Agitating suppliments

Reefcapt · Apr 12, 2015

I recently purchased a 4 pump doser and wanted to know the best way to agitate the supliments? Prior to using an automatic dosing pump I vigorously shook each supplement before adding. Should I still do this?

NanaReefer · Apr 12, 2015

What are you supplementing?

Reefcapt · Apr 12, 2015

CB,Mag,and Stron.

NanaReefer · Apr 13, 2015

What is CB? Why are you dosing Strontium and are you testing for it? Are you dosing mag daily? The answer to your question is, no. You do not need the vigorously shake them [emoji2]

Reefcapt · Apr 13, 2015

Kent CB two part.

Reefcapt · Apr 13, 2015

I'm dosing 2.5 mL of mag daily and was recommended Stron for the extra pump on my doser. My tank is all LPS corals with some Zoe's and anemones. Haven't started with the Stron yet is there something you would recommend instead?

NanaReefer · Apr 13, 2015

Depending on your water change schedule, which aides in replenishing trace elements, there's really no need for you to be dosing Strontium.
Make sure you test your magnesium often, it depletes very very slowly. Personally I know no one who doses Mag daily.
What was the reason you started dosing in the first place?

Reefcapt · Apr 13, 2015

I'm reallllly bad about frequent water changes so hopefully adding strn and mag would help to keep the nessecary parameters. Gonna test H20 before adding. My growth rate is very slow and I think this will help. Whatcha think?

Bassett22 · Apr 13, 2015

Do you test for these chemicals? How do you know the levels are low and need adjustment and at what rate? Depending on what LPS you have, they might not even need calcium or alk at a rate faster then a water change provides. you might not even NEED to setup your dosing pump at all. You need to test the water, and find out how fast your tank uses these chemicals, then set your pump to replace them at the same speed.

evolved · Apr 13, 2015

NanaReefer said:
Make sure you test your magnesium often, it depletes very very slowly. Personally I know no one who doses Mag daily.

I do, but really just because I have an available head on the dosing pump. It's used in a proportion to Ca anyway, but you're right - it's not much daily.

Reefcapt · Apr 13, 2015

This tank has been running since 2002. I have only ever dosed Kent CB, Coral Vite, and, Coral Essential. All of my parameters stay consistent. These doses have been done manually and now that I have a 4 pump dosing system I want to give my tank more of what it needs. Everything is healthy but growth rate is slow.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Apr 13, 2015

Reefcapt said:
I recently purchased a 4 pump doser and wanted to know the best way to agitate the supliments? Prior to using an automatic dosing pump I vigorously shook each supplement before adding. Should I still do this?

There's no need to agitate normal supplements (calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium, for example). Any solids in these can be ignored, unless you are trying to make them too concentrated.