After reading various articles and posts, I’ve come to realize that once a tank has livestock, elements in the water are used up by the livestock and needs to be replenished. This is achieved through water changes and dosing. I presume dosing is better done on a daily basis as opposed to a weekly basis based on test results of each element and calculating a daily dosage. If one had to follow red seas reef care recipe, dosing manually on a daily can become a difficult chore if you have a busy lifestyle. Setting up an automatic dosing system is fairly simple, however if you plan on using red seas reef care recipe, that dosing system can become fairly large based on the number of supplements provided by Red Sea. Due to evaporation, water also needs to be replenished or else the salinity in the tank will increase. With all this being said, I have been been thinking of a simpler way to achieve daily dosing and water top ups. Please share your thoughts on the following:
Based on weekly testing in a stocked tank, you can establish the weekly consumption of each element. If you divide that usage by 7 days, you can establish a daily consumption. Let’s use the Red Sea reef foundatation as an example. If the consumption for calcium, magnesium and kh buffer is known and it’s calculated that I need to add 1 ml of each on a daily basis, can I take 700ml of RO water and add 7ml of calcium, 7ml of magnesium, 7ml of kh buffer and mix this solution. Then on a daily basis add a 100ml of this solution into the tank, or set this solution to a single dosing pump to add 100ml into the tank everyday. My thinking is that this will cater for replenishing the used elements and evaporated water. It will also be simpler as you mix the solution once a week after testing the tank and you only have to add the mixed solution daily rather than supplements from multiple bottles.