2-part dosing question

First time using 2-part, and first time using dosing pumps. I am wondering how much everyone doses per day. BRS says .2 ml per gallon (20 ml for my 100 gallon setup) is a good starting point. But talking to a friend in Portland he tells me he doses 144 ml per day for his 90! Now, I know to start slow and test weekly to determine my usage, but I am wondering how many ml per day/ gallon you ended up with as the final number. Any input would be helpful.
Thanks as always,
Helen

 

I use 15 ml/day of calcium, 16ml/day carb., 10ml/day magnesium. That's with BRS 2 part. My tank is 40 gallon. Lightly stocked and a 5"clam. Those amounts fluctuate more than you would think. I'd recommend testing more often in the beginning.

 

It is recommended to not bring up your pH no more then .20 in a day and no more all rise then 1dKH alk in a day as it can stress things out too much. I would find out how much loss of of alk mag and calcium in a given week and dose based on that. Keep track often the 1st few weeks so you know you are not overdosing. 40 gallons means you will have to dose very little alk to make a big diff

 

You should be dosing based on tank needs. BRS has pretty good instructions how to deal with this.

 

Agreed. They have a calculator that will get you in the ballpark. My experience with the calculator was that something went way high. I forget what it was. Is suggest reducing their recommendation by about half and measure.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator

 

So I went to set up my reefkeeper lite, which I really haven't used except for the ph probe and temp probe. Haven't looked at it for a week or two. It's dead. I bought it on sale from Marine Depot a year ago on Friday! Hopefully Digital aquatics will still honor the 1-year warranty. I can't believe this! Guess the dosing journey is put off for now.

 

You can't really go off of what others are doing since every tank has a different consumption rate. You have to find yours.

1. Get your alk and calc to where you want them without the pumps.
2. Pick a reasonable amount to dose. I's probably use the BRS recommendation. I spread it out a few minutes over the day. I dose something like 3 minutes every 4 hours on alk.
3. Test daily and add or subtract a few minutes to the dosing pumps until things are stable. Shouldn't take more than a week.
4. I then move to weekly testing and adjust the amount when needed. I use the hanna checker for alk.

 

I'm not planning to dose based on what others are doing. I thought it would be interesting to find out where others ended up. That is all.