What's the best way to determine if you need to start dosing additives like Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium?
Please upvote the answer you agree with the most!
I dont test ny tank with test kits anymore.. well scratch that. Ill test for the big three maybe once every 3 weeks. Or maybe my alkalinity once a week. But i dont bother wasting money on test kits testing daily like i used too.
My tabk is 135 gallons 6 foot long, i have 4 tangs a foxface 3 dwarf angels and other various fish. My corals.. i have 92 corals now.
Some are so big they are are as big as a basketball like my green bubble coral or as big as catalopes or honeymellons. I have a mixed reef of 15+ acros. And other sps and the rest is all lps or zoanthids or something.
Ive learned FROM testing like a maniac in the beggining.. how often i need to dose and how much. Ive also learned watching the corals behaviors. I have a few sps in the tank that show signs of lack of something in the tank every 2-3 weeks and it isnt calcium alk or mag.. They melt or turn white when it happens. For alk Testing daily ive learned my tank uses 1 alk a day and to bump it back up Takes 20ml of the 2nd part from seachems 2 part. So learning this. I dont even need to test it anymore. I just dose 20ml daily without testing and the tank goes along just fine. I might test once a week to be sure.. and i just use an api bottle dropper for that.
And it isnt magnesium calcium my tank uses the fastest.. its something else. One of the other minerals most people DONT dose or test for. And Water changes fixed it for me.. but I would have to do 50% every 3 weeks to keep the tank from crashing. I wish i knew what it was that my corals are sucking up so much. But it isnt the big three. My calcium and mag and alk are always at 420-440 1300-1350 magnesium and 8-9 alkalinity. Itll vary of course.
I decided to get these 4 bottles in my picture. I dose them per intructions. Usually 10-15ml for each bottle. I do this once a week. And guess what. 3 weeks went by, then 4 now 5 and 6. And i havent seen any of my sps melting or losing color. The 10-15ml a week will also last my tank for 4 months or so. Thats cheaper than water changes with reef crystals. I spent 8$ a bottle on these thats 32$. Reef crystals is 34$ a 160g bucket and that bucket lasts 2 water changes between my 135 and 30g tank. That means every 6 weeks i gatta buy a new bucket.
Vs the dosing bottles that will last me 4 months at 32$.
So ive read some people say water changes is cheaper. I wholeheardidly disagree.
