Question of the Day How to simplify dosing?

[Art]

After many years in the hobby, I’ve come to realize that making things easier means it will likely get done. Fertilizer is key to what we are doing with our tanks.

How do we make it easier?

 

[Quagulator]

I personally load the sum of my weekly macro dosing into the tank after a water change = no macro dosing throughout the week.

I also have an auto doser for micros = daily micro dosing throughout the week.

The only problem with my schedule is:
1) the auto doser is a pain to calibrate, and it needs to be watched for any creep up / down in it's dosing volumes.
2) noticing and then mixing up a new batch of micro's. For whatever reason, I very much dislike getting out all my measuring tools, all the micro salts, and then mixing up a new batch. So sometimes my tank would go a week... or two.... or three without any micros.

 

[GreggZ]

2) noticing and then mixing up a new batch of micro's. For whatever reason, I very much dislike getting out all my measuring tools, all the micro salts, and then mixing up a new batch. So sometimes my tank would go a week... or two.... or three without any micros.

Take the time to make a secondary solution of the ones that are VERY small quantities. Once you do that only takes a couple of minutes to make a new batch.

And agreed front end loading makes things MUCH easier.

 

[Art]

So I do front end loading as well for macros and then use an auto doser for the daily micros. Like @Quagulator, it's a pain to keep it calibrated. For some reason, I would get air in the line that would create bubbles and threw off the dose. However, over time, I assume the right quantity of fertilizer would get into the tank.

I also thought doing the micro dose was a really pain in the a@#. But, my good friend @GreggZ wrote up this wonderful article on creating a secondary solution that I had not thought of. I believe micros and I will be friend again because of it.

Don't you just love how you pick things up from discussing with plant head friends?

 

[Art]

@GreggZ don't you get tired of the daily dosing manually? Or, do you use a pump? What happens on vacations?

 

[Quagulator]

I also thought doing the micro dose was a really pain in the a@#. But, my good friend @GreggZ wrote up this wonderful article on creating a secondary solution that I had not thought of. I believe micros and I will be friend again because of it.

Where could I find this link? Anything to make maintenance simpler / easier is of great value to me.

 

[GreggZ]

@GreggZ don't you get tired of the daily dosing manually? Or, do you use a pump? What happens on vacations?

Good question Art. I have thought about getting an auto doser but like you and Quag have said there always seems to be some issue.

I manually dose daily but now it's just part of my routine. When I get my coffee in the morning I walk over to take a look at the tank. I have VERY low LED lighting come on in the morning so things are visible but not bright at all, think moonlight levels. I dose at this time every day.

If I am on vacation I have someone come by every other day. It works for me. But I do get why people have an auto doser, I just don't really need it.

 

[GreggZ]

Where could I find this link? Anything to make maintenance simpler / easier is of great value to me.

Here you go. I think Art just forgot to add the link.

The Custom Micro Mix Thread

Well, as this thread exists in a few places, I figured why not have it here also. Perhaps we can take up the baton and keep it active and bring some value to hobbyists. For those of you that don't know, I got into thinking much more about my micros when I read this thread on another forum. It...

scapecrunch.com

 

[Art]

Everyone needs to find what works for them and stick to it. Completely agree.

In my life, I've just learned that things come up unexpectedly. So, for example, me getting sick and ending up in the hospital for a few days or a hurricane hits and I'm out for a week or two even though house has power. I also travel for work often.

Automation for me is a peace of mind backup system given the investment (monetary and emotional) I have with my tank given how my life is now.

 

[Quagulator]

If I could remember to dose every day, I wouldn't bother with the auto doser.

But, because I often forget, and because I have an auto doser just sitting around, I may as well use it.

Also makes daily dosing of Met14 / Excel easy if I have an algae outbreak and decide to use what's in my cupboard.

 

[JPog]

I agree in principle the more automation you can do the more likely things will get done consistently. Right now my tanks are both under 20G so not much automation for me. I have two small plastic containers. One has my macros premixed and the other my micromix. So I simply spoon out the dose of each in a small cup of water and dump it in. I suppose i could just dump it in, but I like it more dissolved.

 

[ayman.roshdy]

In my opinion over automating things might fail and cause very ugly results, I am a technology nerd myself (Computer & Systems Engineer) but believe me in some cases simplifying things is much better than automation

 

[RazzVegas]

Auto doser for me. I front load half of my weekly macro after a wc. Other half is supplied by the doser along with the micros