Will I ever need dosing to maintain parameters

[badhabits]

I have a small zoa garden growing out that I plan on continuing to increase. I was wondering if I would ever need to invest in any dosing equipment or products eventually? For the time being a wc is good enough I'm just curious on what others think

 

[sbash]

Great question!

How big is the tank and what else (if anything) is going to be in it? How frequently do you do water changes and what brand of salt?

 

[garethwood]

generaly soft corals will not need suplementing with the big 3 as uptake is minimal and regular wc should replace lost additives ( this does depend on the brand of salt )
Other aspects can affect levels not just coral growth such as stable ph, deaths in the tank?
monitoring and keeping alk at the same level as your salt brand will be key to keeping mag and cal in check.
depending on how quick you start stocking out corals its worth getting in the habbit of testing and recording levels now so that when you do need to dose your already on the ball with it : )

 

[badhabits]

Great question!

How big is the tank and what else (if anything) is going to be in it? How frequently do you do water changes and what brand of salt?

Main volume is 35 and the sump is 30, it's primarily a zoa propagation tank but there are a few random pieces in there I couldn't resist,15%-20% water change every week

 

[badhabits]

generaly soft corals will not need suplementing with the big 3 as uptake is minimal and regular wc should replace lost additives ( this does depend on the brand of salt )
Other aspects can affect levels not just coral growth such as stable ph, deaths in the tank?
monitoring and keeping alk at the same level as your salt brand will be key to keeping mag and cal in check.
depending on how quick you start stocking out corals its worth getting in the habbit of testing and recording levels now so that when you do need to dose your already on the ball with it : )

No deaths in tank alk is 9dkh,I am slowly stocking up on zoas and fragging them to let them grow out

 

[joshporksandwich]

just water changes of 10-15% every month will be enough

 

[Jdeleon]

if you have a lot of coralline growth you may need alk and mag just to maintain itself but the zoas wont hurt from it,

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

"Need" is defined by the tank inhabitants and how stable they require the water parameters to be. Some animals (SPS, Acropora in particular) need very high levels of stability. In most cases, if you're keeping these corals, you need to dose to keep things stable enough for their liking. Soft corals are generally more tolerant of changing parameter levels, so you may be able to get away with more larger changes in parameters than SPS.

I will say that whether you need to dose or not, I think you should still know your calcium, carbonate and magnesium values. Salifert kits cost about $15 each and it only takes about 10-15 minutes to test all three. It's also a good idea to know how to fix common chemistry problems, as well as maybe having a few supplements on hand to do so. Knowing your water's parameters and how to fix common chemistry problems will make it easier to fix any acute problems, or start dosing regularly, should the need arise.