Dosing is a bit intimidating, isn’t it? Dosing pumps often look like they would be powering the terminator, not adding much needed elements to our reef tanks. When it comes to outward appearance of aquarium equipment, I would assume looks alone turn a lot of reefers in the opposite way of dosing. Most serious reefers dose their aquariums. If you keep corals, then it becomes mandatory, as corals utilize elements from marine water, quicker than we can replace them, with water changes alone. Two part dosing, I would fathom a guess, is still the most popular weapon of choice, when reef aquarists decide that dosing is required. It’s quick and easy, and you don’t have to fly to Vegas, to utilize it legally. The issue comes to mind, when dosing a two-part supplement, if we are hurting our reef dwellers by suddenly altering water chemistry. If you’ve done your calculations correct, dosing a two-part supplement shouldn’t cause any major shifts in water chemistry, although it does cause an abrupt temporary change. Let’s look at Mother Nature, and allow lessons from the field to shed some light on dosing. Coral reef water chemistry rarely changes. Reefs are one of the most stable environments on planet Earth. Changes on the reef, can mean bad news, which is why climate change so severely impacts coral reef health. So why would things be any different in our aquariums? Well, they aren’t. When we add all of a two-part supplement to our tanks, there is a consequence. The consequence that raises the amount of calcium and alkalinity in the water also causes a temporary, yet quick shift in water chemistry. Typically ph shoots up, and may remain that way for several hours, before leveling back out. Alkalinity is famous for the snowy cloud it forms, as it dissolves into the water. That snowy cloud, if not distributed into a high flow area, can actually severely stress corals, and even damage tissue. That’s where dosing pumps come in. They aren’t as complex and intimidating as calcium reactors, (where suddenly you’re dealing with CO2 and element mixing) but they offer a slow, steady and stable way to adjust water chemistry. Dosing pumps come in several varieties. Some are hobby grade pumps, which allow easy and relatively precise adjustment of how much element to dose, and when. Others are commercial grade pumps, which stand the test of time, but require either an analogue timer or controller to properly work.… More:
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