Dosing, or lack there of.

Jmcdaniel0 · Mar 25, 2015

I know this was supposed to have been a topic of discussion and one of the previous meetings. However, after talking with Rob briefly about the clubs dosing supplies, I thought it would be a good idea to bring this post over here.

What do you dose and why?

I used to believe in frequent water changes were better that dosing, I used Red Sea Coral Pro and never had issues, however, After moving from my nice big house in West Knox. to my not so large house in Rutledge, I have found that space is quite limited. So performing water changes frequently has went from simply truning a knob and the tank draining down, and then another knob fills it up, to many trips with a five gallon bucket. Not so much fun. So now I use BRS's two part dosing supplies. However, I recently found out that the club has the Calcium, for a paltry 5 bucks a galon, and apparently baking soda is just fine for Alk.

I also supplement my dosing of the BRS two part, with a slow drip of Kalk. Which is nothing but Mrs. Wages Pickling lime diluted down in a gallon of water. I have used this method of dosing for many years without issue.

Thats all i use. I found that dosing straight chemicals for altering Calc, Alk, or Ph really adds a whole lot of other things to your system that you just cant test for.

What do you use and Why?

CoryC · Mar 26, 2015

Just two part for me. As your tank matures and grows, it gets harder to keep up with the calcium and sodium ions that your corals use up. I think water changes are great for diluting organic wastes and replacing trace elements, but if you measure the day to day usage of those two major elements you'll be surprised just how much gets used. Maybe not as much if you've just got a softie tank, but they do still use those up.Reading a few articles by Randy Holmes-Farley helped me to understand this, and until i started a consistent dosing schedule, my tank was pretty stagnant growth wise. I also feed much better now than I did, and dose some amino acids and my tank has been pretty stable for over a year now. For anyone that wants sps though, I think dosing something for stability is a necessity just as water changes are.

cale0721 · Mar 26, 2015

Right now I just do kalk in my auto top off. But that will change as I start to get my sps in my tank and advance in the hobby.

I'm leaning toward one of the dosing pumps that Matt and buddy have.

Jmcdaniel0 · Mar 26, 2015

CoryC said:
Just two part for me. As your tank matures and grows, it gets harder to keep up with the calcium and sodium ions that your corals use up. I think water changes are great for diluting organic wastes and replacing trace elements, but if you measure the day to day usage of those two major elements you'll be surprised just how much gets used. Maybe not as much if you've just got a softie tank, but they do still use those up.Reading a few articles by Randy Holmes-Farley helped me to understand this, and until i started a consistent dosing schedule, my tank was pretty stagnant growth wise. I also feed much better now than I did, and dose some amino acids and my tank has been pretty stable for over a year now. For anyone that wants sps though, I think dosing something for stability is a necessity just as water changes are.

I agree. I dose Aqua vitro fuel I believe it is, when I have coral. Btw, on of my wife's so called friends killed every coral owned. Those Zoas were looking awesome too.

Chriscrna · Mar 26, 2015

Mrs. Wages in the ATO. Calcium and baking soda as needed.

I plan to get a Ca reactor with the new build. But that can always change.

Randy Holmes-Farley said that he's used nothing but limewater for 19 years. Who am I to argue with the resident chemist?

KJ · Mar 26, 2015

A++++++ to Randy Holmes Farley Chris

Chriscrna said:
Mrs. Wages in the ATO. Calcium and baking soda as needed.

I plan to get a Ca reactor with the new build. But that can always change.

Randy Holmes-Farley said that he's used nothing but limewater for 19 years. Who am I to argue with the resident chemist?

ZIGGY63 · Mar 26, 2015

Been using kalk here lately the numbers have been spot on.

Jmcdaniel0 · Mar 26, 2015

Chriscrna said:
Mrs. Wages in the ATO. Calcium and baking soda as needed.

I plan to get a Ca reactor with the new build. But that can always change.

Randy Holmes-Farley said that he's used nothing but limewater for 19 years. Who am I to argue with the resident chemist?

I have a BS in Organic Chemistry and a second in Physics... Randy knows his stuff. I have never found an error in his math or chemistry. I got a new 55 gal bucket of Red Sea Coral Pro salt. So a big water change is coming up for me.

Trey B · Mar 27, 2015

Water changes only for us right now, we have been adding more stuff lately though. May need to try some more testing and see what we are using up now that we have some stock. Had problems with low numbers using reef crystals but after switching to RSCP a while back things have been a lot better. Still quite new to all of this though lol.

Chriscrna · Mar 27, 2015

Trey I only did water changes for the longest time. That worked out fine when I didn't have much in my tank. Then I added several stony corals and had a coralline algae explosion. Even with weekly Red Sea Coral Pro water changes, my alk was still 6.25 dkh. I had to dose my Ca and alk back to SPS growable numbers then started using Mrs. Wages in my gravity fed top off. So far so good now.