How do you know when its time to start dosing?

[Stickboy97]

How do you know when its time to start dosing? No or very little growth?

I have 16 SPS frags, some zoas, some random polyps, 2 nems, 7 heads of candy cane, 1 small hammer, 2 small frogspawn and 1 (4 head) torch.

I do weekly water changes of 5% of my system. My frags are healthy but I see very little growth in almost 2 months.

The tank was upgraded from a 6+ year old 75g to my current 105g. So the tank isn't really new (only new sand when I upgraded in Feb). Never had a noticeable cycle, no crazy algae out breaks, tank seems very stable and happy.

Alk - 7.6
Cal - 450
Mg - 1350
Currently trying to raise nitrate & phosphate, but levels are 0 right now. I've been adding fish & feeding more.

So is now the time? Should I measure everything at the end of the week before my water change to see where the levels are?

 

[mcgyvr]

You know its time to start dosing when your current water change schedule does not keep your levels stable enough... Its as simple as that.. Nothing more.. nothing less..

Now you can either start dosing or simply increase water change frequency..

 

[Stickboy97]

So like I mentioned, test the water right before the WC and see where they are?

Then based on how much loss you have do I test again in the middle of the time frame to try to see what kind of loss I have?

I figure that since my frags aren't really doing anything they must be missing something.

 

[thegrun]

Test AFTER your water change, if your parameters are in range, run the tank for a week, make another water change and then test again. If your parameters are still good there is no need to dose.

 

[DarkSkyForever]

If your frags aren't growing and your NO3/PO4 are both at zero I'd worry about those more than Ca/Alk. Once you start feeding your coral they'll start growing and consuming minerals to build their skeletons.

 

[ADVRESOURCE]

Test and dose in that order. Get to the Parms that do well for you and maintain test and dose strategy for stability.as you get growth, you'll have to dose a bit more. Mag should be dosed all the time.