Regulate carbon hardness with fresh water dosing pump

I’ve been trying to run my aquarium with as little technology as possible for years. I have got some reasons for that. On one hand, it is my aim to keep the energy consumption as low as possible, on the other hand to avoid potentially error-prone technique in the system. Last but not least, no to end in immeasurable costs.

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To keep my water values stable for some time, I run the Balling method. In my case, it is even the manual Balling method.
That means. That I do not use a dosing pump. I’m doing this job manually. However, this is not really practical for a longer time.
Because I’m forced to regularly (at least 2 times a day or more frequently) add appropriate fluids to the tank.
I am able to control my calcium value very well with this method, since the Ca consumption is not so high, and the dosing isn’t needed that frequently. But I can’t control my carbon hardness this way.
The past months have shown clearly, accompanied with strong growing corals, that I’m not able to stabilize the KH value with this manual approach. To dose in the morning and evening would still continue to work, but the amount of sodium that must be introduced per dose, is now simply too high.

Why do I think that the dosage is too high? I suspect that so far only.
I can’t see any negative consequences at my SPS of this method, but I can clearly see that my LPS do not like this strong dosing two times a day. A few minutes after the dosing they collapse and it takes several hours that they come back to their beautiful appearance. If I am not at home for some days, problems are inevitable.
I need to add more Natriumhydrogencarbonat at once that hurts my LPS even more. I think if I continue this way, it will not end well for my LPS. I clearly need a dosing pump….
The problem is, my cabinet totally crowded that unfortunately there is no more room for Balling canister and the dosing pump. My tank is positioned very solitary in the room, so there is no cupboard around that I could use for the balling canister and the dosing pump. Actually a good reason to buy a larger aquarium :-).

Therefore, I will try to regulate my KH value with my osmolator / fresh water canister refill.
My water evaporation is depending on the season between 20 -25 liters per week,
which corresponds exactly to the volume of fresh water canister and thus very good to estimate.

Osmosis water is always topped up on the weekend. Since I my tank consumes about 1KH a day, I will add 84g Natriumhydrogecarbonat to the osmosis water.

I’m curious if I can handle KH fluctuations without a new dosing pump.

I’m also curious if my osmolator will get along with this ….
Have you ever tried something similar? What are your experiences?
I will report my experiences.

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