All-for-Reef dosing and water changes

[Paleozoic_reefer]

Hi everyone. I finally got into the dosing gig for some tank stability and I have a few questions: I've been dosing All for Reef (20ml/day) for about a month (love it although I can see it being a bit pricey in the long run) in my 90 gal and my numbers are pretty stable @:
Ca-365
Mg-1260
Dkh- 10
Ph-7.8-8.1
I have a mostly softie tank so I'm not too worried about my low Ca (please chime in if I'm wrong about this). I'm also dosing 40 ml of sodium nitrate (Using Randy's measurements) to boast my nitrates which were between 0-2ppm and I'm see great PE and color so far!

I wanted to know if I can still do a 20% WC every 2-3 weeks to help remove detritus and any chemical build up due to softies and nems or should I just let all for reef do it's thing and keep dosing? I'm just not sure when a WC should happen when dosing...
Thoughts????

 

[Ly78]

You can dose and do water changes at any time. Just make sure your new water is at the same parameters as your tank.

 

[Hydrored]

You can dose and do water changes at any time. Just make sure your new water is at the same parameters as your tank.

This exactly

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

Thanks! I'm making a bath of SW so I'll check against the tanks current parameters...do you think I need to worry about the low-ish Ca?

 

[Iam_Mitch]

I would try to bring up the Calcium a little

 

[Hydrored]

My suggestion with all for reef is get your parameters where you want them then continue the use of all for reef to maintain parameters

 

[Iam_Mitch]

I dose BRS 2-part. It's easy to use and cost effective. Dosing 100mL a day of calcium and alk on my 125g mixed reef.

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

for a softie dominated tank how important is it to have Ca at a normal range (410-420)?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

for a softie dominated tank how important is it to have Ca at a normal range (410-420)?

The acceptable range for a reef is much wider than that. I'd say 380 to 550 ppm.

In a soft coral tank, coralline and some soft corals will use calcium and alkalinity. Other soft corals won't. Snails and other shelled organisms also use it.