New to dosing need help!!!

[Jamie Allbritton]

Hello fellow reefers, I'm wanting to start dosing my tank but not exactly sure what I'm doing. I'm wanting my tank to have the growth that most everyone else has.

Tank parameters are as of 10/15/18:

Ph 8.16
Alk 9.5 with Hannah 10.5 with RS
Cal 475 with RS
Phos 0.03 RS
Nitrate 1.5 with RS
Sal 1.026
Temp 75.7
Mag 1440 with RS

I mostly have LPS and softies with one rainbow montipora. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hello fellow reefers, I'm wanting to start dosing my tank but not exactly sure what I'm doing. I'm wanting my tank to have the growth that most everyone else has.

Tank parameters are as of 10/15/18:

Ph 8.16
Alk 9.5 with Hannah 10.5 with RS
Cal 475 with RS
Phos 0.03 RS
Nitrate 1.5 with RS
Sal 1.026
Temp 75.7
Mag 1440 with RS

I mostly have LPS and softies with one rainbow montipora. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kalkwasser might be a good option for you for a low demand tank. Do you know what your daily consumption is? Could regular water changes keep your elements up instead?

 

[dwest]

Hello fellow reefers, I'm wanting to start dosing my tank but not exactly sure what I'm doing. I'm wanting my tank to have the growth that most everyone else has.

Tank parameters are as of 10/15/18:

Ph 8.16
Alk 9.5 with Hannah 10.5 with RS
Cal 475 with RS
Phos 0.03 RS
Nitrate 1.5 with RS
Sal 1.026
Temp 75.7
Mag 1440 with RS

I mostly have LPS and softies with one rainbow montipora. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Agree with crabs. If you can keep your excellent parameters with water changes, do that for now. After that, you can do kalk or 2 part. I prefer kalk.

 

[Jamie Allbritton]

I have been doing 10-20% water changes a week with red sea coral pro salt. The problem I'm having is the levels are sporadic and my corals don't look good after a water change. I don't know my daily consumption.

 

[dwest]

I have been doing 10-20% water changes a week with red sea coral pro salt. The problem I'm having is the levels are sporadic and my corals don't look good after a water change. I don't know my daily consumption.

How big is your tank?

 

[Jamie Allbritton]

75 gallon display with sump 100 gallons total system

 

[Mikedawg]

Your water parameters look pretty good to me, especially for softies and LPS; what readings do you want for calcium, alk, mag, ph, etc.? That said, the calculators at Bulk Reef Supply are easily used to identify how much of which chemical you will need to add to raise values and then you can decide to dose them by hand or instrument.
For what its worth, I think most reefers like temp at 78 - 80 if I remember a recent R2R poll correctly.

+1 on crabs above

 

[Jamie Allbritton]

Your water parameters look pretty good to me, especially for softies and LPS; what do you want to accomplish? That said, the calculators at Bulk Reef Supply are easily used to identify how much of which chemical you will need to add to raise values and then you can decide to dose by hand or instrument.

I'm curious if dosing and keeping a solid consistency improve growth with in my tank without having to do water changes that are swinging my levels out of whack? When I do water changes calcium and magnesium goes through the roof, example calcium 500+, magnesium 1600+, and alk running around 8-9.

 

[Jamie Allbritton]

Also have a heater on order to raise the temperature throughout the display and sump.

 

[rkpetersen]

Kalk is pretty easy to use and will support both alk and pH. I prefer a small reactor fed by an ATO system but some people just add the kalk powder directly to their ATO reservoir.

If you're considering dosing two-part, I'd recommend getting a doser sooner rather than later. Many small doses per day is smoother for your livestock and less work for you than manual dosing, especially as you get some SPS growing. To figure out your alk consumption and thereby your starting dose, first measure your alk carefully and note the time. Now measure it again over the next few days, at the same time (no water changes or additives.) It may stay the same or slightly decrease. Wait longer if you don't see a definite decrease right away. When you do, take the drop in alk measurement, divide that by the total number of days, convert that result to mEq/l if necessary (= dKH/2.79 ), and multiply by the volume of water in your tank in liters (= gallons x 3.785 ). This number is your mEq alk consumption per day. Most alk products have their concentration listed on the bottle in mEq/l. Take your number and divide by their number, and that will tell you how many liters of their alk you need per day to maintain alk based on current consumption. (If you have few SPS, it may just be a few ml per day.) This is a good starting point. Dose calcium at the same amount to start. Dose them via tubes into your sump; the tubes should dispense at different times, and if they're positioned in different locations, even better.

You can also do something like this with magnesium consumption. Don't bother to measure calcium consumption; it's much less sensitive than alk and the two are consumed together, so with most two-part you at least start by using equal volumes of both components.

Or, you can just follow the product's instructions for starting dose, and adjust your subsequent dosing based on measurements. This works fine for the most, especially when you're just starting with sps, and involves much less calculation.

Also, I'd suggest doing smaller water changes. I also use RSCP, but never more than 5%, with water taken from the dt and returned to the sump, with the return pump running. Coral Pro is potent stuff .

 

[Jamie Allbritton]

Kalk is pretty easy to use and will support both alk and pH. I prefer a small reactor fed by an ATO system but some people just add the kalk powder directly to their ATO reservoir.

If you're considering dosing two-part, I'd recommend getting a doser sooner rather than later. Many small doses per day is smoother for your livestock and less work for you than manual dosing, especially as you get some SPS growing. To figure out your alk consumption and thereby your starting dose, first measure your alk carefully and note the time. Now measure it again over the next few days, at the same time (no water changes or additives.) It may stay the same or slightly decrease. Wait longer if you don't see a definite decrease right away. When you do, take the drop in alk measurement, divide that by the total number of days, convert that result to mEq/l if necessary (= dKH/2.79 ), and multiply by the volume of water in your tank in liters (= gallons x 3.785 ). This number is your mEq alk consumption per day. Most alk products have their concentration listed on the bottle in mEq/l. Take your number and divide by their number, and that will tell you how many liters of their alk you need per day to maintain alk based on current consumption. This is a good starting point.

Or, you can just follow the product's instructions for starting dose, and adjust your subsequent dosing based on measurements. This works fine for the most, especially when you're just starting with sps, and involves much less calculation.

Also, I'd suggest doing smaller water changes. I also use RSCP, but never more than 5%, with water taken from the dt and returned to the sump, with the return pump running. Coral Pro is potent stuff .

Ok, so I would need to bring alk up to the appropriate range level for my calcium and magnesium current levels?

 

[rkpetersen]

Ok, so I would need to bring alk up to the appropriate range level for my calcium and magnesium current levels?

Your numbers are fine, I personally would not need them any higher, and they are in reasonable balance. The calculation gives you the ongoing amount that your corals consume per day. This will change over time, and can become very high if you have a tank crowded with actively growing SPS. Any 'make up' additions of alk or other components would be in addition to the calculated consumption.

 

[rkpetersen]

As far as dosing other than calcium, alk, and magnesium, some people do various trace elements. I'm being deliberately vague on this point because every product has its claims and proponents but little of it is backed up by solid science. You probably don't actually need to use most of them if the corals like everything else you're doing.

 

[Jamie Allbritton]

Your numbers are fine, I personally would not need them any higher, and they are in reasonable balance. The calculation gives you the ongoing amount that your corals consume per day. This will change over time, and can become very high if you have a tank crowded with actively growing SPS. Any 'make up' additions of alk or other components would be in addition to the calculated consumption.

Thanks for the info. So what could be the issue of my corals not growing?

 

[Jamie Allbritton]

As far as dosing other than calcium, alk, and magnesium, some people do various trace elements. I'm being deliberately vague on this point because every product has its claims and proponents but little of it is backed up by solid science. You probably don't actually need to use most of them if the corals like everything else you're doing.

Ok so do I need to test for trace elements or just add them to the tank a small amount over the week?

 

[Mikedawg]

I'm curious if dosing and keeping a solid consistency improve growth with in my tank without having to do water changes that are swinging my levels out of whack? When I do water changes calcium and magnesium goes through the roof, example calcium 500+, magnesium 1600+, and alk running around 8-9.

Yeah, RS Coral Pro has some high numbers and frequent water changes can have a significant impact on raising alk, ca, etc. I use it because my tank's uptake is significant and I find that I still need to dose to maintain relatively consistent water parameters and keep alk, ca and mg at the levels I want.

Takes a while to achieve stability, but the rewards in terms of coral growth are worth it. You're on the right track; good luck.

 

[rkpetersen]

Thanks for the info. So what could be the issue of my corals not growing?

You're seeing negative effects after your water changes, right? I agree with you that this is probably a significant issue. Any time your corals look 'unhappy', it can take them weeks to fully recover, and that's assuming they don't get stressed again in the mean time.

As far as trace elements, hobbyist-level testing is generally worthless in my experience. To get (semi-)accurate numbers for trace elements, you would need to send in water for an ICP-OES analysis. Which can be helpful at times but also confusing for many reefkeepers. Without testing, it's best to err on the conservative side with trace elements; use less than the product instructions recommend. I personally use Seachem's Reef Trace through a doser. I also add additional small quantities of iron, strontium, and iodine twice a week. I don't know that any of these are necessary, but my corals are doing well with my current regimen.

 

[danieyella]

I occasionally add trace elements (because I purchased them and still have them sitting around) but after 2 months of regular use I was unable to notice a difference. I DO see a significant growth difference since I started dosing reef energy - I know a few brands have their own versions but I use that one by RS. Also not dosing related but, varying my foods seems to make a difference. Just using roids or just using benepets doesn't seem to cut it. But if I mix the two throughout the week? Corals seem much happier.

 

[Jamie Allbritton]

Ok guys and gals can someone tell me how my calcium and magnesium levels are higher after it's been a week since a water change and I haven't added anything.

My new parameters are

Ph 8.04
Alk 9.0
Cal 490
Phos 0.10
Nitrate 3.00
Sal 1.026
Temp 75.2
Mag 1600

Any information is greatly appreciated.