Dosing

[fish flipper]

I am looking for some supplements to add to my tank to get my corals to grow better and have better color. Some people are recommending the Redsea A&B. My tank is fairly new at 2 months old. The corals in it are from my other tank that has been up for 9 months. they were growing in there but not very fast. I do not have a doser at the moment so I want something in a bottle that I can just add to the tank.

 

[seamonster124]

$50 will set you up for about a year

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EwyH5LQ1tsk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Dkuhlmann]

What are your parameters before you go dosing something.

 

[shifty51008]

Deff make sure you test before dosing, if you dont test for it dont add anything, dosing without testing can do more harm than good.

 

[fish flipper]

I don't have a test kit for calcium, alkalinity, or magnesium. I am getting that test kit for Christmas. Thank you the advice. So if all my parameters are good what would you recommend? I am looking for some stuff the wife can get me for Christmas.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Just wait and see what your parameters are. Unless you have a huge amount of SPS and LPS corals, oh and coralline algae, you likely can cover all of your corals requirements with doing a 20% water change every two weeks.

How many corals do you have? I've got quite a few in my 40b of all types and I still don't have to dose. I am however collecting all that I'll need when the time comes. But for now all I do is 20% wc every two weeks and my corals look amazing.

 

[fish flipper]

at the moment I don't have many corals. I have a big frogspawn, a hammer with about 10 heads, a few zoas, and 2 chalices. I am in the process of setting up my system for automatic weekly water changes.

 

[homer1475]

at the moment I don't have many corals. I have a big frogspawn, a hammer with about 10 heads, a few zoas, and 2 chalices. I am in the process of setting up my system for automatic weekly water changes.

With that light coral load, I seriously doubt you need to be dosing anything at this point.

First thing first, get yourself some test kits. After testing your water for a few weeks(set a baseline), then decide if you need to dose anything. My guess would be with your light coral load, weekly or biweekly water changes with a decent reef salt will be all you need for a long while

I have a 29G biocube that's nearly a year old now, it's heavily stocked with many LPS corals, and I just started dosing ALK(baked baking soda), and Kalk in my top off. Weekly water changes are not adding enough trace elements anymore, so I start dosing.

Never add anything to your tank, unless you can test for it.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Oh and FYI I'm using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals. Using them allows you to delay doing any kind of dosing IMO and IME. Here is a list of what I have currently in my 40b and will be adding others very soon.

Currently

Fish
bonded pair of Gold stripe Maroon Clowns she is about 3" he about 1 1/4"
Sunset BTA about 4"
Cherub Angel (trying to catch him, is fighting with all fish and stressing out my tank)
Midas Blenny
Hector's goby
McCosker's Wrasse
Royal Gramma coming later in the week.

LPS
Duncan colony 23+ heads
2 - 2 head Duncans
1 torch with 3 heads
1 small frag Gonipora
2 - 4 head Candy canes
2 Ricordeas
1 Rhodactis
3 hammers one with 2 heads the others just one each
1 Large 4 head Frogspawn
2 - 2 head blasto's
4 - Acans with 1-6 heads

Leathers
1 hand leather
2 toadstools
1 Sinularia

One nice pink encrusting sponge growing on my lr

SPS
1 large Pavona
2 pink acro frags
1 4" multi branch acro
1 small monti frag

Lots of coralline on rocks and back glass as well as both side glass in addition to what's on the LR.

Going to be adding today a very large Elegance :dance: as well as another nice gold torch with 2 large heads in addition to 5 more acan frags and another monti.

Like I said I still don't have to dose anything even with all that I have. Doing a 20% water change every two weeks takes care of their needs using Instant Ocean Reef Crystals.

 

[fish flipper]

Thanks guys. I guess I was under the impression that some of the supplements were just like vitamins and was beneficial reguardless of parameters.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I suggest you get something like Coral Frenzy and feed it to your tank 2x a week. This will help. Just maintain good steady parameters do a 20% wc every 2 weeks and keep them in good lighting and flow that they require. They all have different requirements for light and flow, give each what they want. You'll know within a day of moving them if they like it or not. Use Live Aquaria's website to find what each coral needs and follow it. Always start all corals out in the sand bed then slowly move them to where they will end up. Of course you will constantly be changing it around LOL Just ask Mark9 :lmao:

 

[fish flipper]

I do feed my corals reef chili maybe once a week or so. is coral frenzy similar?

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Yes similar yet different. You can feed them a few different ones. There are many on the market and most are good. Just Google coral food and you'll come up with quite a few.