Need to dose if doing daily small water changes?

[jshawkeye]

I have a Reefer 425xl (around 115 gal i believe), and am currently doing 1.5 gal/day water auto water changes with with a neptune dos. I am using tropic marin pro reef salts, i try to keep alk between 10-11 by manually dosing red sea alk a few times a week since the salt has a lower alk. My calc is usually running around 450 and mg is around 1350 tested with apex trident. My corals always seem a little dull in color and i dont see much growth... should i be dosing any additives even though im doing daily small water changes? Thank you for any help.

 

[amsterdam_reefer]

I have a Reefer 425xl (around 115 gal i believe), and am currently doing 1.5 gal/day water auto water changes with with a neptune dos. I am using tropic marin pro reef salts, i try to keep alk between 10-11 by manually dosing red sea alk a few times a week since the salt has a lower alk. My calc is usually running around 450 and mg is around 1350 tested with apex trident. My corals always seem a little dull in color and i dont see much growth... should i be dosing any additives even though im doing daily small water changes? Thank you for any help.

If you want to add additives send in an icp test first then u know what to add and what not

 

[Nick Steele]

Why go with 10-11 alk? Leaves much less wiggle room for errors. I say stick to the alk you salt mixes at.

 

[jshawkeye]

If you want to add additives send in an icp test first then u know what to add and what not

I did an icp and I’m missing several trace elements, however my calcium levels never drop and are always in the 440-460 range.

 

[amsterdam_reefer]

If you know what u miss you can add those
Did youre test didnt say how much ml you need from every element?

 

[jshawkeye]

If you know what u miss you can add those
Did youre test didnt say how much ml you need from every element?

no I used ICP analysis, it just tells you desired ppm and your current ppm. I will use triton going forward

 

[amsterdam_reefer]

no I used ICP analysis, it just tells you desired ppm and your current ppm. I will use triton going forward

I use ati icp i think its better then triton cuz
U can test youre rev osmoses for free and they show youre no3 level

 

[jshawkeye]

I use ati icp i think its better then triton cuz
U can test youre rev osmoses for free and they show youre no3 level

ok thank you for the tip i will check them out!

 

[amsterdam_reefer]

ok thank you for the tip i will check them out!

No problem happy to help

 

[ReefChasers]

In a small tank its almost always best to just rely on consistent small water changes. On larger tanks dosing can become more economical with things like calcium reactors etc.

As far as coral growth, having alkalinity in the 9-10 range isnt such a bad thing! And although many will recommend against "chasing" pH, higher pH (8.2-8.3 during day) yields faster calcification in our experience. (Maintaining this properly is challenging)

The other thing to consider about growth/health is nutrient numbers I didnt see phosphate and nitrate mentioned but keeping these two nutrients elevated (but still low) is one of the more challenging tasks especially in a new system. And in this case larger is more difficult to keep elevated.

Try to keep phosphates measureable but below 0.1 and try to keep nitrates below 10.

If your bottoming out on either one of these it can impact your growth and health, likewise having more than 0.1 phosphate can inhibit growth and health.

 

[Tired]

Agreed- careful of your nutrients. Phosphates should be at or above 0.03, nitrates should generally not go below 5ppm. Otherwise you'll starve your corals and beneficial algae, and can potentially get dinos, which are arguably the worst pest to have in a reef. They thrive on lack of competition.

 

[amsterdam_reefer]

Agreed- careful of your nutrients. Phosphates should be at or above 0.03, nitrates should generally not go below 5ppm. Otherwise you'll starve your corals and beneficial algae, and can potentially get dinos, which are arguably the worst pest to have in a reef. They thrive on lack of competition.

Dont get starting about dinos i reached 0 po4 2 months ago still fighting but winning

 

[Pkunk35]

I have a Reefer 425xl (around 115 gal i believe), and am currently doing 1.5 gal/day water auto water changes with with a neptune dos. I am using tropic marin pro reef salts, i try to keep alk between 10-11 by manually dosing red sea alk a few times a week since the salt has a lower alk. My calc is usually running around 450 and mg is around 1350 tested with apex trident. My corals always seem a little dull in color and i dont see much growth... should i be dosing any additives even though im doing daily small water changes? Thank you for any help.

If your alk and calc don’t fluctuate, I don’t think there’s a reason to dose now but that can change over time if corals grow. Also want to remind that you have to test at the same time of day too to compare readings.

try increasing your magnesium to 1400-1500 if you have stony coral might help (learned that from fragbox tv)

what kind of coral?