Supplements, dosing, and mixing

[KyleSmith]

Hi all,

I'm new to marine tanks and am looking for some recommendations and guidance on supplements, and how to use them.

I've got a 10g tank with live rock, live sand, a cuc, one O. Clownfish, and some macroalgea. The tank is 8 months old and has been stable. I want to start to introduce some corals.

First, here are my parameters:

Param / Current / Target
sg / 1.021 / 1.025
KH / 8 / 11
PH / 8.2 / 8.2
Ca / 260 / 420
Mg / 860 / 1200

(Ammonia, NO2, NO3 all 0)

Now on to a few questions:

1. All of the directions on the supplements I am using talk about quantities to add to the tank to raise levels. It seems to me that adding supplements while mixing the water, to bring them to my targets, would make more sense. Am I missing something here? Is there a reason I would not want to do this?

2. I do know that at some point, I'll want to figure out how much consumption of each supplement is being used by the tank and add a drip dose system. Can I get by without this for a while?

3. I know this one might start a religious war, but what brand of supplements do you prefer? Is there a reason to choose a liquid vs a powder for supplementing?

4. How about salt? I am using Red Sea Coral Pro right now. Other than brand preference, is there any reason to reconsider this?

5. Are there any other parameters you recommend I dose for?

Thanks

Kyle

 

[KyleSmith]

Perhaps this would be better in Reef Chemistry. I've created it here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=24984077#post24984077

Sorry!

 

[Dr. Reef]

Rule 1 of this hobby don't add anything unless u can measure for it.
From numbers given I would fix mag first as it's low and without being in acceptable range of 1250 to 1600 it will be most likely not possible to stable alk and cal.
Salt and supliments are personal preference depending on what levels u want to keep at.

 

[kevin21]

In a 10g tank, weekly water changes with a reef salt like reef crystals will be more than enough to maintain your water quality for corals.

 

[sde1500]

Yepl, with such a small tank weekly water changes should be able to maintain them without issues. Might need a quick dosing now just to get them to target levels first. Likely you won't need a doser for such a small tank. Adding too large a dose to your water change could cause it to precipitate out and not achieve what you want. If you want to dose to bring levels up to target, dose the tank, not the water change.

 

[ryeguyy84]

I'd start by slowly increasing your SG and then retest as the higher SG will have higher ALK/Cal/Mag numbers. then go from there. I agree that with a 10 gallon (unless you jam pack it with SPS) you can just keep with weekly water changes to maintain your levels.

 

[ryeguyy84]

1. All of the directions on the supplements I am using talk about quantities to add to the tank to raise levels. It seems to me that adding supplements while mixing the water, to bring them to my targets, would make more sense. Am I missing something here? Is there a reason I would not want to do this?

or just change salt brands to match your targets

2. I do know that at some point, I'll want to figure out how much consumption of each supplement is being used by the tank and add a drip dose system. Can I get by without this for a while?

don't think you'll need

3. I know this one might start a religious war, but what brand of supplements do you prefer? Is there a reason to choose a liquid vs a powder for supplementing?

I use randy's 2 part recipe or if feeling lazy order from BRS

4. How about salt? I am using Red Sea Coral Pro right now. Other than brand preference, is there any reason to reconsider this?

thats a good salt, there's a lot of people using reef crystals for the high alk/cal levels

5. Are there any other parameters you recommend I dose for?

like others have said, only dose for what you can test. Otherwise you're shooting in the dark.

 

[KyleSmith]

Thanks all