Dosing questions.

[Devin Le]

I’m new to dosing and will begin dosing in my tank this week. I was curious, do I need to do a water change before I test my water for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium. Or do I go ahead and test the water then bring up the levels to my desired parameter?

 

[hijinks7]

I think it depends on if or how often you want to do water changes. If you want to do a water change soon I would do a WC and then check and dos as needed.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’m new to dosing and will begin dosing in my tank this week. I was curious, do I need to do a water change before I test my water for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium. Or do I go ahead and test the water then bring up the levels to my desired parameter?

There's no need to test before or after a water change.

If it is a big water change, the levels might move, and to get to know your system, measuring before and after, or before and the new salt water, will let you know what is going on.