it and if you are going to trust it to carry out a very important job everyday.
Here's an informative article for Calcium reactors...
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/sh/feature/
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/sh/feature/
If you want a good "101" on calcium reactors you are more than welcome to come to my shop and see them running and I can go over them with you. We run 8 reactors at the shop and our service accounts and have had a lot of experience. At least you would be able to answer the question whether it is right for you. They are expensive but easy to work with IME.
Seems like a lot of people start out dosing 2-part because it's easy and cheap to get started. Then if 2-part dosing can't keep up with the tank's demands (e.g. you find yourself dumping in liters of the stuff because of high growth rates), you can move up to a calcium reactor. For a smaller tank, or one with lower needs, you might be totally satisfied with 2-part.
I started dosing 2-part by hand, then got a couple of 1.5ml per minute Drew's Dosers from BRS (I like the Drew's Dosers because the rollers have 4 points of contact instead of 2, so are way less likely to backsiphon). I initially had the dosers running off a light timer, which gets tricky to dial in exactly how much to dose each day, but now I have an Apex so I can control the durations down to the second if I wanted to.
If you have a larger tank, and think at some point your dosing needs are going to be high anyway (e.g. lots of SPS and/or clams), you might want to spend the money up front and get a calcium reactor. I'd definitely take up Cris on his offer to see one in operation and get an explanation of what it takes to set it up to make sure doses the correct amount - it's not rocket science but it makes a lot more sense when you can see it in action.
I started dosing 2-part by hand, then got a couple of 1.5ml per minute Drew's Dosers from BRS (I like the Drew's Dosers because the rollers have 4 points of contact instead of 2, so are way less likely to backsiphon). I initially had the dosers running off a light timer, which gets tricky to dial in exactly how much to dose each day, but now I have an Apex so I can control the durations down to the second if I wanted to.
If you have a larger tank, and think at some point your dosing needs are going to be high anyway (e.g. lots of SPS and/or clams), you might want to spend the money up front and get a calcium reactor. I'd definitely take up Cris on his offer to see one in operation and get an explanation of what it takes to set it up to make sure doses the correct amount - it's not rocket science but it makes a lot more sense when you can see it in action.