Water Changes and dosing

[chrisdafish70]

So I am still new to the hobby and I recently started dosing about 3 weeks ago for the first time in my 50g tank. I am only dosing Alk, Calcium, and Mag. I haven't done a water change in a while and was wondering how to go about it since I am manually dosing.

Do I do the water change, test the levels and then add the elements?

 

[1112-425XL]

That's how I do it.
I have the Coralvue Hydros which monitors my PH so I dose Alk more often than just water changes. I do water changes about every 10-12 days and Calc and Mag need dosing every 2nd or 3rd water change.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Hi. What’s the system’s base line, age and stock list?

 

[jda]

Unless you are changing a lot of water, even if the cal, alk and mag are way off (they aren't) then they cannot really move the tank that much. This is one reason why more frequent, smaller water changes are recommended by many.

I would not worry about this too much until you have a tank full of sensitive or specialty corals and inverts. You might need to fine tune your fresh salt mix when this happens, but it is easy and you will be happy to do so to keep your awesome tank happy.

 

[MnFish1]

So I am still new to the hobby and I recently started dosing about 3 weeks ago for the first time in my 50g tank. I am only dosing Alk, Calcium, and Mag. I haven't done a water change in a while and was wondering how to go about it since I am manually dosing.

Do I do the water change, test the levels and then add the elements?

For the most part - the water you're changing with should have the same composition as to what you're dosing automatically. There should be no reason to adjust them. (i.e. aim to keep your dosing levels at the level in the salt you're using - then you don't have to worry)