lol booooo spaceman...
as far as dosing, sorry that I can't help Bartman with suggestion auto-dosing equipment (the title of this thread
). I am curious though if someone else has solid suggestions, so I wanted to post so I could subscribe to this thread :-D
Independent of auto-dosing, I can explain how I think dosing should be performed... first, it depends on your water parameters (of course).. if you have high calcium, you probably don't need to dose more calcium (immediately.. it will fall of course, at which point you then dose again, which brings me to my next point). To start with, you test your water, then dose with supplements (over the course of a few days, if needed) to get your levels within desirable ranges. Once there, you can use a two-part additive such as B-Ionic for calcium and alkalinity... there are others, but I use B-Ionic personally. That will help maintain the levels where they are. However, upon testing, if you see Calcium, or Alk, or Magnesium start to drop, you supplement accordingly to bring it back up. Once you get into a routine, you'll have a good idea of how much and how often you need to dose for your particular system. I only test once a week to be sure my levels are good, even though I dose more often.
So I personally use B-Ionic daily, and I add Magensium (Kent Marine Tech M) and Calcium (Kent Marine Calcium Supplement) as needed as the levels drop. In fact I usually add it in the middle of the week without even testing. I do my water tests on the weekend, and make sure the levels are good. Also, during water changes, I add a marine pH buffer to the new water while it's mixing to lock it in at 8.3 before I add it to the tank. With this scheme, I've been able to keep my pH, Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium very stable. There is also an Alkalinity buffer that you can use to raise your alkalinity if needed, but mine hasn't dropped yet.
So how that maps to an auto-dosing thing, I'm not sure. I prefer the hands-on approach, so I have full control of my water parameters (not that auto-dosing doesn't work, just a personal preference). I feel like if I rely on an auto-doser, something may go wrong and I wouldn't know until the weekend when I test my water, or otherwise when things start to die in the middle of the week :shock:. It may be an irrational fear though. I'd be willing to use something like a Calcium reactor to keep the calcium, alk, and pH stable, but that's pretty expensive, and I don't mind dosing manually (so it's not worth the $$$ to me yet to invest in a calcium reactor). I have a routine where I get home from work each day, and immediately dose the B-Ionic and any other supplement I'm going to add that day, very easy.