On the surface (no pun intended), it seems like it would be easy to keep an aquarium full of fish. You dump some water into a tank, toss in the fish, feed them periodically, and that’s it, right?
Wrong. Aquarium enthusiasts will tell you that in order for your underwater ecosystem to thrive, the water and other environmental conditions must be maintained within very specific parameters. If there is too much alkalinity in the water, or the pH is too high, or the tank becomes too dirty, then your fish will die.
One of the most common approaches to addressing this problem is by using an aquarium doser. This type of apparatus acts as sort of a “time-release” mechanism for whatever chemicals are necessary to preserve the delicate life-sustaining balance in your tank. Here are four of the top dosing pumps on the market today.
- Bubble Magus BM-T01: This product is controlled by a microcomputer which will save your settings even in the event of a power outage. The Bubble Magus pump has three channels for dosing, but can be enlarged to either seven or eleven channels with a dosing pump extension (sold separately). To prevent chemical interference from differing liquids from being added to your aquarium simultaneously, this Bubble Magus features automatic time-sharing between channels.
- Kamoer 3 Channel Dosing Pump: This doser is quickly becoming popular in the states. It is similar to the Bubble Magus pump but has more programmable features and better quality components.
- Kamoer 4 Channel Pump: This is the same inside working components as the Kamoer 3 Channel but with an added channel allowing you to dose a 4th component such as Coral food or Trace Elements.
- Tom Aquatics Aqua-Lifter: This is a simpler product in that it’s basically a specially-designed vacuum pump. The Tom Aquatics Aqua Lifter has the capability of pumping water up to thirty inches at a 3.5 gallon-per-hour flow rate. This durable dosing pump is ideal for trace element dosing for aquaria (as well as for reptile terraria).
Overall we feel that a dosing pump is extremely important when keeping a Reef Aquarium. The Bubble Magus Pump, Kamoer Dosing Pump or even the Aqualifter will help you obtain a healthy reef aquarium. As always try to remember that nothing good happens “Fast” in a marine aquarium, so take your time and you will have a wonderful aquarium to enjoy for a long time.
