New to dosing need some help

[Matt Kiely]

Hey everyone im cycling a new tank at the moment but i want to start dosing once all my corals go into the tank after its cycle its going to b lps dominant anyway my question is what r people’s opinions as to whats the easiest method for dosing and what products do u recommend thanks for any and all help

 

[Chris A.]

Get a doser right off the bat so you can keep it simple and precise. Brand is a personal choice really.

 

[Cpage101]

+1^^ test for a week or 2 straight at the same time and dose as required by hand to figure out your daily consumptions. Then dose that amount daily spread out through the day


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[dakar652]

that's ONE thing i haven't gotten into yet...probably not necessary for my purpose (at least immediately)...it seems like it's a REALLY involved process.

 

[Cpage101]

It’s really not that bad. I have the coral box WiFi doser. Just testing really


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[afboundguy]

If you're looking to start small and easy get some 2 part from bulk reef supply. Simple and easy. I'm doing 15-20ml a day when I feed the fish takes me 20 extra seconds...

 

[gurumasta]

Dosing is easy. You just need a good dosing pump and do some testing at the beginning and then again every once and a while.

Depending on how often you do water changes and what corals you are keeping you may not need to dose for quite some time if ever.

I recommend dosing limewater at first because it is very inexpensive, only one part and helps buff your pH. You can get away with lime water only for quite some time until your tank is well stocked. You can also match the limewater dosing to the average amount of top off your tank needs in a day and then you will have very little top off. I run a separate ATO and dose a little less lime water than what my tank top offs on an average day.

Once you get to a point where the limewater isn't keeping up then you can look into a two part and I also would recommend the BRS two part for ease of use and cost.

 

[Matt Kiely]

Thanks for the replies everyone i started testing today my alk was 6.9 and calcium was 549 so i started dosing baking soda slowly to bump up my alk and once its at the normal range (im shooting for around 9dkh) i will start testing to see what im dropping everyday and dose according by hand for now till i get my hands on a doser and feel comfortable with using it

 

[aresangel]

Hey Matt,
I use this website
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

Good luck getting things lined up!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Matt Kiely]

Thanks that’s actually the same thing i used earlier to calculate how much baking soda to use haha we will see how this goes

 

[Chris A.]

You’re mixing the backing soda with ro water first , right?

 

[Matt Kiely]

Yes sir i mixxed it with 1 gallon of ro it was only a 1/2tsp i will do that for the next 5 days to bump my alk up slowly

 

[Chris A.]

Cool
Just double checking

 

[Lucas]

BRS 2 part with a timer is pretty straight forward an easy to calibrate. Just keep testing and you'll get a feel for what your tank needs.

 

[Pinkskunk]

If u only have lps and want to be a lazy reefer then buy the Esc 2 parts and dose base on what the bottle recommend. I start out this way in my early reef days and have a healthy reef but u need to dose manually n daily. But if u can setup the Doser like everyone stated then in the long run u are much better of, especially if u have to leave town for a week. Brs Doser are cheap and pretty darn accurate. Buy 2, one for Alk and one for ca. I don't need a Doser for mag as its not that often I need to dose mag.

 

[nemodan]

Leave the Alk at 7 is more normal than 9. And if you have just a few corals and those aren't SPS, the need for dosing is almost none if you do weekly WC. Just check alk once or twice a week, during some weeks before attempting dosing without a real need.

Just my experience.

Good luck !

 

[afboundguy]

Don't forget to test and dose for magnesium. With that in the normal range it helps keep calcium steady...

 

[Matt Kiely]

What r the benefits to leaving alk at 7 rather than in the middle of the recommended scale?

 

[dz6t]

Because natural sea water has Alkalinity at 7.
Higher Alk can only accelerate hard coral growth by small amount. Then the growth will reduced after pass 9.5 to 10, then some acro will be damaged by high Alk above 11.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dz6t]

Alkalinity is not a single substance, it is a combination of at least three major components.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk