Reef tank dosing.

Redneckreef90 · Apr 26, 2016

What should I look at for dosing my reef tank? I'm not new to saltwater or that basic reef but I want to GROW my corals and looking into sps corals. I have never dosed a tank before so this is new to me.

CodyRVA · Apr 26, 2016

This is a massive question. Best advice i can give is to go on youtube and watch some info videos on the subject. In a nut shell, you'll need to look into a dosing pump, either an all in one unit with multiple pumps or individual pumps for each additive. The big three to monitor are ALK, CA, and MG. If you have a small system, you may be able to supplement your water with water changes alone with premium salt and possibly introducing Kalkwasser which helps maintain CA and ALK. There are many methods to supplementing these elements into your system, find what works best for your system. The amount of each of these additives varies depending on demand; large SPS dominant systems will naturally require more ML per day of the various additives comparatively to a small Soft dominant system which would require much less dosing. I would personally plan for what you're going to want in the future, not what you have now. You'll save money in the long run.

I prefer "2 part dosing" here's an intro.

dbl · Apr 26, 2016

Not here to make a product recommendation per se, but what I will say is you should not dose anything you can't test for.

You'll need to determine what your daily consumption is for each element (calc, Alk and mag). Do testing on day 1, let the tank run for a few days, and test again. The difference between the two tests, divided by the number of days, gives you your daily consumption.

The amount to dose to get those parameters to where you want them along with the daily dose after that, will be determined by the products you use. There are several calculators on line to assist you with those calculations.

CodyRVA · Apr 26, 2016

dbl said:
Not here to make a product recommendation per se, but what I will say is you should not dose anything you can't test for.

You'll need to determine what your daily consumption is for each element (calc, Alk and mag). Do testing on day 1, let the tank 4un for a few days, and test again. The difference between the two tests, divided by the number of days, gives you your daily consumption.

The amount to dose to get those parameters to where you want them along with the daily dose after that, will be determined by the products you use. There are several calculators on line to assist you with those calculations.

+1 @dbl . Definitely start low and work your way up. If you mess up, starting low will be much less detrimental, if at all, to your livestock compared to aiming high and working backwards.

Kungpaoshizi · Apr 27, 2016

From personal experience, check out the Red Sea Reef Care Program. Pretty simple overall, harder part is getting all the dosers setup. I would also suggest an aquarium controller (Reef Angel is awesome, for those less technically inclined the Apex) and Drew's Dosers from BRS. They're a 4 roller design and individual units, so if they fail, it will be a single doser failure, not an entire unit that houses every doser.

Good luck! There's a lot to read up on! But dosing is the best way to give your tank what it needs, on it's own schedule, and not having to depend on YOUR schedule.

Redneckreef90 · Apr 27, 2016

Thanks guys. This part of saltwater is very new to me. What type of salt do yall recommend that I use. I do have my own ro unit so I can control that part. I will do my research but want as much help as I can get.

CodyRVA · Apr 27, 2016

Redneckreef90 said:
Thanks guys. This part of saltwater is very new to me. What type of salt do yall recommend that I use. I do have my own ro unit so I can control that part. I will do my research but want as much help as I can get.

Everyone is going to have their own preference based on their own success with various types. I'm a Red Sea fan myself. The regular Red Sea would be great for softies, few LPS/SPS, once you start building up your coral population you can switch to Coral Pro by Red Sea, the only difference being it has higher trace elements, alk, ca, mg, etc. My advice on salt is once you get one you like, keep using it, itll throw off your dosing measurements once you switch. Not a big deal if you're just starting to stock coral, but not ideal IMO if you have a tank full of SPS.

Redneckreef90 · Apr 27, 2016

CodyRVA said:
Everyone is going to have their own preference based on their own success with various types. I'm a Red Sea fan myself. The regular Red Sea would be great for softies, few LPS/SPS, once you start building up your coral population you can switch to Coral Pro by Red Sea, the only difference being it has higher trace elements, alk, ca, mg, etc. My advice on salt is once you get one you like, keep using it, itll throw off your dosing measurements once you switch. Not a big deal if you're just starting to stock coral, but not ideal IMO if you have a tank full of SPS.

Yeah I'm just starting to add corals right now. I am out of salt and need to buy sone so figured I should get the right stuff bow and start using it