New to dosing

[mw892017]

Right ok thank you

 

[Solo McReefer]

You don't need a dosing pump either. That's just a placebo for your itch

Buy some cobalt dropper bottles on Amazon

https://a.co/d/cryHNzq

Fill them with the 4 liquids I wrote

Add 5 drops of each every night

"Poor Reefer Zeovit" system. I use this one myself, to placate my zeovit itch. Not joking

 

[lil sumpin]

One of the best things I did for my nano early on was adding some LR rubble. I was lucky and able to source them from some very established tanks, it didnt save me from the ugly stage but it definitely helped the tank mature.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Like ive said previously I don’t know why my is reading 6.7 dkh alkalinity when I have hardly anything in it. So I decided to test my spare salt water and that had a dkh of 8.5 which would be correct for that salt water mix plus I have low nutrients so doing a 50% water change my readings for phosphate and nitrate would probably go to 0 ppm

Water changes are always a far more expensive way to maintain calcium and alkalinity than dosing, unless one is doing the water changes for other reasons.

While I get the lack of scariness of water changes vs dosing, I would not suggest water changes are the way to maintain alk and calcium unless the tank is so tiny that 50-100% changes are very easy.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Like ive said previously I don’t know why my is reading 6.7 dkh alkalinity when I have hardly anything in it. So I decided to test my spare salt water and that had a dkh of 8.5 which would be correct for that salt water mix plus I have low nutrients so doing a 50% water change my readings for phosphate and nitrate would probably go to 0 ppm

I presume you do not know how long it took to drop from 8.5 to 6.7, but that can happen in one day in an established tank, so if it took a couple of weeks, I would not go looking for the reason, but rather just maintain it where you want it.

 

[mw892017]

I presume you do not know how long it took to drop from 8.5 to 6.7, but that can happen in one day in an established tank, so if it took a couple of weeks, I would not go looking for the reason, but rather just maintain it where you want it.

I presume you do not know how long it took to drop from 8.5 to 6.7, but that can happen in one day in an established tank, so if it took a couple of weeks, I would not go looking for the reason, but rather just maintain it where you want it.

 

[mw892017]

I buy my water from my lfs which they use the nyos. I asked what the dkh was and was told by them and google it was 8.5 dkh. I use a notepad to write my parameters down as I test. So two days after my water change my alk was 7.4 now it’s 6.7dkh. The only downfall is I didn’t test before my water change (rookie mistake ) I’m just very confused as I only have 3 corals in my tank so why am I using so much

 

[Solo McReefer]

He has a Fluval Evo

So either 5 gallon or 13.5 gallon tank

Almost invariably when a reefer says "You don't need to do X"

What that translates to is, "I don't do X, and my tank is successful"

The converse is true, as well

 

[mw892017]

I buy my water from my lfs which they use the nyos. I asked what the dkh was and was told by them and google it was 8.5 dkh. I use a notepad to write my parameters down as I test. So two days after my water change my alk was 7.4 now it’s 6.7dkh. The only downfall is I didn’t test before my water change (rookie mistake )

He has a Fluval Evo

So either 5 gallon or 13.5 gallon tank

Almost invariably when a reefer says "You don't need to do X"

What that translates to is, "I don't do X, and my tank is successful"

The converse is true, as well

I don’t think one person is right or wrong I’m just very greatful for all of everybody’s knowledge and expertise while I’m still learning.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I buy my water from my lfs which they use the nyos. I asked what the dkh was and was told by them and google it was 8.5 dkh. I use a notepad to write my parameters down as I test. So two days after my water change my alk was 7.4 now it’s 6.7dkh. The only downfall is I didn’t test before my water change (rookie mistake ) I’m just very confused as I only have 3 corals in my tank so why am I using so much

So, in fact, the 8.5 may not be real here and the actual decline may be less.

I’d start by boosting alk to whatever your target is with ordinary baking soda, then watch it for a week and see what happens. It is not generally true that alk doesn’t decline without hard corals. There are many reasons it does, including one that is especially pertinent to new tanks: precipitation of calcium carbonate on fresh calcium carbonate surfaces.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

He has a Fluval Evo

So either 5 gallon or 13.5 gallon tank

Almost invariably when a reefer says "You don't need to do X"

What that translates to is, "I don't do X, and my tank is successful"

The converse is true, as well

Are you talking to me? I didn’t say he didn’t need to do something, I simply told him what was least expensive.

I have literally never done the thing I recommended for this situation. I recommended it for the exact reasons clearly stated here.

I stand by my advice.

Water changes are great. I did them for 20 years. But I do not consider them the best way to maintain calcium or alk.

It’s fine if you disagree and give some reasons, but don’t trash talk my reasons for giving them since you obviously do not know them..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

. A beginning reefer with a 13 gallon tank, that's not fully cycled, white rock. 4 tester softy corals, writes that his dkh has dropped 2 points for no reason, over a week. And you recommend dosing 2 or 3 part. Over water changes

I don't get that, other than you take things very seriously, all the time. To the point, I am self censoring my posts and removing obvious hyperbole

I recommended baking soda. Far cheaper and easier than water changes. I stand by that advice.

You disagree, but give no reasons that I saw.

What do you think is the advantage of doing water changes (will need to be many or large fractional volume changes) over dosing baking soda?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If you want to raise alk by water change using 10% changes using 8.5 dKH water with starting alk at 6.7 dKH, here’s water happens with multiple changes:

6.7
6.88
7.04
7.19
7.32
7.44
7.54
7.64
7.73
7.80
7.87
7.94
7.99

So if the goal is 8 dKH, he can do 12 water changes if he does just 10%, or he can add a third of a teaspoon of kitchen baking soda just once.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Dropping what he did

In the time he did

With the animals and tank he did

Was obvious error

He doesn't need to dose. And if he dosed water changes instead of chemicals, it will not hurt his system. Because noobies are error prone

He needs to build his biome, before he needs to account for losses of calcium and alkalinity (which he doesn't have) in his system due to reef builder coral skeleton building. And yes, he can overdose the two bacterias and the two N&P solutions. But the damage is less than if he overdoses bicarb

Beginners get on a forum like this one. Read all the thread about dosing. Think, "I need to dose too". When what they really need is time, time for their tanks to age and mature

While you may be correct that his result was test error, I do not think that is evident from the situation.

If it was test error, he’d find that our far easier with my method than yours.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Test error is only one way he could have got his numbers

Right. And one obvious way is precipitation onto bare rock and sand, not any error at all.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

And as an aside, from the salt thread

When someone(this is me) writes to someone who is in, or has association with the pharmaceutical industry. That's you, by the way

"Hey, I think it would be a good idea, if someone made a pharmaceutical grade anhydrous product, to test both hydrometer and refractometers. That is always the same, as in a standard"

That person is not arguing with you. They are giving you a product idea. A product every single reader on the message board needs. Because there isn't one, right now

That someone was not arguing with you

Even if you don't want to make it. You could pass the idea off to someone you know who would want to bring that to market

I would buy that product. For more money than I will admit here

I understand. Is there a reason it must be the same solution for different types of devices? If not, you can buy sodium chloride and use my mass-based recipes. If you are concerned with impurities and moisture, you can easily buy acs grade NaCl and heat it in an oven first.

500 grams costs $15 from Amazon and will make more than a dozen liters of standards.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

You're tank is brand new

Your tester corals are going to tell you your water quality, and they are telling you, "not good"

Dosing the stuff reefers normally dose, are not going to fix the corals in your pics

Not saying they don't need Ca and Mg. Those corals do need calcium and magnesium, about the same level of calcium and mag as you do

Those are not reef builder corals

What you don't have is a diverse and healthy micro biome, as evidence by those pics.

Maybe dose copepods and bacteria. Dose some coralline algae, perhaps

If you could get just one piece of real ocean live rock, you could try dosing one of those

Or

Get a 4 head Jebao doser

Dose some Macrobacter7 on the first one
Dr Tim's One and Only on head 2
Acropower on head 3
CoralAmino on head 4

That will better your tank, than dosing 2 Part or Balling Method. And will get to relieve the "I need to dose something" itch you have

Isn't acropower also aminos? Is there a reason for dosing it and CoralAmino at the same time?

Also the reasoning for dosing Dr Tim's after(assuming) the cycle?

Just curious, not looking for flame wars.

 

[mw892017]

Thanks for all the advice guys