Tank Automation

[DaveKGold]

Hi, I'm new here.

I have had a Red Sea Max 38 g and recently upgraded to a 75 g tank. I've outfitted it with a Bubble Magus skimmer, LED lights, am running a reactor with biobeads, chiller, UV, and have circulation via a SCWD. It's cycled and has some fish in it. Just popped in my first piece of coral yesterday transferred from my other tank to see how it does before transferring over all the other goodies.

My question today is about automation. I'm interested in automating water top off, pH/alkalinity control, and Calcium. I know that ATO devices are available, not so sure about how pH/Alk works and don't know much about Calcium reactors other than that they're available.

Also have seen some of the monitoring/control devices avaialbe.

Anyone want to provide some experienced input on this topic?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[GoReef165]

Welcome Dave,
I'm not the forum expert here but I can tell you what I do. I use the Bubble Magus dosers. I dose ALK, CALC, MAG and Vodka. I have to manually test the params with Hanna Testers. I know that there are controllers that display the results on screen as well but I've read to many threads that reefers get to confident in them and then when you realize that they're off calibration it's to late. Calcium reactors can keep things very stable but they're to big and messy for me. I don't have enough space under my cabinet. As you know, it's a personal choice. My way has worked well for me. My tank has always been really stable but that's because I monitor it daily. Good luck. Post pics of your tank when it's stocked

 

[coralfan310]

I used Marine Color Auto Dosing Pump which allows you to doser Part A, B and Magnesium. You can also buy extended pump to doser phytoplankton, amino acid, etc. They are way cheaper than Bubble Magus dosers. Go to reefshops.com. It takes about 3 weeks to get mine. Good luck.

 

[solitude127]

With only 1 coral, I wouldn't really worry about dosing anything right now. Water changes will be sufficient to keep the alk and ca up.