Making the leap to Dosing My Aquarium. Yikes!

[ClearRain]

Just because your corals look better after a water change doesn't mean it's because you need to dose. I'd get them to where they are consistently looking good, but growth is slow before buying a doser. Hand dosing weekly if you need to does just fine, it's when that begins to not be enough that a doser would be worth it. My 2 cents.

 

[sealife4life]

You might want to look into salts that are closer to the parameters you want. It’ll cut down on how much to dose and what you actually need to dose for. I actually started my new routine today. My tank is 11 months old. I’ve been using a synthetic blend from LFS. I changed to Red Sea coral pro salt for WC which my first was yesterday. 120g volume I did 25%. I’m using ATI 2 part diluted for first two heads. With the help of people on here I’ve figured out the conversion mls from using Fusion 1&2 to ATI. I dose #1(alk) 8ml spread through the night and #2(everything else) 10ml spread through the day. Water test today:

sal 1.026
Ca 430
Alk 12
Mg 1400
Ph 8.1
Am 0
No2 0
No3 0

Most likely will check parameters every few days to make adjustments if necessary. One word of advise is to document everything! Good luck and like people stated just keep an eye on things to see if things are rolling like clock work. Here’s my setup..

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hi Everyone, this summer or fall I will be taking the leap into dosing my Redsea 250. I'm in the planning stage currently and just trying to figure out what I will need as far as equipment and what to dose. I've been dosing Calcium and Reef Plus via my auto top off and that has worked for my GSP and Xenia but My Gonipora (which is my favorite Coral) are not so happy.


A few bullet points

1. I was planning on dosing Calcium, magnesium, Alk and Redsea Coral Colors (open to suggestions based on what I plan on keeping in my aquarium). I know I need to dose Iodine for the Zoas not sure about anything else.

2. My favorite Corals are Xenia, GSP, Goniopora, Acans, Hammers and torch coral.

3. Currently in my display tank: Captain America Palythoas, Electrified Gonipora, Blue Gonipora, Tweet Bird Gonipora, Rainbow Acan, Pink Meteor Shower Cyphastrea, Xenia. All of these are frag plugvsize except the Electrified Goni and the Xenia.

4. I currently have in Quarantine: Candy Corn Chalice, about 50 Polyps of Zoas, Pipe Organ, Favia, Montipora, Firework Clove Polyp, Barnstorm Aussie Lord, Boogie Nights Blastomussa, Earthbound Echinata and Vanna Styloceniella. None of these Corals are that large and most of them are one rock.

The additional equipment I have on my aquarium at the moment is two MP10s and a Protein Skimmer. I ordered an Algae Scrubber last week and it's on the way.

My current parameters are:
Nitrate: 40 ppm
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0
Alk: 250 ppm (kh)
PH: 8
Phosphates: 0.25 ppm
Temp: 77
Salinity: 1.026

Saltmix: I was using Tropic Marin Pro but it seems to be some kind of shortage going on and I can't find it anywhere. So I'm probably switching to Redsea Coral Pro.

Equipment:

I have no idea what I actually need lol. I see everyone with Apex Equipment that seems pricey and I'm not sure if it's really needed.


I also plan on getting a 300 or 400 gallon Aquarium in the next few years, if that matters.

Any help or suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

Your Alk is 250ppm??? Thats 14dkH which is really really high.

Natural Sea Water is around 7, so I'd aim for 8 or so.
I wouldn't start dosing unless your water change schedule is not keeping up with Alk and Ca consumption.

 

[R33fDaddy]

What are the adverse affects of having a higher Alkalinity? Redsea recommendeds staying around 11 and I use the Redsea Coral Pro Salt.

Current Parameters:
Sunday June 20th 6:45pm
Alkalinity 11.2 dkh
Calcium 500 ppm
Magnesium 1470 ppm
Nitrates 25ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Phosphates 0ppm
Salinity 1.027
Temp 77 Degrees

Your Alk is 250ppm??? Thats 14dkH which is really really high.

Natural Sea Water is around 7, so I'd aim for 8 or so.
I wouldn't start dosing unless your water change schedule is not keeping up with Alk and Ca consumption.