Do I have to dose tank for it to be successful???

[Lost in the Sauce]

An LPS heavy tank can also "sustain", even thrive, with no dosing with regular water changes.

Sustain, yes. Depends what size volume, and what's in there really. My 120 lps/softie dominated tank (below) would chew .4 alk/day. If relying on biweekly water changes alone, That is Way too much swinging for euphyllia to Thrive in. It has a negative effect on growth and color and coral health in overall.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Is it a must to dose a tank for it to be successful, I feel like every time I try to do research on the dosing I just realize it’s way over my head. However I want to do it right…Input???

I will add... be diligent with your testing and maintenance routines, especially if you're new to the hobby. Develop good habits and keep track of your parameters (when you have stony corals, test at least twice a month at first to establish your baseline and find trends - alk, calcium, magnesium, nitrate, phosphate).
Then you will have the right kind of info in case you do decide you need to supplement beyond what your salt mix can replace through water changes.
Some tanks run perfectly with "low" alk, "high" phos and nitrate, etc. It's important to have the test data but make sure you're not chasing specific numbers if your coral is happy. Parameter swings are as harmful, if not moreso, than levels that are outside of "normal" range.

 

[rtparty]

Short answer: yes

Long answer: Yes. 99.9% of tanks will require dosing to thrive

 

[Auquanut]

Is it a must to dose a tank for it to be successful, I feel like every time I try to do research on the dosing I just realize it’s way over my head. However I want to do it right…Input???

Just gonna chime in here. It looks to me like this tank is just starting out. If that's the case, where are you on your journey? Is the nitrogen cycle complete? have you introduced fish? corals?

If the tank is very young, I wouldn't worry too much about dosing. I would concentrate on stability. Do regular water changes and test your parameters. Get comfortable with testing and the trends that your testing shows. As you add corals, and as they grow, your testing will tell you what and when you need to dose.

In my opinion, the testing that I would concentrate on after the initial cycle is complete are:
Salinity
nitrate
phosphate
calcium
alkalinity

Understand that after the initial nitrogen cycle, your tank will be in a state of flux. It's trying to find its happy place. This could take a couple or several months. You will have an ugly stage, it's to be expected and normal. Nitrates and phosphates may rise and/or fall as the biome finds equilibrium. Regular water changes and judicial feeding should help keep things in check.

KEEP DOING YOUR RESEARCH! ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS! As your tank matures, and as you mature as a reefer, you'll be more prepared to be able to tackle the dosing option responsibly.

Just a thought.

 

[MaxTremors]

LPS no,sps yes ,with LPs water change will do just fine ,with sps it need to be more stable so dosing does that.And if you can keep alk at 7 with sps with water changes don't have to dose ,people dose to get them corals to grow faster same with high ph. You can start dosing get the corals at the size you want then just bring down all parameters and just keep them alive looking nice.

If you have any stony coral growth at all, water changes alone (unless they’re 100%) will not maintain stable alk, cal, and mag. For the sake of making things simple, let’s say your alk is 10.0dkh, the salt mix you use mixes to 10.0, and your corals consume 1.0dkh a week. At the end of week one, your alk will be 9.0, you do a 10% water change, your alk will now be 9.1dkh, the next week after your water change, your alk will be 8.29, the next week 7.56, the next 6.90, and so on. So for LPS, if there is any growth at all, water changes alone will not be adequate.

 

[KK's Reef]

Agree with the posters here. Softie tank just needs regular water changes. LPS and SPS reefs will need to be dosed. All for Reef is a godsend. Super easy way to maintain alk, calcium, mag, and trace element levels (in addition to water changes).

 

[ScionFRSguy]

Two of the biggest problems I had while learning reef tanks is over lighting and over dosing 2 part Alk and Cal. You can easily crash a tank by quickly or slowly over dosing. This is why you want to avoid dosing if you're new to reefing. The worst thing to do is start learning how to test and dose at the same time. I would try testing for a few months consistently once a week to first master testing then you can slowly start hand dosing a few drops a day at a time. I recommend Salifert test kits for Alk, Cal, and magnesium. Be careful not to dose more than 1ml in the beginning. I would recommend less than that to begin with; maybe 1/2ml regardless of the size of the tank. DON"T JUST START DOSING 1ml at a time just because you have a big tank and the parameters are low. Again, start slowly if you decide to dose. The amount of trace elements, 2 part Alk and Cal, and magnesium that's in the salt mix should be good enough for now. Make sure you have enough live rock and flow moving through the rocks. Making sure the water is cycling correctly (lots of live rocks + good flow) is more important than having a dosing schedule. The next thing I would do is make sure the lighting is correct. From there, I would slowly hand dose if needed.

 

[OldRed1]

Agree with the posters here. Softie tank just needs regular water changes. LPS and SPS reefs will need to be dosed. All for Reef is a godsend. Super easy way to maintain alk, calcium, mag, and trace element levels (in addition to water changes).

Do you have to use dosing pumps with All for Reef, or is it simple enough to do by hand? This must be such a silly question but I’m totally unfamiliar with dosing.

 

[KK's Reef]

Do you have to use dosing pumps with All for Reef, or is it simple enough to do by hand? This must be such a silly question but I’m totally unfamiliar with dosing.

I buy the liquid form and I dose manually because my tank is small and an automatic doser doesn't make sense for me. I use a simple Hanna 1.0 ml syringe and I dose 1.5 ml a day. But if you have a 40+ gallon tank and it's consuming 10+ ml of AFR per day, then you should probably think about using dosing pumps.

 

[homer1475]

Do you have to use dosing pumps with All for Reef, or is it simple enough to do by hand? This must be such a silly question but I’m totally unfamiliar with dosing.

You can certainly dose once a day by hand, many start out this way. It's a great way to get "in tune" with your tank.

When you progress and your demand is more then what one should dose in one BOLUS dose, you should get into dosing pumps.

For instance, it would not make sense for me to dose 207ml of ALK at one time(roughly 1.8 DKH per day). So I use a dosing pump to spread it out into small doses throughout the day to help maintain stability.

 

[vcollins9850]

Do you have to use dosing pumps with All for Reef, or is it simple enough to do by hand? This must be such a silly question but I’m totally unfamiliar with dosing.

I use a kamoer micro pump on both my tanks with all for reef, easy to set up and program once you know how much you need to dose. And only cost you $65 to have all your dosing done for you.

agree with everyone, only worry about dosing once tank is mature and corals are growing noticeably, otherwise water changes will cover.

 

[cleaner_shrimp]

I'm going on the other side.

No, it isn't Required to dose. A softy only tank can sustain on water changes alone so long as Coraline is kept in check.

If dosing individually scares you, take a look at all for Reef. It's really simple and one product.

I agree with this one, it is amazing for small tanks. And it’s simple to use.