How to properly dose and safe practice

[Jatchetto]

Hello all was not sure if this should go in the sps discussion or not but here we are. How does everyone dose is it bad to just dose as needed or is it necessary to add stuff to your top up. My tank is 6 months old and up till now it seem water changes were enough. I do weekly water changes and test weekly but saw a decline after double checking the test so i added some trace elements. Is it bad to add as needed do i need to add something to the ato reservoir to increase it. I will try to attach the weekly number and a photo of the tank. It currently doesn’t have any acros thats why i didnt know if it could go in the sps discussion but it has 3 montis 1 encrusting 2 branching 1 stylo frag and another bigger stylo frag along with 2 torches, lobo and few more lps with 2 nems a bta and a rfn. So i dont want swings to affect them ideally.

 

[Jatchetto]

Hello all was not sure if this should go in the sps discussion or not but here we are. How does everyone dose is it bad to just dose as needed or is it necessary to add stuff to your top up. My tank is 6 months old and up till now it seem water changes were enough. I do weekly water changes and test weekly but saw a decline after double checking the test so i added some trace elements. Is it bad to add as needed do i need to add something to the ato reservoir to increase it. I will try to attach the weekly number and a photo of the tank. It currently doesn’t have any acros thats why i didnt know if it could go in the sps discussion but it has 3 montis 1 encrusting 2 branching 1 stylo frag and another bigger stylo frag along with 2 torches, lobo and few more lps with 2 nems a bta and a rfn. So i dont want swings to affect them ideally.

And if i dose should i try to raise my levels in alk or cal?

 

[Lavey29]

With 0 nitrates in your tank then your corals are starving to death. You want 10ppm nitrates for mixed reef.

 

[Lavey29]

Generally weekly water changes suffice for major and minor elements replenish. However once you have enough corals then dosing may be required primarily for alk and cal. You base dosing off alk consumption. Measure alk at the same time each day for 3 days and determine your alk consumption. That will tell you if dosing is needed between water changes. If using 2 part then the alk and cal dose should be similar as they consume proportionally. Magnesium may only need to be hand dosed weekly or monthly. It only depletes at 1/10 th the amount of the other 2. Trace elements are replenished with weekly water changes.

 

[Jatchetto]

With 0 nitrates in your tank then your corals are starving to death. You want 10ppm nitrates for mixed reef.

That was before i added my 3 fish they have been in for 5 days i will retest i was feeding reef ab+ when i had no fish.

 

[Jatchetto]

Generally weekly water changes suffice for major and minor elements replenish. However once you have enough corals then dosing may be required primarily for alk and cal. You base dosing off alk consumption. Measure alk at the same time each day for 3 days and determine your alk consumption. That will tell you if dosing is needed between water changes. If using 2 part then the alk and cal dose should be similar as they consume proportionally. Magnesium may only need to be hand dosed weekly or monthly. It only depletes at 1/10 th the amount of the other 2. Trace elements are replenished with weekly water changes.

Thank you !

 

[Lavey29]

Thank you !

I didn't need to start dosing till about 8 months when I started getting enough corals and it was just simple hand dosing alk and cal small amount daily. At 11 months I went to biweekly water changes and added a 2 head red sea doser which is simple to program and use via WI fi to dose small amounts of alk and cal during the day and night. I dose 27ml of each now over 24 hours. I dose 15ml of magnesium weekly.

 

[Lavey29]

Hello all was not sure if this should go in the sps discussion or not but here we are. How does everyone dose is it bad to just dose as needed or is it necessary to add stuff to your top up. My tank is 6 months old and up till now it seem water changes were enough. I do weekly water changes and test weekly but saw a decline after double checking the test so i added some trace elements. Is it bad to add as needed do i need to add something to the ato reservoir to increase it. I will try to attach the weekly number and a photo of the tank. It currently doesn’t have any acros thats why i didnt know if it could go in the sps discussion but it has 3 montis 1 encrusting 2 branching 1 stylo frag and another bigger stylo frag along with 2 torches, lobo and few more lps with 2 nems a bta and a rfn. So i dont want swings to affect them ideally.

Your numbers are not bad. Alk can be 7 to 12dkh but depends on personal preference, salt mix and if you have a high or low nutrients tank. Most run about 7.5 to 9dkh. Calcium should be 420 to 450.

 

[MNFish]

I like you reef it looks nice. It seems like you are keeping pretty good control of the numbers but eventually I feel you would benefit from dosing some all for reef. Your current ALK is around 7 which is not bad but my question is what is a new batch of salt mixing to? Ideally to me you would want to have you alk level be close to what a water change alk level is. I find it very important, especially if you have a smaller reef and do larger water changes to try to keep the alk value near the value of freshly made salt water.

 

[Jatchetto]

I didn't need to start dosing till about 8 months when I started getting enough corals and it was just simple hand dosing alk and cal small amount daily. At 11 months I went to biweekly water changes and added a 2 head red sea doser which is simple to program and use via WI fi to dose small amounts of alk and cal during the day and night. I dose 27ml of each now over 24 hours. I dose 15ml of magnesium weekly.

Okay i seem to be falling into that time line aswell potentially!

 

[Jatchetto]

I like you reef it looks nice. It seems like you are keeping pretty good control of the numbers but eventually I feel you would benefit from dosing some all for reef. Your current ALK is around 7 which is not bad but my question is what is a new batch of salt mixing to? Ideally to me you would want to have you alk level be close to what a water change alk level is. I find it very important, especially if you have a smaller reef and do larger water changes to try to keep the alk value near the value of freshly made salt water.

Thanks and ill test what the water mixes at gunna be picking up a hanna for alk i think

 

[ptrick21186]

Your tank is still relatively new. So don't get too caught up on chasing numbers. Stability is the key. As for dosing that's going to change. What you dose now won't be what you does a year from now. Your corals will grow and demand more. The key is to keep monitoring your levels with a good tester and dose based off how fast elements are depleting. It's never gonna be a static number. It will constantly change.

 

[Jatchetto]

Your tank is still relatively new. So don't get too caught up on chasing numbers. Stability is the key. As for dosing that's going to change. What you dose now won't be what you does a year from now. Your corals will grow and demand more. The key is to keep monitoring your levels with a good tester and dose based off how fast elements are depleting. It's never gonna be a static number. It will constantly change.

Not to chase a certain number but since im starting to dose should i raise my alk/cal to more common numbers from other and maintain those such as 410 cal and 8ish alk because they are lower now i will be retesting today after dosing

 

[Lavey29]

Not to chase a certain number but since im starting to dose should i raise my alk/cal to more common numbers from other and maintain those such as 410 cal and 8ish alk because they are lower now i will be retesting today after dosing

Just depends on what your corals prefer. NSW is 7. If your salt mix mixes alk at 8 then you should be close to that number. If you have a high nutrients tank then you probably want higher alk around 10. Low nutrients tank alk would be better maybe 7.5 to 8.5.

 

[Jatchetto]

Just depends on what your corals prefer. NSW is 7. If your salt mix mixes alk at 8 then you should be close to that number. If you have a high nutrients tank then you probably want higher alk around 10. Low nutrients tank alk would be better maybe 7.5 to 8.5.

Thank you!

 

[mdb_talon]

In your situation I would disagree with using a salt mix that matches your alk level. If you have a 7.5 alk level and you use 7.5 alk salt then it pretty much assures you going to have to have the hassle of very small dosing. If on the other hand you use a higher alk/calc salt (say 9 or 10 and 450 on the calc) then with regular water changes you are unlikely to need to dose.

Stability is good. I also think people take it to the extreme. Alk dropping a bit between water changes and bumped up a bit during the water change is not going to cause issues. In some tanks dosing eventually becomes required as no amount of water changes can suffice. In your case based off what you have said and the numbers you showed I would address it with the water changes. That assumes you do regular water changes for other reasons (nutrient export, trace elements, etc).