Dosing...who does it and who does not?

[Reefhabit]

I don't understand this but I meet a few reefers here and there who do not dose their reef tanks even though they had stony LPS coral dominated systems, without Ca reactor for that matter. I don't see how it is possible to maintain alkalinity doing weekly water changes. From my experience the smaller the system the more often you have to dose calcium and carbonate alkalinity. I Also found that in my systems alkalinity gets used up at a higher rate over calcium.
Any thoughts?

 

[xmjxflipx]

well if its an lps tank....i would "think" that they could get away with keeping decent levels of alk/cal/mag with weekly water changes of 20%.....if its a full blown sps/lps tank, i highly doubt u can maintain those levels with water changes, they would have to be alot and very frequent. I use to able to maintain levels with just a couple of sps when i first started buying the simple acros like a blue tort...but the more corals i bought over time and now that the real estate on my tank is almost pretty much full i have to dose at least 15 ml reef code A and B daily if i dont my alkalinity will lower by about 2 dkh in maybe 3-4 days.

 

[Reefhabit]

I was doing the same thing but got got tired of losing colonies due to dips in alkalinity from missing a couple of days of dosing. So I am not the only one who had to dose A & B every day.

 

[clowns101]

I dose,but some people will do daily water changes of 1-2 gallons and that is good enough along with some small dosings.

I does britewell.Best additive for me!

 

[drainbamage]

I've had corals looking great and growing succesfully, even with crazy drops in alkalinity-as in I wasn't dosing or doing water changes for nigh on 2 months, alk was down around 4~5 and I'd dose enough to bring it up to 10 the next day. True it wasn't super sensitive stuff-Hawkins Echinata, Red Planet, Acans, Euphyllia's, etc, but yea. I wouldn''t say that not mainting alk will directly cause decline of stuff, at least IME.
That said, I dose now, as I get MUCH better growth from the corals when levels are maintained appropriatley, but I've seen many a LPS dominated tank do just fine with no maintanence besides twice or once a month partial water changes. You won't find ideal levels in the tank, and most likely the stony corals aren't growing super fast, but the corals won't nessecarily just die.

 

[jcom]

I use an AquaMedic reef doser for my 120. Use BRS Calcium Choride for Ca and Arm & Hammer Baking Soda for ALK. Used to use the commercial 2 parts, but that got really expensive once I started keeping SPS. So I just went for it and bought a 5 gallon bucket of CC from BRS and the baking soda is $1.00 at Wal-Mizzy.

My ALK gets dosed every 3 hours 24/7, no swings.

 

[Triggerman77]

I dose ESV B-Ionic in all my tanks it works very good for me way better than other 2 parts i used im a FIRM believer in ESV's products they have been around for awhile. i buy the 8g kits from PremiumAquatics

 

[reefer916]

I dose 2-parts B-Ionic daily in my 24 and 95 gallon reefs. My 24 gallon is a sps and LPS dominated. I also have to dose extra Ca and Mg a few time per week to maintain levels.

 

[Reefsmoker]

I used to dose BRS two part everyday, got sick of it, and bought a kalkwasser reactor. Alk Ca issues gone, now i only dose if something is wrong. I test bi-weekly now after i've fine tuned it and, have'nt dosed anything in 2 months my alk @ 7.5 - 8 Ca 390-420. I do weekly WC 10% so i know i never lack any trace elements.

 

[jcom]

I used to dose BRS two part everyday, got sick of it, and bought a kalkwasser reactor. Alk Ca issues gone, now i only dose if something is wrong. I test bi-weekly now after i've fine tuned it and, have'nt dosed anything in 2 months my alk @ 7.5 - 8 Ca 390-420. I do weekly WC 10% so i know i never lack any trace elements.

Yeah, would never do it manually daily, that would get really old, and would be impossible to maintain stable levels. But whether you're dosing Ca/Alk or Kalk, both are still a form of dosing in my opinion.