doseing

[harleymike]

so help me understand why and how you add your calcium and mag additives. I have heard you guys talk about it. But how do you test, what do you add and what would I be looking for.
Do i need too even worry about it.
I add kent marine essential elements once a week. Also fuel for corals and zooplex.
I do a 10 percent water change every other week.
thanks

 

[xxmurrxx]

The LPS and SPS corals will use up your Calcium and Alk to grow, therefore lowering your levels in your tank.
If you want to keep them growing and healthy it's recommended to keep cal, and alk levels in a certain range.

I think a lot of people use the 2 part stuff because it's a lot cheaper than buying bottles of sachem, kent, etc additives.. probably easier to use in the end as well.

From what I understand the Mag just helps your calcium and alk levels stay balanced.  Mag does not need to be dosed often if your levels are where they need to be.

 

[Duke]

so help me understand why and how you add your calcium and mag additives. I have heard you guys talk about it. But how do you test, what do you add and what would I be looking for.
Do i need too even worry about it.
I add kent marine essential elements once a week. Also fuel for corals and zooplex.
I do a 10 percent water change every other week.
thanks

imo you wont need to worry about it yet, and if it was me i would stop the essential elements unless you can test for those specific elements and see that they actually need replenishment. you only need to worry if regular water changes cant keep your cal/alk levels in the proper range, ill bring my red sea test kit over and you can do a full cal/alk/mag test and then you'll have you'll know where you stand.

 

[harleymike]

ok, thanks Duke

 

[nitro069]

don't know if you saw this post earlier Mike, but this give a good visual aid to cal, alk and mag roles in our tanks.

How calcium and alkalinity function in the aquarium

 

[harleymike]

thanks nitro

 

[sunnykita]

I found those videos extremely helpful - I still have a few more to watch LOL
sunnykita
thanks for posting the link

 

[Poseidon]

this looks like a fairly decent package,
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-2-part-calcium-alkalinity-total-package-with-dosers.html

although i have a question, do you need a timer to set the dosing pump for a couple hours each day?
how long do you have to have the pump running? or is it a , test and adjust sort of setup?

 

[spyd]

Yes, you need a timer for the dosing pumps. The time you have them run is all dependant on your tank. Use the BRS calculator. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef-calculator

To use it, you test your alk and calcium levels. Then input them and what you want your tank to be at and it tells you how much to dose approx. Once you get your tank up to the levels that you want, let it sit for say 3 days without dosing at all. Test the parameters again and see how much each one has dropped. Plug those values back into the calculator and divide by the 3 days and it will tell you roughly how much you need to dose of each every day. Bump your perameters up by the amount it tells you to dose, once you are good again, then start running your timers based on those daily values. As an example if it tells you to dose 30ml of calcium a day, the dosing pump you get has a rate of 1.1 ml per minute so 30/1.1 = 27 minutes of total dosing.

Spread everything out. Generally, you want ALK dosing during lights out because it does increase your ph levels. Your ph levels will all ways be lower during lights out so that is the best time. Calcium can be dosed at any time. Mag can be does up to 100ppm a day. You don't really need a dosing pump for mag as it can be done easily by hand to top off your levels.

Be careful not to increase alk more than 1dkh per day as it can stress your tank. You will still need to test quite a bit at the start and adjust your timers up or down until you find the general sweet spot of your tank. As your SPS grow, you will have to increase your dosing time to compensate.

It may sound complicated but it is actually really easy to do. Just be prepared to do a lot of testing at the start until your dosing pumps are set properly. If you find your levels a little low at the end of each month, then just manually add some more to bump up your values. Then add a few minutes to your timer. If you find them high, then lower by a couple minutes on your timer.

On my 180G, I only need to run my cal for an hour a day and my alk is about 40 minutes each day. Most of my SPS are all frags though. Once they grow considerably, I will be dosing a lot longer than that.

 

[Poseidon]

That's great info , thanks alot spyd!
I guess my first step is to get Hanna checkers. Ill need those before I get the dosing package..

How essential is dosing to my system?
I do have 2 clams, bubble coral, elegance , candycane and a few sps... I do 25g water change every other week.

Would I be ok for a bit (month or two more) without dosing?

 

[Royal Aquariums]

How essential is dosing to my system?
I do have 2 clams, bubble coral, elegance , candycane and a few sps... I do 25g water change every other week.

It all depends where your levels are at now and how much demand your system has for calcium. In a low demand system water changes will take care of these levels alot better than a high demand sps system.  Also other factors come into effect like what type of salt you are using because each brand mixes up to different parameters. I would start by testing your tank for calcium, alkalinity and magnesium to see where you stand.

 

[spyd]

I wouldn't worry about it too much as long as you have decent salt right now and are doing frequent enough water changes. LPS corals don't eat up too much cal or alk. The clam and SPS will. More so the SPS as they grow fast. If you only have a couple smaller ones though, I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[Poseidon]

Ok, I definitely  will dose in the near future, just not at that step yet

 

[Jewel]

Another way of keeping your Calcium and Alk up is with salt that has a higher buffer value, such as D&D H20, and do regular water changes, There are many different Salts on the market I think the regular Instant Ocean is one of the lowest.