Dosing? And why!

[Jacaine]

I'm just getting back into reefing after 20 years. I just recently joined R2R . The information has been great, but I see a lot of posts about dosing. Our tank is still young at 5 months but still thriving! I do water a 10 percent water change every 2 weeks. Skimmer, refugium with Chaeto. Started with 120 lbs of live sand, and 25 lbs of maricultured live rock with dry rock. Adding 40 to45 lbs more live rock once cured. I have had few problems. Am I missing something about dosing?

 

[Jekyl]

I'm just getting back into reefing after 20 years. I just recently joined R2R . The information has been great, but I see a lot of posts about dosing. Our tank is still young at 5 months but still thriving! I do water a 10 percent water change every 2 weeks. Skimmer, refugium with Chaeto. Started with 120 lbs of live sand, and 25 lbs of maricultured live rock with dry rock. Adding 40 to45 lbs more live rock once cured. I have had few problems. Am I missing something about dosing?

Nope. As you test your parameters and add coral you will notice levels drop faster than water changes account for. This is when dosing comes into play. Usually alkalinity, magnesium and calcium are the first ones that will require attention.

 

[Sump Crab]

I've been in the hobby a long time and have never dosed. Sure my corals grow slower than other ppls but I just enjoy the simplicity of not dosing.

 

[ZoWhat]

The best form of dosing is (drumroll)

.... is doing a waterchange


.

 

[Jekyl]

The best form of dosing is (drumroll)

.... is doing a waterchange


.

My nitrate and phosphate would bottom out if water changes were my only option to manage parameters

 

[Jacaine]

I have two frags. Of your hated Jekyl. Tell me why to get rid of them.

 

[Jekyl]

I have two frags. Of your hated Jekyl. Tell me why to get rid of them.

Hurts to say this... you don't have to get rid of them. Just don't allow them to be within 2 or 3 inches of your main structure.

 

[Jekyl]

The best form of dosing is (drumroll)

.... is doing a waterchange


.

It's also nice that I only do a water change once every month or 2.

 

[Jacaine]

Tank is 6 foot long and the wife loves them. As you well know the reef is a long term thing. Just looking at what to expect from it. 5 years down the road.

 

[Jekyl]

Tank is 6 foot long and the wife loves them. As you well know the reef is a long term thing. Just looking at what to expect from it. 5 years down the road.

If allowed to spread it will be the only coral in your tank within that time.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Manual dosing is adequate along with water changes as needs arise. As your coral load/numbers increase , you may need to go with auto dosing but test kits will determine this need. Supplemental Dosing a reef aquarium is the process of adding trace elements like Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium to the water. As corals grow their consumption increases, once water changes cannot meet this demand, dosing is required. Water changes work really well for most aquarists that do not have a lot of coral or have an aquarium mainly consisting of soft corals like Mushrooms, zoa & Palys, Kenya Trees, Pulsing Xenia, and GSP, to name a few.
These corals will still consume the elements, but because they are not building a hard skeleton they do not use anywhere near as much as LPS and SPS do.
There are a few ways in which to dose Cal, Alk, and Mag to your aquarium:

1. Water change
2. Manually Adding
3. Automatically Adding Via Dosing Pumps
4. Calcium Reactor

When dosing Calcium and Alkalinity you need to dose them at separate times. Dosing them together would cause ‘Precipitation’ and this looks like a white cloud in your aquarium.
In layman’s terms, Precipitation is the Calcium undissolving from the water. Once it precipitates your corals are unable to absorb the Calcium.

 

[Jacaine]

Still learning something every day! Thank you for that. dang glad I joined R2R.

 

[blasterman]

Dosing what? Let's define the question.

If your tank is full of LPS and softies you can likely get away with just water changes. In fact, I've been pushing a lot of newbies to stop dosing and just rely on water changes.

My tank is full of SPS and eats 2 or more dKH per day and 60-70 points of calcium per week. I can't imagine the amount of water changes i would have to do to keep up with that.

 

[blasterman]

"As corals grow their consumption increases"

What kind of coral are we talking about? Again, this is a broad declaration that confuses people.

A tank full of soft coral or LPS consumes very little calcium. Sucks a lot of alk because they consume a lot of nitrate, but not calcium. So less experienced reefers get a two part doser and end up with 600 calcium and 6.5 alk. Its really marketing that confuses people. Just trying to create more signal to noise.

 

[reefinatl]

Still learning something every day! Thank you for that. dang glad I joined R2R.

Just be diligent and keep it trimmed up or start a tank full of the fun stuff like my near zero maintenance nano full of free frags. You are new so might not fully grasp the horror of stock list I'm about to put out there, other guys just pop some anxiety meds now.

13.5 Fluval
GSP
Xenia
Kenya Tree
Yellow Polyps
Green Palyzoa
Toadstool
Caulerpa
Bam Bam Zoa

 

[Jacaine]

Just be diligent and keep it trimmed up or start a tank full of the fun stuff like my near zero maintenance nano full of free frags. You are new so might not fully grasp the horror of stock list I'm about to put out there, other guys just pop some anxiety meds now.

13.5 Fluval
GSP
Xenia
Kenya Tree
Yellow Polyps
Green Palyzoa
Toadstool
Caulerpa
Bam Bam Zoa

13.5 Fluval? Is that your tank size?