Start dosing?

[BobaF99]

With Red Seas current deal, buy a ReefDose4 get the small 4 part for free, I went and got one. My tank is new, only a few weeks old, and all it has in it is 2 clowns, some snails and hermits. I assume the dosing is only needed once corals go in? When is the time to start dosing? Is it just based on coral health?

 

[shcrimps]

IMO you don’t need to dose unless you have corals like torches that like high mag
or until your corals take in more than is replenished by your water changes

 

[SliceGolfer]

You need to dose when you can no longer maintain alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, phosphate, or nitrate at preferred levels through water changes and feeding. A tank will go through many changes in the first 6-8 months and one parameter can affect another, i.e. alkalinity and nitrate. Adopting a regular testing methodology will help to identify trends.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I recommend using alkalinity as the bellwether for dosing. if it drops below your target, begin dosing, which might be slow at first. Until it does, I would not even bother measuring anything else.

 

[Hemmbone20]

Bumping this because I have a similar question.
My tank is at the point where I’ve been manually dosing alk… I eventually want the reef dose 4 system installed in my reefer 350.
Should I just buy the reef dose 4 and only dose alk for now? Or does the full 4 part benefit my relatively young reef?
People that have installed a reef dose 4 on a young tank, when did you do it? How did it go?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Bumping this because I have a similar question.
My tank is at the point where I’ve been manually dosing alk… I eventually want the reef dose 4 system installed in my reefer 350.
Should I just buy the reef dose 4 and only dose alk for now? Or does the full 4 part benefit my relatively young reef?
People that have installed a reef dose 4 on a young tank, when did you do it? How did it go?

By Reef Dose 4 you mean the dosing pump, or a specific additive used in it, or something else?