New to me reef tank. Dosing help.

[Matthewjdm]

Hey everyone!
So I had a friend who was moving and they couldn’t take their tank with them so I got the deal of a lifetime!
The only problem was idk how to fully take care of a reef tank as I only had a fish only tank before.
I know the basics. Ro/di water. Change it every few weeks. Feed frozen food to the fishes and corals. But nothing about dosing.
From the list they gave me I have the following;
Candy can corals

Big polyp blastocysts coral

Giant green polyp

Sun coral

Cyphastrea


Any help would be fantastic.

It’s a nuvo twenty gallon. With a ai prime light and a mo10 vortex fan.

The only two fish are two black and white clown fish that host some type of anemone.

 

[NY_Caveman]

The first step to dosing is to test your parameters. In particular Alkalinity and Calcium. You want to see the level and then how much it changes each day. For best results test at the same time of day. A local fish store (LFS) may test it for you.

You may also not require any dosing at this time. If the tank was just set up I would monitor for a few weeks before making many changes. I would test for Ammonia for sure after a moving a tank.

Welcome to R2R

 

[SPR1968]

Dosing is very simple, basically test on day 1, leave for say 5 days and then test again. The difference is how much has been used.

To maintain stability, just work out the daily usage (amount used divided by 5). Then top the levels back up to optimum on day 1, then dose the required daily dosage.

Just keep repeating and adjusting the dose as you go. I test every 7 days normally and just make fine adjustments.

Having said all this, with a tank your size and bioload, if you use a good salt you may not need to dose and may get away with just 10% weekly water changes.

Stability is the key and don't chase the numbers

And welcome to R2R as well!!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Mathewjdm, NY Caveman hit the nail on the head!

Did you get any test kits from your friend?

Given the tank has been moved, you probably should be testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate right away to see if moving the tank has set off a new nitrogen cycle. If you are unfamiliar, there is lots of articles and posts about it here. You don't have too many stony corals, so regular water changes may keep your Ca and alk high enough you may not have to dose.

You have a sun coral. If that is what I think it is, it doesn't have any zooxanthellae (algae) in it's polyps so it doesn't get fed photosynthetically like the rest of the corals. That means you may have to make a special point of feeding it. That's best done when the polyps are out and by using a turkey baster to deliver some food right to the coral polyps.

I picture or two might be helpful for people here to offer useful help. (EDIT) I just saw your other post so we have pics (good job by you). And that is a sun coral, so it may well need special care. Many reefers try and fail with that particular species so don't feel bad if you lose it. IMHO only about 10% of reefers who buy one keep it alive for more than 6 months.

Good luck and welcome to the ride!