Reef tank dosing?

[Nate_Krohn]

I currently have a 60g, 29g and 10 gallon mixed reefs set up and I’ve never dosed anything to the corals. Any opinions on if or what I should dose? I feed them reef rounds twice a week and dose alk and calcium. Thanks.

 

[dwest]

I currently have a 60g, 29g and 10 gallon mixed reefs set up and I’ve never dosed anything to the corals. Any opinions on if or what I should dose? I feed them reef rounds twice a week and dose alk and calcium. Thanks.

I would dose alkalinity supplements to keep alkalinity as stable as you can somewhere between 7-11 dKH. Dose calcium supplement to keep stable between 400-500 ppm. Do 10% weekly water changes. That’s it.

 

[homer1475]

Other then keeping parameters stable, you do not need to dose anything. Honestly if your lights are adequate, you do not need to feed it either. Feeding will help it grow faster, but is not needed.

 

[Nate_Krohn]

Great, thanks guys. I’ve heard of people dosing trace elements, is that worth it in your opinion?

 

[tonydig11]

I notice that my Alk drops about .1 a day but Cal stays at a steady 450. I dose 2ml of red sea Alk 2x a day manually to keep it at just about 8. I did a larger than normal water change (20%) this weekend and my corals are still not all happy and open. Will be going back to 10%. The larger WC effected the ALK dropping it by a full point. I am also going to start doseing my clean water to match the tanks water.

 

[homer1475]

Only if your not doing water changes with quality marine salt.

We typically do WC's not only to rid the water of harmful products(PO4, NO3, etc), but to also replenish trace elements and other things in the salt. Not a chemist or scientist so I cannot say definitively what your replacing with WC's other then the good stuff thats not needed to dose.

 

[homer1475]

I notice that my Alk drops about .1 a day but Cal stays at a steady 450. I dose 2ml of red sea Alk 2x a day manually to keep it at just about 8. I did a larger than normal water change (20%) this weekend and my corals are still not all happy and open. Will be going back to 10%. The larger WC effected the ALK dropping it by a full point. I am also going to start doseing my clean water to match the tanks water.

That is what the best practice should be. Match your WC water with whats in your display so your not throwing ALK, CAL, and MAG way out of wack with your WC.

 

[dwest]

Great, thanks guys. I’ve heard of people dosing trace elements, is that worth it in your opinion?

Certainly people do this. I don’t. I find that if I do water changes and feed my fish well, my corals get everything they need as far as trace elements.

 

[destro]

I've starting dosing carbohydrates, amino acids and vitamins for three weeks now but really haven't notice any major changes except for slightly increased phosphates. I'm convince it's good for corals so will keeping doing it.

Keeping the big 3 (Alk, Ca, Mg) stable is the most important and the occasional spot feeding keeps my corals happy.

If only corals can speak to us...

 

[Nate_Krohn]

If only corals can speak to us...

Wouldn’t that be nice? All my zoanthids have been disappearing. Sure would be nice to know what’s going on!