Is dosing even necessary in a reef?

[glennf]

These are from a friend, who also don't do water changes

 

[Merry]

Stunningly beautiful...

 

[Jose Moreno]

If you have SPS, then yes, you must dose to some degree.

For me ATO with Kalk is my doser. Alk stays at 150-160ppms year round.

 

[Christopher B Keyes]

Go natural. Some supplements are necessary but a lot of the equipment is not. The harder to keep sps may be an exception. I guess it depends on what is in the tank. I choose not to use chemicals for treatment of diseases or parasites or even unwanted critters. There are many ptedatory fish uniquely designed for that specific niche. Plan right and stay on track!

 

[Theo15]

Go natural. Some supplements are necessary but a lot of the equipment is not. The harder to keep sps may be an exception. I guess it depends on what is in the tank. I choose not to use chemicals for treatment of diseases or parasites or even unwanted critters. There are many ptedatory fish uniquely designed for that specific niche. Plan right and stay on track!

Some supplements are really harsh

 

[Denniswbliss]

So what i, got out of this thread, is if you have alot of sps, they will consume more trach elements faster than your weekly or bi weekly water changes. This is the reason we have to dose thoses elements . By dosing the trace elements the corals with be able to grow and live happy.

 

[JasPR]

my two cents-- we know, ( or should know) that we are operating closed systems. closed to the cleansing effect of the oceans. Therefore, over time, certain things are USED UP and certain things are PILED UP! if 'perfect water' has a base line reading in all its parameters, then the 'used up and piled up' things begin to pull the perfect water away from its parameters. The SCIENCE of a water change is to restore those base parameters. The more sensitive the inhabitants of the box, the more you want and need to hug the base line of 'perfect water'. So water change is the remedy-- but now comes the ART of the thing. How are you going to approach the stability of the system? Frequent, small water changes to assure the base line OR longer interval larger water changes? most here know the answer-- do no harm while restoring the base parameters-- and even better-- never let those baseline parameters stray too far from perfect. That usually comes down to weekly water changes of 10-20%. the idea here being -- enough to restore and not so much as to disrupt. Ad I said, the art of the thing. JasPR

 

[Denniswbliss]

I like your used up and piled up description. Those two saying painted a picture for me.

 

[Merry]

But what you are using a good quality salt ?

I use Instant Ocean...

 

[Jose Moreno]

Even if you do only water changes; in a high demand system like an sps tank youre always going to playing catch up unless you dose.

A water change only replaces so much alk and calc. Your tank will still be consuming more than the water change can replace.

Ie; your tank will consume 10ppms of alk your water change will only replace 5ppms.
That means youre still down 5ppms.

The next water change your tank consumes 10ppms of alk again,or more if your coral are growing. You do another water change and again, you only replace 5ppms. Now youre down 10ppms.

You have to dose!

 

[Merry]

I have two biocubes, one 14 and the other 29. I do weekly (sometimes 10 days) water changes. The 14 does well, stock lighting, perimeters are good but I do struggle having success with corals.In the 14 I have a damsel, a clown and a hector with snails and blue leg crabs. The 29 (LEDs, a pair of clowns, lawnmower blenny and snails and hermit crabs) always has high nitrates no matter how many water changes I do... I have a BIG cauliflower coral that has basically taken over the tank making it difficult to add new corals but do have a few other corals. I have recently started dosing to lower phosphates (now normal levels) and also for calcium and alkalinity (after testing). My plan is to increase water changes for the 29...

 

[Mariners]

I do water changes every week and in a nano 28 g, certain elements deplete quickly (depending on stock). Ive noticed ever since i dosed seachem 1 and 2 keepimg my calc at 400-410, mag 1200, and alk 7.4-8.1, my more finicky zs and ps like fruit loops and rastas thrive now.

 

[Mariners]

Actually this might be a good thread to ask, since my water parameters are good but if i have no nitrates and phosphates--tank may be nutrient deprived for zoas and blastos only tank.

I currently feed fish with flakes and cyclopeze 3x a day and i target feed daily zoas and blastos w phyto from algae barn w brightwell amino. Everything looks good w zs and ps growing but my blastos havent had any new heads since purchase 2 months ago (blastos look happy and fluffy).

So should i stop using phyto? Should i try reef roids instead?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If it looks good it probably is.
Yea you could try a new food.

 

[DragoJustin]

All salts are synthetic.
They have different amounts of Calc, Alk, and Mag, but other than that they all try to replicate natural sea water.
As @ngoodermuth pointed out above, we dose Calc, Alk and Mag because these elements are used up by the coral faster than we can replenish with water changes.
These are not "chemicals". They are naturally occurring elements, no different than what the salt manufacturers use in their salt recipes.

Never add anything to your tank without testing for it first.
If you are doing regular water changes and those elements are still too low, then you HAVE to dose if you are looking to provide the optimum environment/conditions for your livestock.

Actually "Red Sea Pro" is not synthetic salt. They harvest water from the Red Sea, duh, and they dry it in massive open areas to collect the salt

 

[chefjpaul]

Hmmmmm

 

[d2mini]

Actually "Red Sea Pro" is not synthetic salt. They harvest water from the Red Sea, duh, and they dry it in massive open areas to collect the salt

Yeah, that's good marketing.
If you listen closely, it's dried several times until they are left with raw sodium chloride. Then it's "washed and dried to remove organics and other impurities".
Then they have to go back and add calcium, magnesium and all the other elements back in so each batch is consistent.
Whether or not there is any substantial amount of elements specific to the Red Sea still left in each of those grains of sodium chloride would really only be answered by an independent lab.
Regardless, this is still a synthetic salt in my eyes. It's just the source of the sodium chloride that is different than other salts.
At least that's how I understand it.

 

[reefwiser]

Shhh all salt comes from the sea. I stopped using mixed salts to get rid of all the crap in them. Now use ESV

 

[glennf]

So what i, got out of this thread, is if you have alot of sps, they will consume more trach elements faster than your weekly or bi weekly water changes. This is the reason we have to dose thoses elements . By dosing the trace elements the corals with be able to grow and live happy.

What Glenn shows with his tank is that corals are removing elements all the time and by testing the water and dosing what they are removing you will have a healthy aquarium.

That,s the headline ..
it can be easily be done .
you just need to learn how.

Still NOT any WC done.[emoji16][emoji16][emoji16]

No deficiency to be seen and the only piling up are the corals [emoji6]

 

[reeferfoxx]

Still NOT any WC done.[emoji16][emoji16][emoji16]

No deficiency to be seen and the only piling up is are the corals [emoji6]

Please tell me you're not dosing or doing water changes with sticks galore???;Nailbiting;Snaphappy;Troll