Direction to go with Dosing

[Lostoften]

Looking for some thoughts/experiences on what has worked well. I have a newer (less than 6 months) Red Sea 625 that I currently monitor via apex w/ trident.

I just added a fair amount of corals, and am worried that water changes alone wont be enough to keep them happy. My tank appears to be on the lower end of KH and PH limits, but Ca and Mg are fine.

For simplicity, add the red sea 4 part dosing? Although, it looks like it bases the dose off of Calcium which is already where expected?

Or manually dose BRS two part, and maybe eventually via Apex Dos system? I believe this route would be able to make changes based on trident readings?

Current parameters:
Temp: 79.8 (apex) RedSea and Inkbird both measure 1-2 degrees lower
pH: 7.94
ORP: 338
NO3: 6
PO4: 0.03
Alk: 7.73
Ca: 492
MG: 1365

PO4/NO3 are both likely higher as managing green hair algae outbreak.

Appreciate the insights/guidance.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

As a first thing to dose, Tropic Marin All For Reef is the easiest way to go and will work fine. If you are at 7.7 dKH without any dosing, then it won't take much.

 

[Lostoften]

Thanks, on order. If this raises the alkalinity, will it also slightly bump up pH? Average is 7.88 with range of 7.76 to 8.06 over the last week.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks, on order. If this raises the alkalinity, will it also slightly bump up pH? Average is 7.88 with range of 7.76 to 8.06 over the last week.

No, All for reef does not raise pH.

 

[Lostoften]

All for Reef has been raising kH but calcium is also getting high (low 500’s) to get kH to mid 9’s is this an issue? Also, have Dino’s in the tank and another post said AFR trace elements might fuel this. Should I switch to a product like bright well alkin 8.3?

 

[rishma]

All for Reef has been raising kH but calcium is also getting high (low 500’s) to get kH to mid 9’s is this an issue? Also, have Dino’s in the tank and another post said AFR trace elements might fuel this. Should I switch to a product like bright well alkin 8.3?

I don’t worry too much about calcium, though I suppose it can get too high if you are not doing water changes. All for reef and Kalkwasser both dose more calcium than than needed.

I run my alkalinity at 9 dKH. Not a problem. If your alkalinity keeps going up you will want to reduce your dose.

 

[Lostoften]

Tank is fallow so haven’t been doing water changes, now Dino’s so likely not doing another for awhile

 

[rishma]

Tank is fallow so haven’t been doing water changes, now Dino’s so likely not doing another for awhile

dinos are a pain. Since the tank it fallow, can you turn lights off and block the tank from ambient light? I found this, along with keeping nitrate and phosphate at good levels enabled me to beat them.

 

[Lostoften]

The tank has corals which are already stressed, seems like the best course of action for type I currently have is raising nutrients, bacteria and phyto competition and UV to and from display.