Should I be dosing anything?

[NakiFantaki]

Hey folks! Had a quick question as far as dosing goes....
My tank has been up and running for almost 5 months. Everything has been good and I haven't had any real bad issues. Fish are fat and happy and corals are growing and doing well.. their color is decent. I can't help but to think if they could have better color and polyp extension.
Anyways... should I be dosing any supplements?
Latest water testing is as follows:
Temp 77-79
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
PH 8.2
Phosphates 0.03ish.. lol.
Alk 10.2
Calcium 380
Mag 1140

I realize that my mag and cal are a bit low. With that being said should I dose anything?

Tank inhabitants include 2 occ clowns and a Midas blenny and a bunch of different snails and hermits. As well as a rainbow BTA. Corals include a GSP rock, 3 zoa colonies, small hammer frag, small 3 head acan frag and a small patch of leptastrea.

What do you guys think??

 

[PaReeferJ]

How often are you doing a water change?

 

[120reefkeeper]

Hey folks! Had a quick question as far as dosing goes....
My tank has been up and running for almost 5 months. Everything has been good and I haven't had any real bad issues. Fish are fat and happy and corals are growing and doing well.. their color is decent. I can't help but to think if they could have better color and polyp extension.
Anyways... should I be dosing any supplements?
Latest water testing is as follows:
Temp 77-79
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
PH 8.2
Phosphates 0.03ish.. lol.
Alk 10.2
Calcium 380
Mag 1140

I realize that my mag and cal are a bit low. With that being said should I dose anything?

Tank inhabitants include 2 occ clowns and a Midas blenny and a bunch of different snails and hermits. As well as a rainbow BTA. Corals include a GSP rock, 3 zoa colonies, small hammer frag, small 3 head acan frag and a small patch of leptastrea.

What do you guys think??

IMHO you need to get your mag up first then balance you calcium and alkalinity. When you see Alk and somewhat calcium decline on a steady if not daily basis.... especially alk then your ready to start dosing. You have a light coral load and the types of corals you have won't consume a lot. Until then water changes and periodic dosing will suffice .

An example would be if my Alk today at 3pm is 8.0 dkh, tomorrow at 3pm it's 7.7dkh and the next day it's 7.4 dkh then I know I'm using .3dkh per day of Alk. You balance your calcium according to what Dkh your keeping your tank at. Here is a helpful calculator I use. http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Remember if your going to raise your alkalinity do so slowly. I suggest no more than 1dkh per 24 hour period.

Once you have your alkalinity and calcium where you want them , then you just match your daily consumption . In my example it would be .3dkh. Also make sure your magnesium is between 1280ppm and 1400ppm IMHO. If your mag isn't in that range then you could end up chasing numbers in regards to alkalinity and calcium.

Hope this helps. [emoji4]

 

[NakiFantaki]

How often are you doing a water change?

I'm sorry I should of mentioned that. Oops. I do a weekly water change of about 4 gallons. My tank is nuvo 20 gallon.
My last water change was yesterday.. so about 24 hours ago.
As far as media goes - I run a bag of chemipure elite and in the media basket I run filter floss and poly filter.

 

[NakiFantaki]

IMHO you need to get your mag up first then balance you calcium and alkalinity. When you see Alk and somewhat calcium decline on a steady if not daily basis.... especially alk then your ready to start dosing. You have a light coral load and the types of corals you have won't consume a lot. Until then water changes and periodic dosing will suffice .

An example would be if my Alk today at 3pm is 8.0 dkh, tomorrow at 3pm it's 7.7dkh and the next day it's 7.4 dkh then I know I'm using .3dkh per day of Alk. You balance your calcium according to what Dkh your keeping your tank at. Here is a helpful calculator I use. http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Remember if your going to raise your alkalinity do so slowly. I suggest no more than 1dkh per 24 hour period.

Once you have your alkalinity and calcium where you want them , then you just match your daily consumption . In my example it would be .3dkh. Also make sure your magnesium is between 1280ppm and 1400ppm IMHO. If your mag isn't in that range then you could end up chasing numbers in regards to alkalinity and calcium.

Hope this helps. [emoji4]

Thanks! A lot of that is a bit over my head but nonetheless, helpful. I don't think I need to dose anything on a daily basis... but I do know that my mag and calcium is low so I just don't know if I should be doing anything about it.
What alk lever should I be aiming for?

 

[120reefkeeper]

Thanks! A lot of that is a bit over my head but nonetheless, helpful. I don't think I need to dose anything on a daily basis... but I do know that my mag and calcium is low so I just don't know if I should be doing anything about it.
What alk lever should I be aiming for?

Yes you should get your Magnesium up first. Magnesium drops very slowly so that's the first one to get in line. Alkalinity - the safe range for alkalinity is 7-11 dkh. Most folks aim kind of in the middle of that , but a lot of that will depend on the salt mix you use. Your current alkalinity of 10 should be balanced with your calcium. In this case about 430ppm. The link to the calculator I gave you is very helpful to figure out what the balance is between those 2.

 

[NakiFantaki]

Yes you should get your Magnesium up first. Magnesium drops very slowly so that's the first one to get in line. Alkalinity - the safe range for alkalinity is 7-11 dkh. Most folks aim kind of in the middle of that , but a lot of that will depend on the salt mix you use. Your current alkalinity of 10 should be balanced with your calcium. In this case about 430ppm. The link to the calculator I gave you is very helpful to figure out what the balance is between those 2.

Awesome. I checked out that calculator! Super helpful! What can you recommend using for bring up my mag?

 

[120reefkeeper]

Lots of products on the market from dry to liquid. It's your pick really but don't raise it more that 100ppm per day.

Seachem dry and E.S.V liquid are two that I have used and both work well. I prefer the liquid just because it's easier to use. It's also listed in that calculator where it asks you to pick a product. You just put in your total tank volume at the top. Then go to the magnesium column and put in what your measurement was. Then put in your desired reading. Pick the product you want to use. And it will tell you how much you will need to dose to get that result. Again make sure no more than 100ppm with the magnesium per day until you get it up to where you want it. [emoji4]

 

[NakiFantaki]

Thanks man. I really appreciate the help!

 

[120reefkeeper]

No problems! That's what we are here for!

[emoji4] happy reefing!!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If you double up on your WC once in a while it'll really help if your not quite ready or have a large enough depletion to start a full time dosing regimine too. Adding a small amount of saturated kalwasser to the top off
Can help as well.

 

[NakiFantaki]

Thanks. I'll look into kalwasser. I see it talked about all the time but really have no idea what it is or what it's purpose is.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thanks. I'll look into kalwasser. I see it talked about all the time but really have no idea what it is or what it's purpose is.

It a balanced dosing strategy for calcium and alkalinity.
It might be time for ya to look atvRandy Farley articles in his forum.
@120reefkeeper gave a pretty great primer on dosing. So I'd def follow up on the easy chemistry basic articles andget familir with some of that. Once you get into more stony corals like easy montis and birds nest you want to be able to pick the easiest way for you to keep up with the calcium and alkalinity demands. And it's pretty easy to do starting out. Water changes two part or kalk and mag. All do the same thing. Put cal and alk back in.

 

[NakiFantaki]

Thanks salty. I'll start searching for articles and threads on the chemistry behind it. I'm a paramedic by trade and I know how those elements work in the human body but it's a bit different for a fish tank. Lol

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Since the alkalinity has not declined substantially, all of the major elements will reflect what is in the salt mix you are using,a nd none that I know of are seriously deficient in magnesium.

What salt mix and what salinity? Raising the salinity to 35 ppt may boost calcium and magnesium.

 

[NakiFantaki]

I buy pre mixed saltwater from my LFS. In the next month or so I should be getting a RODI system at which time I will mix my own saltwater. I believe my LFS uses reef crystals.

My salinity is at 1.025

When I get home from work I will re do all of my tests. I'm wondering if because I tested less then 24 hours after a water change if that would of made a difference.

 

[NakiFantaki]

I did another round of testing tonight and now I'm super confused.

Salinity 1.025
PH 8.3
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Alk 12.5
Mag 1200
Calcium 410

Should I be dosing anything? My alk is a lot higher then 24 hours ago...

 

[Fishgeek88]

Mag may be a touch low but wouldn't dose anything just yet.

 

[NakiFantaki]

Mag may be a touch low but wouldn't dose anything just yet.

My mag was a bit lower yesterday. Maybe it's a good sign that it's going up! Lol!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I buy pre mixed saltwater from my LFS. In the next month or so I should be getting a RODI system at which time I will mix my own saltwater. I believe my LFS uses reef crystals.

My salinity is at 1.025

When I get home from work I will re do all of my tests. I'm wondering if because I tested less then 24 hours after a water change if that would of made a difference.

You have no need for dosing.

Assuming your last tests are perfectly accurate (unlikely since they surely didn't really change appreciably from your first tests) then allowing that to rise to 35 ppt (sg = 1.0264) will boost magnesium from 1200 ppm to 1267 ppm, which is fine, and calcium from 410 to 433 ppm.