how did you decide what to dose?

[smitten with ocean life]

sometimes my head gets to spinning with all the different options of things to dose! i realize that some are basically the same thing just different name brand. personally, i dose AFR and baking soda. but im curious- why or how did you decide on the things that you dose?

 

[KrisReef]

When I am in pain I take pain killers, and when my reef needs something I give it what it is consuming. I have a Calc reactor that has some magnesium rocks in it and I adjust the drip according to Alk levels. Ca & Mg stay good enough, Alk changes with consumption, rarely have to adjust it.

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

Mine was based on what was needed and doing a little research on products that cater to my need. Some products are easy DIY or just mixing economical dry compounds. Adjusting as i go, things change as the tank consumes at different levels.

 

[BriDroid]

I did AFR in my old nano. Due to high CO2 in the house, I was running a CO2 scrubber to keep pH "normal", otherwise it would sit at 7.6 to 7.8.
When i setup my new tank, I had every intention of continuing AFR since it worked so well. I ended up going with a sodium hydroxide based 2-part this time though. I decided on Notafeesh. With it, I was able to get rid of my CO2 scrubber and that extra time and expense. Now my pH goes from 8.0 to 8.4 and I run less equipment!

 

[exnisstech]

I only dose to maintain alk and calcium. I use AFR on 3 tanks and ESV 2 part on another.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

I did AFR in my old nano. Due to high CO2 in the house, I was running a CO2 scrubber to keep pH "normal", otherwise it would sit at 7.6 to 7.8.
When i setup my new tank, I had every intention of continuing AFR since it worked so well. I ended up going with a sodium hydroxide based 2-part this time though. I decided on Notafeesh. With it, I was able to get rid of my CO2 scrubber and that extra time and expense. Now my pH goes from 8.0 to 8.4 and I run less equipment!

this intrigues me

 

[BryanM]

sometimes my head gets to spinning with all the different options of things to dose! i realize that some are basically the same thing just different name brand. personally, i dose AFR and baking soda. but im curious- why or how did you decide on the things that you dose?

I didn't like that my calc with AFR kept creeping up.

So I moved to moonshiners. Way too much to manage IMO.

Then I went, and am using the full Triton Method for simplicity. We'll see how it goes, but so far so good.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

another one that interests me is modern reef. any users want to chime in?

 

[BryanM]

another one that interests me is modern reef. any users want to chime in?

You kinda just gotta pic one and go for it. Moonshiners worked great (I had to rehome both elegance corals and a long spine urchin due to HUGE growth), but it is either a lot of work , or a LOOOOOT of money to automate.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

I only dose to maintain alk and calcium. I use AFR on 3 tanks and ESV 2 part on another.

so which do you like better?

 

[exnisstech]

so which do you like better?

I like AFR. The tank I use 2 part on was already using 2 part before I started AFR on the others so I just stayed with it. They both seem to work fine AFR is just easier being s single product..

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Silly as it sounds, but it was to avoid water changes, haha

 

[PPBlimpy]

My go to had always been Kalk and 10% weekly water changes with a good salt.

When the tank consumed to much Kalk I added a CalRX to take a majority of the load and then reset the Kalk. All while regular 10% weekly water changes.

These were all larger then 120G tanks.

I am starting my first "small tank" a 54G with the intent to be LPS/SPS Dom eventually.
I have decided to start out and try B-ionic 2 part, and eventually will run a set amount of Kalk to do the heavy lifting. 10% weekly water changes are the current course but want to implement 1 gallon / day AWC. I have never done AWC and have everything to do it. mostly wanting to to make my life easier.....i hope

I am a set it and forget it reefer. I try not to play with to many things. At the beginning now I am testing alk / cal every other day to get my initial dose dialed in. Once happy I will only test weekly, and adjust dosage when needed.

We will see how this goes. Always looking into other options and following this Thread to see what is out there and how people like it.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

it was easy- all for reef provides everything you need. In addition, kalk fills some of the gaps when dosing less afr(which is expensive)