Dosing my tank

[jamiec266]

Question for saltwater aquariums. I have an SPS tank and i want to start dosing Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium. I understand these are going to help the growth of my corals dramatically if i dose correctly.... i understand i have to watch my Alkalinity so it does not get to acidic. My question is nitrate and phosphate. I cant find info thats simple enough to undrrstand lol. I understand i have to watch my nitrate levels dont get to high and that its caused from algea in my tank and that i can control that via water changes also by having live rock or live sand which i have both. What is phosphate?? Why is it important to keep them levels right?? Does the water being to Alkalinity cause more algea growth? And will me dosing my tank with calcium and Magnesium spike my nitrate or phosphatase?

I brought a second hand salt water tank which has come with a doser conected to a bottle of nitrate and a bottle of phosphate im jus trying to understand why their there and if i need them hooked up or if i can get away with conecting the doser to calcium and Magnesium and get away with controlling phosphatase and nitrate myself manually. Im still new to all of this so i appreciate any info in regards to this or a direction to any easy to understand websites for dummies lol

 

[BlueCursor]

Don't dose nitrate and phosphate. That is an advanced dosing and very rarely done in saltwater aquariums.

You need to dose Ca and Alk your doser. If you have a 3rd pump on the doser, dose magnesium too.

Most important rule about dosing: Never dose anything you are not testing for! So first make sure you have a good Ca, Alk, and Mg test kit. Test, then start dosing to get your values in line with the levels they should be at. To start, target natural sea water levels and move up from there is you want.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

.... i understand i have to watch my Alkalinity so it does not get to acidic.

That isn't really the reason.

Think of it this way.

Corals use carbonate to make calcium carbonate skeletons. They likely get it from bicarbonate in the water that they take up (probably not carbonate itself taken up, although some may).

You need to replace what they remove.

Alkalinity in an easy way to measure bicarbonate and carbonate.

So maintaining alkalinity ensures they have what they need along these lines.