Should I dose?

[Wicked5oh]

My tank is about a month and a half old, I have a few different shades or coralline growing in small spots here and there on some rock I purchased from an established tank. I understand that new tanks don't exactly need dosing but I am wondering should I or can I dose purple up to get that coralline to take off?? Also a side question, if in the future my calc lowers it seems like dosing magnesium will keep calc and kh stable or was i mislead?

My tank parameters are
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphates 0
Calcium 420
I don't have a KH test kit yet.

The tank has been cycled for about 3 weeks. I know the tank is young, but I've seen my ammonia come back up once and in less then 24 hours back to 0.

 

[cb684]

The whole point of dosing 2 part is to keep KH and Calcium stable. To know if you need to dose you should test Alk and Calcium daily or every other day a few times to see if they are declining. In systems with low consumption, if the salt mix used has high concentrations of Alk and Calcium, systematic (weekly or bi-weekly) water changes may be able to keep the levels stable.
Alk usually declines faster thank Calcium (although proportionally) and Alk fluctuations tend to cause more problems to stony corals than Calcium.
So, in a less wordy way: get a good Alk test, test it every other day for a week or so (make sure that includes before and after water changes) and that will give you an idea if you need to start dosing or not.
Hope it helps.
Good luck.

 

[Wicked5oh]

so if I'm understanding correctly, all I really need to worry about is frequent water changes given my numbers stay where they need to be with what little life I currently have in the system. I was wondering why I always see large reef tanks with auto dosers but it makes sense now since those tanks had a TON of corals.

I must admit I definetly didn't think about how much money it was going to take to keep the tank running long term. My mistake for jumping into a 105g instead of a 40g.

 

[3dees]

I have a 120 gal. full of coral and I don't dose anything. mostly softies and a few lps. bi-weekly wc's are enough. the mistake would be to get the 40. you would want a bigger tank eventually. save your money. purple up won't help. your tank will have coralline in time. nothing happens fast in this hobby except disasters. so to answer your question, no you don't need to dose now and never dose anything you can't test for.

 

[Robink]

I think you're better off with the bigger tank. If you got the 40, you'd want the bigger one in a short while anyway. Once you start adding corals it will change what you have to add to the tank.
Easier with bigger tank to keep parameters stable. And your not going to add a 100 corals at one time anyway, unless you've got too much money!!
And you can get your supplies at sites like Bulk Reef Supply, they have good sales, I usually buy during a sale and it lasts me all year. Much cheaper than the lfs.

 

[Wicked5oh]

How much water should I change? My tank is 105g and there's about 2" sand bed and 120+ lbs of Rock. I'm thinking I have maybe 90g of water? I was planning on starting with 15g water changes every other week on the days I get paid. Should that be efficient enough or should I be doing 20g water changes? Thanks

 

[sk8elenex92]

You can also try Kalkwasser dosing. Look for wages pickling lime at Walmart. Kept my 60 cube happier then ever. Now I'm dosing 2 part on a 120. All I buy is calcium mix and make my own alk solution using baking soda. You don't have to make this a expensive hobby.

 

[Wicked5oh]

Thanks for the reply's.

Currently I have a 5 stalk Xenia, 20 head green zoa colony, two multi colored 3 head zoa frags, 2"by2.5" GSP frag, 3-4 nuclear green palys. All seem to be healthy. I also have two frags of encrusting monti that was thrown in with some rock I picked up but there not looking too happy.. One of which turned white but the red "flowers" are still growing.

My calcium seems fine at 420.. But I will definitely get a kh test soon as I can.

 

[cb684]

How much water should I change? My tank is 105g and there's about 2" sand bed and 120+ lbs of Rock. I'm thinking I have maybe 90g of water? I was planning on starting with 15g water changes every other week on the days I get paid. Should that be efficient enough or should I be doing 20g water changes? Thanks

10% a week is usually a good start point. Some people do not do water change at all. The ones that do (including myself) believe that you are adding trace elements and removing unwanted organics. The volume and intervals may vary depending of what you are trying to accomplish.

 

[Wicked5oh]

I'm currently purchasing water $1 a gallon. But it's a lot of running around to do every week so I'm going to be doing WC every other week for now until I get an rodi unit. (Should have been my first purchase!)

 

[mniemann]

My reef didn't need to be dosed until it was about a year old. Regular water changes help replace trace elements. Monitor the alk and calcium regularly. Depending on your coral load will determine when you need to start dosing. Once water changes are not sufficient to maintain your alk and cal levels that is when you would want to start manually dosing.

 

[Robink]

I do weekly water changes of 10%. My favorite day of the week. Ok, I'm a fish nerd. I didn't have to start dosing regularly until I had quite a few corals... Just monitor your alk and calcium and the tank will let you know when you need to add more.