What do you dose your system? If at all

[Cozen89]

I was just curious to see what other reefers, without calcium reactors, are dosing their tanks with.

What has been the most beneficial and to what?

 

[Nuuze]

For my 79G,

-90ml of alk in the morning before work
-90ml of calcium sometime between getting home from work and bedtime.
-mag as needed after weekly test

I bought the 12 gallon kit from twopartsolution

 

[fishnfst]

I've been using the B-ionic for awhile now.. 50ml of alk in the morning and 50ml of calcium when I get home about 3pm an hour before the lights turn on.. This is on my 57g....

 

[doliver]

100 ml of alk & calcium every other day for 80g LPS tank.

Nuuze, is it beneficial to dose them separately rather than both at the same time?

 

[Nuuze]

For one, I'm always in a hurry in the morning running late for work! And I notice my alk and calcium levels seem to be a bit more more steady when I add this way and get less snow instead of pouring both all at once, I don't have a doser so I pour into the sump.

 

[rleechb]

For my 58g:

240ml of alk/day
240ml of ca/day

a squirt of strontrium/molybdenum in my topoff (stopping after the bottle's gone, haven't noticed a difference).

3 drops of iodine/wk

 

[Nuuze]

rleechb,

240ml a day on your 58g? What type of alk and calcium readings are you getting at that amount? I'm just following twopartsolution's 1ml per gallon instructions at the moment...

I notice a bit more polyp extension when I use Strontium (Kent or Seachem)

 

[rleechb]

alk - 8.8
ca ~ 440

Not sure what the deal is; I go through a ridiculous amount of each part these days. Using randy's recipe #1.

 

[Cozen89]

So I take it the consensus is Calcium and ALK. Are these necessary or just beneficial to corals?

Anyone have a easy solution to dosing these or does everyone do it by hand every day?

 

[fishnfst]

You can get dosing pumps like the litre meter or look at aptinstruments.com they have low flow persistaltic pumps..

I think that dosing is a necessity.. It keeps my Ph stable and alkalinity and calcium levels remain consisitent.. Two things that seem imperative to healthy sps and many lps as well.. Good corraline growth is also a nice side effect...

 

[Cozen89]

how about for a mainly zoo tank? I only have a few LPS and like 1 SPS.

 

[doliver]

I'm not heavily stocked -- it sounds pretty similar to your tank and I need it to keep my levels up. It's fairly safe to assume that you should be dosing if you want to keep your tank as healthy as possible.

The only way to truly answer the question for yourself is to get alk & calc test kits and measure your levels. You'll need them once you start dosing anyway so that you can find the right balance of additives.

 

[sheepdawg]

Question for you guys that manually dose. What do you do when you go away say for a weekend, do you dose extra before you go or when you return.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

I dose the Randy 2-part.

For a mainly zoa tank, you can skip the dosing, and just do decent water changes.

Going away for a weekend? What's that??

 

[Nuuze]

Hehe! Going away for a few days or longer would mean some sort of doser if you have a medium to heavy stocked system...

 

[Cozen89]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10408752#post10408752 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mr. Ugly
[B
For a mainly zoa tank, you can skip the dosing, and just do decent water changes.

[/B]

Sounds good. Maybe I'll just dose once a week or so.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Dose only if your water tests indicate a need to.