Tips for starting dosing.

[Jake_the_reefer]

So I just got my first hannah checker for alkalinity which has me checking my alkalinity more often. I notice in 2 days I dropped from 9.4 to 8.2 (or 8.8 I havent worked out using this thing all the way so I havent gotten super consistent results) alk in 2 days. At this rate should I just use water changes or consider manually dosing alk? Would automatic dosing via pumps be worth it?
My system is 20g and is mainly lps frags and a handfull of zoas

 

[Lucky Corals]

If you dropped that much in two days you should dose to keep the tank more stable. I have tanks I hand dose and tanks on dosing pumps but the tanks on dosing pumps stay way more stable throughout the week and the dose is spread out throughout the day. The 1.1ml brs dosers are a good route if you go automatic.

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

If you dropped that much in two days you should dose to keep the tank more stable. I have tanks I hand dose and tanks on dosing pumps but the tanks on dosing pumps stay way more stable throughout the week and the dose is spread out throughout the day. The 1.1ml brs dosers are a good route if you go automatic.

Should I use 2 part?

 

[Lucky Corals]

Should I use 2 part?

2 part would be good although you may find you aren’t using hardly any calcium right now and could manually dose calcium as little as once or twice a week

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

2 part would be good although you may find you aren’t using hardly any calcium right now and could manually dose calcium as little as once or twice a week

Is all buffer worth it or just go for the 2 part?

 

[Lucky Corals]

Stable Alkalinity is important to a reef tank. Your Alk is probably dropping faster than your calcium. I normally set them up at the same time but would consider dosing just Alk if I wanted to save on equipment cost and my calcium consumption was low. Even if you only auto dose Alk it will be helpful for your coral health.

 

[melanotaenia]

Is all buffer worth it or just go for the 2 part?

Go for the two part, it is not that expensive and for your size tank it will last a long time.

I like the Brightwell Reef Code A/B 2-Part, others have had success with ESV B-Ionic.

BRS recently did a review of 2-Parts and these generally scored the best. '

Do you have a Calcium test kit? It is probably worth testing this as well.