Starting Dosing!

[Reepher1]

Hello everyone, I'm new here to R2R. I have been in this hobby for about 2 years and went to reef tanks about a year ago. I recently upgraded to a 29 gallon biocube with lots of modifications(It's even been made rimless) from a fluval evo 13.5, and I'm loving it so far. I have an AI prime light on it, and I do weekly 5 gallon water changes on it. I've started to read up on dosing and I've decided that I want to jump in, because my tank is a LPS and softy tank, and I really want to start with SPS soon. So I think that I want to do manual dosing to start, but I have many questions. Firstly, do you have to dose daily? Everything that I read says that they dose daily, but what would happen if you dosed, say once every two days? Also, I've seen all these a few hundred dollar setups for automatic dosing, but how basic and cheap can you go to get automated dosing? Can you just get dosing pumps and put a timer on them, I've done a lot of reading and I still don't quite understand these setups. I thought that I could just do 2 part and that would work, right? If I just dosed this would that work?:
https://www.marinedepot.com/E.S.V._..._and_Alkalinity-E.S.V.-EV11151-FIADTP-vi.html

I currently have an API saltwater test kit, is that good enough or should I get the Aquaforest test kits for calc and alk? Also, do I need a magnesium test kit?
Lastly, it does make sense for me to dose, right? I have a few bigger pieces of LPS(mainly euphylia) and some softies, I just don't want to jump into this, spend time and money, and it not be worth it.
Any advice/suggestions would be much appreciated, I know I rambled on a bit, sorry, I'm just trying to figure this out!
Thanks!

 

[GoVols]

Welcome to Reef 2 Reef.

The ESV a good product.

You don't dose your big-3 until your reef is mature and taking in the big-3.

Yes,
You have to test and dose magnesium too. One thing that mag does is it keeps your cal and alk ions from binding together.

So, Magnesium is like oil in your car's engine. If it's too low, your engine will lock up.

I use API or Salifert for calcium / testing
Hanna Alk checker for Alk / testing
And Salifert for testing mag.

I'll step back for others to chime in.

 

[KrisReef]

Your aminals use up calcium, carbonate, magnesium, etc as they grow. Dosing is a method to replace the stuff your corals removed from the water column.

It makes sense to dose if your normal water changes do not keep up with stuff removed by the corals. People dose every day or do water changes every so often to keep the dissolved element levels relatively stable. You want stable elements and dosing is one way to keep things stable.

Until you add critters into the tank, dosing or water changes are not needed. The critters and their bioload are what determine the frequency and amount of additives you need to provide to the tank.

 

[Reepher1]

Thanks for the answers everyone! How do I know when my tank is using calc, alk, and mag? Do I need to test, or can you guess based on my stocking? I have an API test kit that I could use for now to get a rough idea to if I need to dose, but would you recommend me getting other test kits in the long run(like salifert or aquaforest, I don't really want to spend $70+ on hanna checkers).

 

[KrisReef]

You need to test often at first, and once you figure out the normal amount of consumption is in your tank that is what you dose. Still, need to perform routine (but maybe less often) tests because these things change over time as your animals grow they tend to consume more at a faster rate if the tank is kicking properly. Plan on testing for best results, or else doing lots of water changes to supply your tanks consumption.

 

[dbl]

Let's start by saying welcome to R2R and your new reefing family.

As to dosing, my rule of thumb is you shouldn't dose anything you can't test for. So yes, you'll need a mag test kit as well. Which brand of test kit to use is an often debated item and my philosophy is a little different than most, but that is a topic for another discussion.

In my opinion, the key is stability. So that is why you've read about people dosing daily and even multiple times throughout the day. That's where a dosing pump comes in handy. Plenty of folks use simple pumps on timers and plenty of folks use programmed dosing pumps of various brands. But your goal should be stability and avoid large swings - so spreading out the doses should help with that.

You can determine if it's time to start dosing by your element consumption. If your weekly water changes are not maintaining the parameters sufficiently, then you'll need to start dosing. I would suggest starting by doing a water change and measuring the big 3 after the change. Then prior to your next water change, measure the big 3 before the change. That will tell you your consumption over however many days between water changes.

EDIT: A lot of good comments made prior to this post from people that type faster than I do.