Dosing

[Saaqib_Ansari]

When do I know it’s right to start dosing what parameters should I be checking for ?

 

[Biglew11]

the big three to check and dose are calcium alkalinity and to a much smaller extent magnesium. if you only have fish then water changes will keep these up. if you have soft coral they may or may not use some of these. but lps and sps will use these snails and other cuc crew that make their own shell will use these.

i keep my ca between 400 450ppm alk around 8dkh and my mg around 1350, basically you know its time to dose by measuring. if you only have a couple corals you can probably dose manually, if you have a lot of corals or fast growth you may want a dosing pump for ca and alk, magnesium isn't used that much so its very easy to just dose once a month.

 

[Oropher]

When do I know it’s right to start dosing what parameters should I be checking for ?

Whoa... don't rush things.

Basically you dose when water change simply cannot keep up with consumption.

Better to start with posting your full tank shot and describe your goal with the tank.

 

[Saaqib_Ansari]

Whoa... don't rush things.

Basically you dose when water change simply cannot keep up with consumption.

Better to start with posting your full tank shot and describe your goal with the tank.

550 litre tank with a sump (150L) only has a slimmer and some bio blocks in there. I would like some large colony of SPS as tank looks so empty and boring. I do have a motipora digiata and a forest fire frag. The forest fire looks horrible, no polyp extension since I’ve got it. And the digi, was looking good until one of my fish started biting it.
Have had them for 3 months or so and no change in growth

 

[ScottB]

If you are doing 20% water change every two weeks, and are not able to keep say 7 to 7.5 of alkalinity, then it is time to start dosing two-part. Pick up a Salifert kit for ALK and start testing.

 

[Uncle99]

I began dosing when testing showed water changes could not keep parameters in check.
I include ATO in “dosing” as it’s vital to keep super stable salinity as all other parameters are affected.
Alk check daily until you can maintain whatever alk you keep, but not on the high end if the system is less than 1 year. Make sure MG is in the 1300-1360 range, or it will be difficult to get alk upwards.
Shoot for having the least flux possible in all parameters.
After some months like this coral growth will be noticeable.

My parameters are:
Temp 78
Salinity 1.026
Alk 8.5 dkh. (Dosed hourly, on the hour,remains 148ppm at all times)
CA 460. (Dosed hourly, on the 1/2 hour, 460ppm at all times)
MG 1360
Phosphate 0.024
Nitrate 2ppm
Iodide 0.03ppm

Nice looking tank, stabilize her, let her mature.

 

[Oropher]

550 litre tank with a sump (150L) only has a slimmer and some bio blocks in there. I would like some large colony of SPS as tank looks so empty and boring. I do have a motipora digiata and a forest fire frag. The forest fire looks horrible, no polyp extension since I’ve got it. And the digi, was looking good until one of my fish started biting it.
Have had them for 3 months or so and no change in growth

Nice Tank!

There are only a few small SPS frags, demand shouldn't be too high, routine water change should be able to keep up with the consumption. However you could start tracking the numbers : Mg, Ca, KH min weekly monitoring.

Don't worry about frags have no visible growth, as long as they are still alive. Those corals need time to adjust to the environment, therefore stability is a must otherwise coral would keep adjusting to the changes.

+1 to @ScottB and @Uncle99