All For Reef - dosing without testing?

[nanofordad]

ok, so my goal with a pretty new IM Fusion 20 tank has been to be mostly lazy reefer - so I will start with that.

Have a 20g AIO tank, soft corals (mushrooms, toadstool, zoas, GSP) and LPS (hammers, alveopora). Adding a gorgonian...

I am culturing pods and phyto - so am adding photo daily and pods weekly. so im not 100% lazy...but im not really doing water changes - maybe 1/2g per week at most. A couple months in the tank is doing really well, corals happy and growing, fish happy. ATO setup for water.

I have never tested any parameters besides salinity. I told you im lazy. but I am wondering if I should start some minimum level dosing of All For Reef? like literally just measuring against my RODI top off and adding it to my reservoir at a minimal level.

Should I even bother? will it help? am I risking creating problems since I don't really know what my tanks parameters are? or would dosing the bare minimum consistently via ATO at least boost minerals etc?

 

[NanoSteam]

If you're going to do 0 testing, it's best you don't bother dosing AFR and just stick to water changes. You either have to up the water change volume or start testing.... no other way around this if you're going to keep these corals long term.

 

[rishma]

Don’t add to ATO. It will grow bacteria.

I am not one to dose something I do not test for but that’s me.

 

[surfingwel]

When I was newer and did not know better about testing or did not have a good tester it taught me reef keeping is not a lazy sport

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I think you can do infrequent alk testing, but I do think alk testing is needed.

You first need to determine alk to see if it is needed at all.

As folks note, do not dilute it.

 

[rtparty]

There’s a difference between lazy and negligent. These animals are in your care and should be treated with some level of respect and responsibility. At a bare minimum, test salinity and alkalinity weekly. That’s a 2 minute test. Water changes may be enough. If you see alkalinity continually falling week after week, up your water changes or dose some AFR.

 

[BryanM]

While you might be getting away with "lazy reefer" for now, I think most of us will agree with this: Its only a matter of time before something goes wrong.

And indiscriminately dosing AFR isn't a bandaid for that.

 

[nanofordad]

Am I crazy or anyone else adding A4R without testing? I am just going for consistency versus chasing numbers...at least in theory...

And I guess im lazy, but not at the same time because I am definitely monitoring and reef-keeping daily. I just dont like the idea of chasing numbers. Feel like I read more posts about people messing up their tank trying to hit numbers than my own experience just monitoring the tank and being consistent.

I only have softie and a few LPS. not trying to grow hardcore SPS.

so maybe I dont even worry about a4r and just keep to minimal water changes...

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would never dose chemicals without testing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Am I crazy or anyone else adding A4R without testing? I am just going for consistency versus chasing numbers...at least in theory...

Only the crazy ones. lol

How do you know that alk will not rise every day and reach problem values? Nothing consistent about that except consistently bad.

Or drop every week and reach problem values?

 

[NanoSteam]

Am I crazy or anyone else adding A4R without testing? I am just going for consistency versus chasing numbers...at least in theory...

And I guess im lazy, but not at the same time because I am definitely monitoring and reef-keeping daily. I just dont like the idea of chasing numbers. Feel like I read more posts about people messing up their tank trying to hit numbers than my own experience just monitoring the tank and being consistent.

I only have softie and a few LPS. not trying to grow hardcore SPS.

so maybe I dont even worry about a4r and just keep to minimal water changes...

You're not chasing numbers by testing, you're just making sure you're Alk isn't fluctuating too much. Once you have your dosage set you're only testing once in a while to see if corals have increase their uptake.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

If you just want to dose trace elements, them use something like Tropic Marin A and K. That is not going to require home testing.

 

[nanofordad]

There’s a difference between lazy and negligent. These animals are in your care and should be treated with some level of respect and responsibility. At a bare minimum, test salinity and alkalinity weekly. That’s a 2 minute test. Water changes may be enough. If you see alkalinity continually falling week after week, up your water changes or dose some AFR.

I definitely respect my animals, which is why im culturing pods for my mandarin and phyto for my tank and feather dusters. so I am not entirely lazy, but like I said, just dont love the idea of chasing numbers. I do test salinity whenever im adding water and maybe need to add the alk testing too. I have a hanna checker...

sounds like for my nano Im probably fine with just water changes as everything seems happy and im not necessarily trying to maximize coral growth. think im just getting swayed by ads for AFR.

thx for the feedback everyone... so no additives without testing!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

, just dont love the idea of chasing numbers

Well then don't chase them, just monitor them. :)

 

[nanofordad]

Well then don't chase them, just monitor them. :)

I like this way of thinking about it better.

 

[exnisstech]

Blindly dosing an alk and calcium supplement without testing is just foolish IMO and I'm a very lazy reefer. My SPS tank runs with AFR as does my IM20 mixed reef. I do very few water changes and I dose IM20 manually.
I don't follow the TM calculator which has you dosing by water volume because it doesn't make sense to me. My alk consumption changes as coral growth speed up or slows down.

 

[nanofordad]

Blindly dosing an alk and calcium supplement without testing is just foolish IMO and I'm a very lazy reefer. My SPS tank runs with AFR as does my IM20 mixed reef. I do very few water changes and I dose IM20 manually.
I don't follow the TM calculator which has you dosing by water volume because it doesn't make sense to me. My alk consumption changes as coral growth speed up or slows down.

so do you test parameters weekly and adjust your AFR dosing manually accordingly?

 

[rtparty]

I like this way of thinking about it better.

I think the whole “chasing numbers” gets lost in the shuffle. Monitoring and adjusting isn’t chasing. Trying to peg a certain parameter at an exact number at all times is chasing. For example, someone say your tank needs to run at 5ppm nitrate so you test 4x a day and make all sorts of adjustments chasing that 5ppm day in and day out.

Instead, it’s better to shoot for 5ppm by testing every so often and watching the trend. If it goes from 2ppm to 6ppm to 20ppm over a few months, we know import is more than export so we adjust. That isn’t chasing, it’s monitoring and adjusting

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

so do you test parameters weekly and adjust your AFR dosing manually accordingly?

I test less than weekly, and only adjust if alk declines and indicates a need for more as corals grow.

 

[exnisstech]

so do you test parameters weekly and adjust your AFR dosing manually accordingly?

That's exactly what I do. My IM 20 only gets 1.5 ml a day and doesn't really change much. I just squirt it in every morning using a pipette. I have several tanks running amd have just gotten into the habbit of weekly testing of N P and alk because I have a lot of acros in one. If I didn't have my SPS tank I would test less. Once you get in tune with the tank you kind of figure out what you can and can't get away with. On a 20g tank with no stoney coral or clams I would be comfortable just doing a 2g WC every week and watching things and maybe test once a month or at least once now so you have a reference point. Many folks run tanks without dosing.