Is dosing even necessary in a reef?

[805reef]

I understand guys ,but my thing is these stuff are so concentrated that if you put a little over or not enough ,it will cause problems and sometimes nuke your aquarium

You don't have to dose anything that you don't want to. If you want to only do water changes and that works for you then great! For other people they need to dose calcium & alkalinity. You do what works for you.

 

[Theo15]

Same happens if you drink too much water or eat copper, lead, salt, carbon, iron etc.

True, another thing I've noticed in this hobby is that there a million products but they don't work for everyone.

 

[Theo15]

You don't have to dose anything that you don't want to. If you want to only do water changes and that works for you then great! For other people they need to dose calcium & alkalinity. You do what works for you.

Well I ask this because I want to know if it's really "necessary", but I do know there are many ways in this hobby to do things

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

True, another thing I've noticed in this hobby is that there a million products but they don't work for everyone.

yup, and people being people, some just claim they work.

 

[Theo15]

The reason I bring this topic up is because I've noticed that there are reefers out there that dose top shelf products and have a beautiful reef and there are those that don't dose a thing and their reefs are beautiful as well. Even down to the filtration ,some have every media imaginable and others out there have little to none at all ,so is all this stuff that we put in our reefs really nessacary ? I've even seen reefers that don't do water changes or some that go months without touching a thing and their reefs look great also.

 

[Merry]

If you look into the folks keeping really small reefs, in a gallon jug or whatnot, you'll find that's just what they do... changing a large percentage of the water often... sometimes every day! In a large tank, it's just not practical.

Kalkwasser in your top-off water is about the least I've ever been able to get away with. It helps keep the Calc and Alk where you need them, along with boosting your pH. Short of a fairly high demand system, Kalk is usually a pretty good way to go. Doesn't raise your salinity like 2part, and with a decently designed ATO, it's pretty safe. You can't over saturate kalkwasser, and if you're just replacing evaporation, you can't really overdose.

Greybeard, I don't use an ATO with either of my tanks since they are smaller size biocubes. Will it be difficult for me?

 

[beaslbob]

IMHO water changes will limit but not prevent buildup (nitrates) and consumptions (calcium, alk, mag).
I recommend using macro algaes (or an algae truf scrubber) to fully consume ammonia/nitrates, phosphates, and co2 while returning oxygen and fish/coral food.
And maintaining cal/alk/mag with dr Randy Holmes-Farley's improved diy two part system.

my .02

 

[Kmsutows]

The reason I bring this topic up is because I've noticed that there are reefers out there that dose top shelf products and have a beautiful reef and there are those that don't dose a thing and their reefs are beautiful as well. Even down to the filtration ,some have every media imaginable and others out there have little to none at all ,so is all this stuff that we put in our reefs really nessacary ? I've even seen reefers that don't do water changes or some that go months without touching a thing and their reefs look great also.

I'd like one example that has corals that doesn't dose a thing/doesn't have reactors. I used to think the same as you, wanting to only do water changes but its not a reality with lots of corals. Just a few... It can be done.

 

[HB AL]

I understand guys ,but my thing is these stuff are so concentrated that if you put a little over or not enough ,it will cause problems and sometimes nuke your aquarium

I dose manually and cant imagine how you could nuke your tank. I guess if you don't do water tests, don't dose correct amounts according to water volume, then you could nuke the tank. If you nuke the tank by manual dosing then it's probably a good idea to not have any corals and just stick to fish only.

 

[LSDcoral]

It all depends on your particular setup and how much/which coral you keep. I once tried to do this exact thing and thought just that but soon realized if you have sps, especially many of them, then water changes can't keep up. I used red sea coral pro, known for a high alk, and never tested and saw an acro dying.... my alk was at 6.4. That said... I now add part B and/or buffer to top off water

I found the exact same thing.. using the same salt. I ended up adding buffer at least twice a week with top-offs.

 

[Randygus01]

When I started I did nothing but water changes. That worked corals grew fish where happy. But with added corals growth rates slowed and almost stoped. I added a calcium reactor and things got better in less than a week. But I got a great deal on a ozone system. I slowly added this from 1 hr a day set at near 0. Now I am at 3 and running about 6 hr. I cannot believe my water clarity. Now my corals are getting great light and the calcium they need. Also since seasons have changed my tank gets about 1hr of natural sunlight a day. This combined with weekly water changes has got my corals growing again. Do yes dose.

 

[Shameless_Dood]

The reason I bring this topic up is because I've noticed that there are reefers out there that dose top shelf products and have a beautiful reef and there are those that don't dose a thing and their reefs are beautiful as well. Even down to the filtration ,some have every media imaginable and others out there have little to none at all ,so is all this stuff that we put in our reefs really nessacary ? I've even seen reefers that don't do water changes or some that go months without touching a thing and their reefs look great also.

What you are getting at is there are lots of successful ways to have a reef tank. All depends on that particular tank and the owner, etc.

Back to your OP though, I have tried that. Not my current tank but my last one I said, "I don't want to have to dose this and that and the other thing, so I'm not gonna!" I started with weekly water changes, went to doing bi weekly water changes and was really only having limited success. Not to mention, I was burning through buckets of salt like they were going out of style. Eventually I ended up going the dosing route and things started to get better and much more cost effective.

 

[Theo15]

What do you guys dose? Have any of you used esv-bionic?

 

[Theo15]

I dose manually and cant imagine how you could nuke your tank. I guess if you don't do water tests, don't dose correct amounts according to water volume, then you could nuke the tank. If you nuke the tank by manual dosing then it's probably a good idea to not have any corals and just stick to fish only.

Even if you aren't doing it manually ,equipment eventually fails and becomes faulty, I've seen reefs that had an alkalinity swing and it was not nice [emoji22]

 

[ohiojeffsreef]

here is the problem with just using water changes...the wave. that is were on every water change your parameters return closer to those of your salt mix, only to slow fade until you do another water change. most stonies will not stand up well to that. dosing smooths those waves out. it allows more sensitive corals to thrive where they can't if you don't dose. I recently had one of those alk swings, because I got an old or faulty bucket of ESV. I have lost many colonies out of my main tank when my alk plunged to 7.6 from 9. I broke into another bucket and got my alk back where it was, but it cost me. the problem is when I didn't dose I couldn't keep things like our Cali-blue anyway, so what do you do? you dose.

 

[Theo15]

Yea I dose esv-bionic, I do it manually , I'm not a big fan of often water changes , I watch my feedings and have a good skimmer

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yea I dose esv-bionic, I do it manually , I'm not a big fan of often water changes , I watch my feedings and have a good skimmer

you'll be quite surprised at the results of automatic dosing. The jebao is like $60.

 

[reefndude]

I know I can not go one day without dosing. My tank is full of acros and other sps. With about 160 g water volume my alk will easily drop 2 dkh in a 24 hr period. I can't imagine trying to keep up with that by doing water changes. I have friends that don't dose and have beautiful tanks. They are able to get away with that because of types of coral they keep. Those corals can also can take the bit of swings of their tank parameters.

 

[Leaveitalone]

You can absolutely replenish needed elements with water changes only If you use one of the many popular salt mixes. That is, if you can keep up with the rate which your corals use those elements. Calcium and Alk are easy to measure in this regard, but what about strontium? Iron? Iodine? You'll find that the additives for "trace elements" have instructions that are actually very easy to follow and many are designed to add to a two-part mix. It comes down to the cost and labor difference. It's much easier to add a few ml of a few additives in a larger tank than to do a weekly water change. Especially if 15% of your water volume happens to be a large plastic trashcan... With the skimmers available these days, why replace perfectly good salt and clean water weekly when all you need are a few elements?

SN: a chemical is a combination of any two or more elements. Your tank is full of H2O.

 

[Theo15]

you'll be quite surprised at the results of automatic dosing. The jebao is like $60.

I'm working with limited space , is that one any good ?