Reef Aquarium Dosing Pump: How to Choose the Right One for Your Tank Size!

Alright, today I want to talk about setting up a dosing pump for my reef tank. I’ve been doing manual dosing for a while, and it’s just become such a pain. Plus, I’m not as consistent as I should be. So, I decided it was time to automate things.

First, I started looking into different dosing pumps. There are so many options out there! I read a bunch of reviews and watched some videos. I saw some people talking about the Ecotech Versa, which seems pretty popular. Others mentioned Bubble Magus and Henson. And then there’s the Reef Factory one that came out recently, it seems to be expensive but with good reviews. I ended up choosing a simple one to start, figured I could always upgrade later.

Choosing the Right Pump

When I was looking, the main things I considered were how much liquid each pump could handle, how accurate they were, and how easy they were to set up and use. I mean, the whole point is to make my life easier, right?

Getting Everything Ready

Once I got the pump, the first thing I did was to read the instructions carefully. I know, I know, who reads instructions? But trust me, it’s worth it. Then, I started gathering all the other stuff I needed. The pump came with some tubing, but I needed more to reach from my additive containers to the tank. It’s really important to have good tubing for this, by the way. Don’t want any leaks or anything.

Setting It Up

Setting up the pump wasn’t too bad. I put my additive containers in a good spot, not too far from the tank. Then, I cut the tubing to the right lengths and connected everything up. I made sure all the connections were tight, and I double-checked everything before turning it on.

Programming the Dosing Schedule

• Figuring out the Schedule: I had to figure out how much of each additive my tank needed. I started with the recommended dosages on the bottles and adjusted from there based on my tank’s needs.
• Setting the Pump: The pump I got has a pretty straightforward interface. I just had to enter how much to dose and how often. I started with a basic schedule, dosing alk, calc, and mag. I’ll probably only dose magnesium like once a month or something.

Once everything was set, I watched it like a hawk for the first few days. Just making sure it was all working correctly and that my tank was happy. After a week or so, I started to relax a bit. It’s so nice not having to worry about dosing every day. And my corals? They’re loving it. My tank has never looked better!

So yeah, that’s my dosing pump story. It was a bit of work to get it all set up, but totally worth it. If you’re on the fence about getting a dosing pump, I say go for it! It’s a game-changer for sure.